Attitudes of Nigerian pharmacists towards pharmaceutical care.

OBJECTIVE

To explore Nigerian pharmacists' attitudes towards pharmaceutical care, and determine significant attitudinal differences in different practice settings.

METHOD

A 25-item self-completion pre-tested and validated questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of 1500 pharmacists in Nigeria. Data were gathered on a Likert-type rating scale. Descriptive statistics including frequencies and mean scores, and significant attitudinal differences on sample characteristics were computed.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

Pharmacists' opinions on multi-item pharmaceutical care attitudinal scale.

RESULT

The national survey achieved 67% response rate. About three-quarters (76%, n = 1005) of the respondents indicated willingness to embrace pharmaceutical care. Nearly all the pharmacists (96%) believed pharmaceutical care would enhance patients' appreciation of the pharmacist and 84% reported their intention to practice pharmaceutical care even if there is no additional income. An overwhelming 93% said that they would participate in any training program to enable them to practice pharmaceutical care, while less than a quarter (20%) claimed their pharmacy layout was suited for patient-centered practice. Three quarters (75%) of the respondents indicated positive attitude towards pharmaceutical care. Both male and female genders, all age groups, different levels of professional experience, and pharmacists in hospital, community, industrial and administrative practice settings had similar positive attitude scores. Only pharmacists' professional experience appeared to have a significant influence on attitude scores (F = 5.267; P = 0.001), with scores varying with the level of professional experience.

CONCLUSION

The study has shown that the attitudes of Nigerian pharmacists towards pharmaceutical care are favorably high irrespective of the practice settings. The attitude ratings vary with the levels of professional experience, with pharmacists having less experience showing more positive attitude. Nigerian pharmacists indicated willingness to implement pharmaceutical care but expressed major concerns about their knowledge, professional skills, and pharmacy layout. Gradual introduction of pharmaceutical care would be logical.