Can inter-faculty relationships improve future collaboration between physicians and community pharmacists in Poland?

Pharmaceutical care requires interprofessional collaboration between pharmacists and physicians. The aim of this paper is to determine the nature of inter-faculty relationships between medical and pharmacy students and its possible influence on the attitudes of medical students towards pharmacists and pharmaceutical care. The study was conducted using anonymous questionnaire administered to all medical students at the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland. The study involved 404 medical students (265 women and 139 men). Fifty-four percent of students reported that they maintained relationships with pharmacy students. Students had mixed views about the nature of the interprofessional relationship between physicians and pharmacists. Only 22% (n = 87) of the students had heard about pharmaceutical care. However, a number expressed interest in this form of collaboration in their future professional career. Students also claimed that they did not consider themselves prepared for the future collaboration with pharmacists in providing pharmaceutical care services, but they would like to participate in relevant interprofessional workshops with pharmacy students. The results from this study suggest that social relationships between medical and pharmacy students may have some effect on how pharmacists and their role is perceived and also on medical students' attitudes towards pharmaceutical care.