Exploring communication challenges with children and parents among pharmacists in Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES

To identify trends and challenges in pharmacists' communication with pediatric patients in Saudi Arabia. It also studies the potential factors affecting their overall performance.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey of 170 pharmacists working in different healthcare settings in Saudi Arabia was carried out. A novel comprehensive 38-item survey questionnaire was utilized. The questionnaire comprised 2 main sections: demographic data and potential influencing factors and communication skills with children. The communication domain assessed the degree to which the pharmacist could communicate with a child in 7 main areas. Comparisons of communication performance were carried out by Chi-square tests, and associations with 24 factors were determined by logistic regression analyses.

RESULTS

Approximately 76% of pharmacists demonstrated unsatisfactory communication with children (=8.47×10). Approximately 91% of pharmacists depended on speaking to parents rather than directly talking to children, even when present (=7.791×10). In addition, although 88.23% of pharmacists expressed high confidence in their communication skills (=9.899×10), their actual performance with children in different age groups showed that 63.52% performed poorly, while only 36.46% demonstrated good performance (=4.2×10). Factors which might be associated with pharmacists' performance were identified.

CONCLUSION

Pharmacists in Saudi Arabia face significant challenges in communicating with pediatric patients. Targeted training is needed to improve communication skills, medication adherence, and children's health outcomes.