Physicians' and pharmacists' perception and practice of hospital pharmacist professional role in Egypt

Evaluating Greek pharmacists' attitudes and barriers regarding medicines adherence

Adherence constitutes an integral aspect of achieving consistently good clinical results. Understanding pharmacists' perceptions and attitudes, along with existing barriers is essential on the roadmap of enhancing patient adherence. This constitutes the goal of this study.

Methodology

A validated questionnaire was sent to a sample of 280 community pharmacists. Pharmacists were notified both by email and telephone. A response rate of 55% was achieved.

Results

Most pharmacists agree that the identification of patients' suboptimal adherence falls under their professional responsibility and they engage in activities to promote it. There is evidence to support that the most popular interventions were self-management and indirect methods. Specific tools were used to a lesser degree. Finally, the current study illustrated that the most commonly identified barriers were the preference of patients for physicians regarding adherence, lack of information from patients and lack of time.

Conclusion

Although the important role of pharmacists in adherence is ascertained, significant discrepancies in the tools used to control and promote adherence among pharmacists were identified, and also in obstacles faced by themselves and their patients. The interventions should be more consistent and the notion of cooperation among health care professionals should be nurtured.

The journey to pharmacy residency program accreditation: The Children's Cancer Hospital-Egypt experience

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Perceptions, Expectations, and Experience of Physicians About Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Care Services in Pakistan: Findings and Implications

Background: Optimal collaboration between pharmacists and other healthcare professionals such as physicians is integral in implementing pharmaceutical care. However, there are concerns regarding the role of pharmacists, especially among low- and middle-income countries. This study explored the perceptions, expectations, and experience of physicians working in various hospital settings of Punjab, Pakistan, about pharmacists and their roles.

Methods: A self-administered questionnaire consisting of four sections was administered from October to December 2020. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were used for data analysis using SPSS.

Results: Six hundred and seventy-eight physicians participated in this study with a response rate of 77.9%. Most of the physicians reported minimal to no interaction with pharmacists (n = 521, 76.8%). However, more than three-quarters of physicians (n = 660, 97.3%) accepted pharmacists as evidence-based sources of drug information. In addition, many physicians (n = 574, 84.7%) strongly agreed that pharmacists should attend patient care rounds to respond promptly to questions related to patient medication. A limited number of physicians (n = 124, 18.3%) assumed that pharmacists were advising their patients regarding the judicial use of their drugs. Median expectation and experience score had a significant association with age, experience, and education of physicians (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: The perception of physicians was positive toward certain roles of pharmacists, coupled with high expectations. However, their experience was low, with most of the activities of pharmacists due to inadequate interprofessional coordination.

The role of community pharmacists in increasing access and use of self-care interventions for sexual and reproductive health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: examples from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Somalia

BACKGROUND

Self-care interventions offer a solution to support the achievement of three goals of the World Health Organization (WHO): to improve universal health coverage, reach people in humanitarian situations, and improve health and well-being. In light of implementing WHO consolidated guidelines on self-care interventions to strengthen sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, pharmacists from four different EMR countries discussed the current SRH situation, inequality gaps, barriers to SRH service access and the pharmacist's crucial role as a first-line responder to patients before, during and after COVID-19.

CASE PRESENTATION

Self-care interventions for SRH allow health care providers to serve a greater number of patients, improve progress toward universal health coverage, and reach people in humanitarian crises. In fact, these interventions can be significantly enhanced by utilizing community pharmacists as first-line health care providers. This review highlights the important role of community pharmacists in promoting self-care interventions and empowering individuals, families and communities. As a result, well-informed individuals will be authoritative in their health decisions. Exploring self-care interventions in the EMR was done through reviewing selected SRH services delivery through community pharmacists before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Somalia. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, community pharmacists were found to be excluded from both governmental and nongovernmental SRH programmes. During the pandemic, community pharmacists managed to support patients with self-care interventions, whether voluntarily or through their pharmacy associations. This highlights the need for the health care decision-makers to involve and support community pharmacists in influencing policies and promoting self-care interventions.

CONCLUSION

Self-care interventions can increase individuals' choice and autonomy over SRH. Supporting community pharmacists will definitely strengthen SRH in the EMR and may help make the health system more efficient and more targeted.