Abstract
Purpose : To explore the knowledge, attitudes, practice and perceived barriers of community pharmacists regarding provision of pharmaceutical care as well as provide recommendations on how to advance the service during the early stage of development in Macao. Methods : A questionnaire comprising 10 items was used to collect respondents’ demographic information and to evaluate their understanding of pharmaceutical care, attitude towards service provision, current practice and perceived barriers. Descriptive and comparative analysis of the results was conducted. Results : While 95 % of the participating pharmacists agreed that patients’ health was their primary responsibility, only 57 % believed that they can provide better pharmaceutical care in the future. The majority spent most of their work time counselling patients (90 %) and checking prescription (70 %). Only a small portion monitored adverse drug reaction and drug compliance (44 %), engaged in health screening or drug safety promotion (20 %) or maintained patient medication records (4 %). Insufficient communication with physicians (90 %), lack of time (79 %) and lack of physical space at the pharmacy (76 %) were considered the most significant barriers. Conclusion : A suboptimal level of pharmaceutical care is provided by pharmacists in Macao. Considering the barriers identified and integrating other country experiences, establishing an enabling atmosphere using policy and regulatory measures is the fundamental element for advancing pharmaceutical care by community pharmacists. Keywords : Community pharmacist, Community Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical care, Macao
Highlights
Rational use of medicines can help increase longevity and quality of life for individuals
Medication use without due care especially among the chronically-ill, aging population is associated with suboptimal clinical outcomes and increased risks of drug-related problems (DRPs), resulting in preventable personal suffering and costly health expenditures
Pharmaceutical care provided by pharmacists is considered as one of the key practice to alleviate the risks of DRPs [1,2]
Summary
Rational use of medicines can help increase longevity and quality of life for individuals. Medication use without due care especially among the chronically-ill, aging population is associated with suboptimal clinical outcomes and increased risks of drug-related problems (DRPs), resulting in preventable personal suffering and costly health expenditures. In 1990, Hepler and Strand formulated the concept of pharmaceutical care , defining it as “the responsible provision of drug therapy for the purpose of achieving definite outcomes which improve a patient’s quality of life” [3]. This vision was shared by many countries and professional groups around the world as a milestone for professional development. Benefits of pharmaceutical care have been fully demonstrated in terms of clinical outcome and many other aspects such as patients’ compliance, health literary and disease screening [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]
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