Abstract
Objective: To evaluate the involvement of community pharmacists in primary health care; determine extent of the pharmacists' participation in curative and preventive services, as well as partially assess quality of the involvement. Methods: A 27-item self-completion questionnaire with 0.92 reliability was administered to 110 community pharmacists in Benin City, Nigeria. Data were collected on a scale that ranged from 27 to 135 with an assumed neutral point of 81 and statistically analysed. Results: Respondents scored 87.92 31.31, and over half (55%) were above the neutral point. This implies a slightly satisfactory but not significant involvement (p = 0.25447). Mean total rating on curative services was 92.6129.6, p = 0.0759 with 58% above the neutral point. Infectious diseases accounted for majority of the interventions. Involvement in preventive services was very poor. Only 31% scored above the neutral point with a rating of 65.6131.05, p = 0.2377. Quality of involvement was 94.7736.18 which was not significant (p = 0.2866). Majority of the respondents (94%) claimed they would be prepared to participate in further training on primary health care programme. Conclusion: Community pharmacists are marginally involved in the primary health care programmes in Benin City and are willing to improve on their performance. Continuing education on primary health care and incorporation of primary health care role of community pharmacists in the curriculum of pharmacy schools might be helpful. Keywords: Benin City, Community pharmacists, primary health care. Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research 2002; 1(2): 67-74
Highlights
All health systems contain four essential levels of care: lay self-care, primary professional care, general specialist care and super specialist care[1]
Some crucial roles recommended for community pharmacists in the primary health care (PHC) programmes include the following[24]:
Each item deals with an aspect of PHC and the more the number of items, the higher the reliability of the measurement
Summary
All health systems contain four essential levels of care: lay self-care, primary professional care, general specialist care and super specialist care[1]. Hamley et al 6 studied integrating clinical pharmacists into the Primary Health Care team: a framework for rational and cost effective prescribing. In South Africa, pharmacists and nurses have been reported to have a team approach towards PHC and such partnership was found to be mutually beneficial in expanding their professional activities with substantial benefits in the process. These include potential increases in profit, enlarging the clientele base and improving the image of the pharmacy, by shifting the focus from a place of disease to a place of health, as well as creating the vision of the pharmacist as a team member in providing PHC10
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