The influence of non-clinical pharmacists\u2019 understanding of and attitudes towards pharmaceutical care on their willingness to serve as clinical pharmacists in China

Abstract

BackgroundThe shortage of clinical pharmacists is severe in China, and transferring non-clinical pharmacists into clinical pharmacists serves as a feasible solution to this problem. In China, a one-year training programme is available for non-clinical pharmacists, and those who have finished the programme are certificated as clinical pharmacists. However, not all non-clinical pharmacists are willing to serve as clinical pharmacists, and their willingness to serve as clinical pharmacists may be related to their attitudes towards pharmaceutical care. This study aims to test whether non-clinical pharmacists’ attitudes towards pharmaceutical care is positively correlated with their willingness to serve as clinical pharmacists.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted in secondary and tertiary hospitals in China to collect non-clinical pharmacists’ basic demographic information, attitudes towards pharmaceutical care and willingness to serve as clinical pharmacists. An ordered logistic regression analysis was performed to test the relationship between non-clinical pharmacists’ attitudes towards pharmaceutical care and their willingness to serve as clinical pharmacists.ResultsOne thousand five hundred eighty non-clinical pharmacists from 755 hospitals were invited to participate in the study. Finally, 1308 valid responses were obtained and the response rate reached 82.78%. The regression results (R2 = 0.052, chi-square = 174.024, p < 0.0001) suggested that attitudes towards pharmaceutical care had a positive impact on non-clinical pharmacists’ willingness to serve as clinical pharmacists (p < 0.01). Control variables, such as age (p < 0.05), marital status (p < 0.05), professional title (p < 0.1), educational level (p < 0.1), salary expectations (p < 0.01) and experience providing pharmaceutical care (p < 0.01), also influenced non-clinical pharmacists’ willingness to serve as clinical pharmacists.ConclusionsBased on the results, suggestions are made to increase non-clinical pharmacists’ willingness to serve as clinical pharmacists.