Highlighting the pivotal role of the pharmacist in influencing health behaviours during emergency crisis: A lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic (original) (raw)
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Turkish Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2021
Introduction: COVID-19 related cases and deaths are ongoing through the world but still there are no effective vaccines and drugs. It is important for the prevention and control of the disease that pharmacists have sufficient knowledge and awareness. COVID-19 has been widely covered in media, and the media has been a commonly used source by healthcare professionals. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and impressions of community pharmacists about COVID-19 and factors effecting this. Methods: The questions in this survey were formed using guideline created by WHO, guide composed by the Turkish COVID-19 Scholarly Commission and data declared in the Ministry of Health website. The questionnaire was designed on Google forms and then applied to the community pharmacists all over the Turkey by sharing the survey link. Results: Analyzes of 393 questionnaires showed that ministry of health / government statements, internet (scientific sources) and media were the most preffered sources for information (96.7%, 89.6% and 84%, respectively). 'Ways to be protected against COVID-19' was the most searched title (96.9%). Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin were the name of the two drugs mostly written (57.5% and 50.1%, respectively) for the treatment of COVID-19 in Turkey. It was determined that the participants receiving information from media provided less training to patients / customers on personal protection measures against COVID-19 (83.3%) and COVID-19 symptoms (78.8%); however their behavior in training pharmacy staff is just the opposite of this. Approximately half of the participants (46.6%) trust the Ministry of health the most regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussion and Conclusion: Media and other sources affect pharmacists' knowledge, behavior and impressions. High level of knowledge positively affects people's behavior. It is important that pharmacists should have accurate information about COVID-19 and transfer u n c o r r e c t e d p r o o f their knowledge to the society and to provide patient education in order to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19.
Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal, 2021
Background: There are many ways to raise public health awareness and recently, Social media networks (SMN) have played a big role in it. The study aims to assess SMN use for acquiring health care information and publics' perception of virtual encounters with pharmacists for health-related purposes; particularly in times of a pandemic crisis. Methods: A bi-phasic cross-sectional survey was distributed on 2017 and again during COVID-19 pandemic. both phases (phase 1) and (phase 2) respectively, were compared and analyzed. Results: On phase 1 and phase 2 we collected 566 and 409 respondents respectively. Most used SMNs in both phases were Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. In both phases respondents preferred acquiring health care information by going physically to the hospital or pharmacy, however virtual interactions were only accepted by (14%) in phase 1 compared to (36%) in phase 2. Additionally, while only 15% said they would ''definitely" reach a pharmacist virtually in phase 1, 50% said they would in phase 2. In phase 2, 90% follow the Saudi Ministry of Health website, while 41% follow verified doctors for acquiring medical health-care information. Virtual contact with a pharmacist was mostly (76%) for medical consultation. Conclusion: This study is the first to shed light on society's acceptance and perception of an innovative educational tool taken by the pharmacist through social media and virtual portals among the Saudi population in Jeddah. There's an opportunity for Medication Therapy Management (MTM), CMR, medication refill, and disease follow up that the pharmacist can take the lead in, if properly implemented. Future studies should look into safe and reliable ways to make use of SMNs as well as virtual tools to expand public health awareness especially in a highly technology dependent society.
IBEROAMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, 2020
OBJECTIVE: This article aims to explore the role and responsibility of physicians in the era of social media; the authors take as an example of the current pandemic of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19). Also, we highlight how social media impact the way populations trust and follow the recommendations of the governments. METHODS: We identified relevant articles to date using a manual library search, journal publications on the subject, and critically reviewed them. RESULTS: We critically examined the fake news around COVID-19 disease: the disease origin, manifestations, symptoms, and treatments. The authors also explore the high expectation of people and changes in behaviors that led to risky manners, including self-medication after American President Donald Trump has claimed a major benefit of treatment with chloroquine in COVID-19. Surprisingly, the potential BCG vaccination trials in the COVID-19 pandemic were also greeted with much controversy and rejection, especially in Africa. This paper ends with some advice to various stakeholders, including leaders of global health national health organizations, and physicians on the measures to be taken in case of a similar situation in the future. CONCLUSIONS: Social media offer significant benefits for individual and public health promotion, especially when used wisely and prudently. They equally provide opportunities for advancement and professional development. However, any careless use of such platforms poses a formidable danger to health care practitioners. Lately, there are existing guidelines issued by health care organizations and professional societies which provide sound and useful principles that health care practitioner should follow to avoid pitfalls. The authors also end by stressing the importance of culturally adapting prevention messages in the context of such a pandemic
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 was declared a "public health emergency of international concern" in January 2020 and a pandemic in March 2020 by WHO. With lockdown observed globally, there is greater dependence on pharmacists as the first point of contact to meet the public's healthcare needs. However, the roles of pharmacists have not been clearly defined. Objectives: To document pharmacists' perceptions of their roles in the COVID 19 outbreak and adequacy of training for emergency/pandemic situations. Methods: An online survey using pharmacists WhatsApp groups was carried out. Sample size was calculated as 384. A mobile App, FormsApp ® , was used to create and disseminate the survey among pharmacists' WhatsApp groups. Collected data was exported to Microsoft Excel and descriptive and thematic analysis with coding carried out. Ethical approval was obtained from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idiaraba, Lagos. Results: A total of 716 respondents participated in the study. The result shows 56% female participation, and respondents' mean age as 39.04 ±10.46 years. Most common roles by respondents are counselling and advice (95%), information dissemination (91%) and sales of protective gear (60%). About 47% of the respondents believe pharmacists are adequately trained for emergencies while less than a quarter (24.3%) rated pharmacists' involvement in COVID-19 pandemic as fully involved. Conclusion: From the study, pharmacists identified health education and counselling; production of sanitizers/PPE and drug therapy management as key roles for pharmacists in the pandemic while to improve involvement, training of pharmacists, provision of PPE and collaboration with emergency teams were identified.
COVID-19 self-medication treatment: Media’s adverse effect based on people’s level of education
Journal of Emergency Management
Objective: Self-medication has become a major concern among nonmedical professionals during the treatment of COVID-19. Such concerns have been attributed to the adverse effect of information shared via media outlets. Here, a survey was undertaken among nonhealthcare professionals to find out the adverse effect of media on self-medication for treating COVID-19.Methods: A questionnaire-based survey was conducted electronically among nonmedical professionals (270 respondents). The questionnaire comprised three main components: demographic, education, and factor for self-medication. Statistical analysis of the data was made using analysis of variance to determine the degree of agreement between the response of participants with education below and above graduation. Results and conclusion: Most of the respondents agreed that they get information about the COVID-19 medicines from different media. However, most of them do not visit the reliable source like World Health Organization (WHO) w...
Pharmacists’ Perception of the Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) in Jordan: A Cross-Sectional Study
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021
Objectives: To analyze the role of pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic, to measure pharmacists’ attitude toward COVID-19 safety measures (wearing masks, wearing gloves, isolation shield, good hygiene, etc.), and explore their perspectives regarding a second wave of the virus. Methods: This cross-sectional online survey study was conducted in Jordan during the COVID-19 outbreak in July 2020 to discuss Jordanian pharmacists’ awareness of safety at their workplace during the COVID-19 outbreak, their sources of information, and their predictions for COVID-19 vaccination. Results: The participants (n = 311) were all pharmacists mostly aged between 23–30 years old (45%) and female (83%). The primary source of information about COVID-19 was social networking (38.9%). Pharmacists were committed to social distancing (86.5%) and wearing masks (76.2%). They expressed levels of agreement to their role in decreasing COVID-19 spread (94.2%) and correcting false information (94.5%); they expr...
Knowledge and attitudes of community pharmacists about COVID-19
Journal of Research in Pharmacy, 2021
Since the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), it has been considered an emergency situation that requires community pharmacists to be involved in direct patient care. The goal of this study is to collect information on community pharmacists' knowledge, attitudes, practices, and educational initiatives and pandemic preparedness, as well as to analyze challenges that may faced during the pandemic. Questionners from previous literature were used after translation and validation in a pilot study. Google forms were used to distribute the questionners to all the community pharmacies in Çanakkale, Turkey after ethic approval from Altınbaş University ethic committee. There were a total of 40 open-ended questions prepared to test knowledge attitudes presented as multiple choice or Likert scale questions. SPSS 20 software programme was used to analyze data. Among the all pharmacies, 60 pharmacists from 60 pharmacy were participated in the study. 70 % of those who took part in the study were women, and 30%were between the ages of 40 and 49. The mean score of knowledge based questions were 9.85/13, the majority of pharmacists were worried about being contaminated or infecting their families and were following the safety rules. The participants had certain gaps in their pandemic preparedness. To conclude, pharmacists have a moderate level of understanding of COVID-19 related topics, sufficient information about the pandemic, and they are strong enough to deal with the resulted obstacles. Although there are significant gaps and problems, the shortcomings can be solved by providing proper motivation and training to increase awareness.
The COVID-19 Pandemic remains one of the global health crisis in the era of social media with countless instances of use of the platforms to spread all forms of its related information. Since the global outbreak and the ravaging effects of the pandemic, social media platforms, (especially Facebook and WhatsApp) had been inundated with divergent, exaggerated and oftentimes controversial information on the Non-pharmaceutical Interventions (NPI), recommended as part of measures to curtail the virus spread. Perhaps, owing to the carelessness and user-friendliness of the platforms, some of these Intervention messages are being debated and shared which could give rise to doubts, confusion and controversies among receivers. It, therefore, becomes pertinent to interrogate the perception and responses of active social media users to these Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions messages on social media sites amidst other contradictory and controversial information available to them on the platforms; how any form of doubts or controversies arise within them in the process and how their cognitions about these interventions may have been altered in the process. These will help determine how the platforms contribute towards shaping their level of acceptance or otherwise of these interventions. The study employed Survey and Focus Group Discussions to examine the responses and perception of the active social media users in SouthEast Nigeria to the COVID-19 Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPI) messages on these platforms. A sample size of 500 active social media users for a survey and 4 participants each for FGD were selected from 3 out of the 5 States in SouthEast Nigeria. It was found that the respondents perceive the COVID-19 Non-pharmaceutical Intervention messages on the social media to be attracting sentiments and spread of unverified information, and the social media to be conveying contrasting details about the NPI which do not account for their less frequent compliance to these NPI messages. They comply with the NPIs but less frequently and not exclusively because the social media presented them but rather environmental changes, and considering presentations made from other media sources where only a few of them, doubt
International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, 2020
Background An infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus (later called COVID-19) reached pandemic levels in 2020 and community pharmacists were involved in responding to this pandemic, also in Kosovo. Objectives To explore the experiences of community pharmacists in relation to provision of community pharmacy services during COVID-19 pandemic. Setting Community pharmacists in Kosovo. Methods This was a cross-sectional study where data was collected via a selfadministered online questionnaire, from 264 pharmacists actively practicing in Kosovo during the pandemic. The questionnaire consisted of a combination of closed and open-ended questions, optional statements and statements on a five-point Likert scale, derived at least in part from the Transtheoretical Model. One-way analysis of variance was used to analyze differences in responses to Likert-type items whereas categorical variables were analyzed using Chi square testing. Main outcome measures Community pharmacists' perceptions on COVID-19 related preventative measures. Results A response rate of 40.6% was achieved. Sufficient and adequate COVID-19-related preventative measures were being implemented by a majority of pharmacies (n = 232; 87.9%), and over two-thirds of respondents agreed/strongly agreed that their pharmacies were sufficiently prepared with protective equipment for their personnel. Implementation of preventative measures was associated with respondents' perception that pharmacists and the pharmacy profession were valued more by patients during the pandemic and to a lesser degree, by other health professionals. Most commonly stated pros dealt with employee and patient safety, while key cons dealt with increased costs and running out of the necessary protective equipment. Key barriers to pharmacy activities were price increases by wholesalers, and patients' panic and excessive buying, whereas drivers dealt with professional obligation to assist and opportunity to prove inseparable to other health professionals. The most popular means of accessing COVID-19 related information by pharmacists was via mobile devices and information from professional organizations was considered most useful by pharmacists. Conclusions Community pharmacies actively implemented various measures as precautions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Our findings highlight the value of continuous provision of information by professional organizations and use of mobile devices as key means to access information by pharmacists.
Pharmacy Practice
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the content available on Facebook pharmacy groups in Jordan regarding the perception of the pharmacists’ role during the coronavirus pandemic in Jordan. Methods: Researchers identified Facebook pharmacy groups through the search engine on the Facebook website. The main search keywords were pharmacy, pharmacist, pharmacists, and Jordan using both Arabic and English. Two researchers analyzed the posts and discussion threads on local pharmacy Facebook groups in a period between March 20th and April 3rd. A total of 184 posts and threads were identified for the purpose of the study. Results: Identified threads and responses resulted in three overarching themes: pharmacists having a positive role during the pandemic, taking additional responsibilities and services, and having passive or negative roles. A positive role was seen in pharmacists acting as first-line healthcare providers, creating public’s awareness regarding COVID-19, and being responsi...