Medication counselling and dispensing practices at community pharmacies: a comparative cross sectional study from Pakistan (original) (raw)
Related papers
A Literature Review: Pharmaceutical Care an Evolving Role at Community Pharmacies in Pakistan
Pharmacology & Pharmacy, 2013
The aim of this paper is to highlight the role of pharmaceutical care at community pharmacies in Pakistan. The paper draws on the literature related to current dispensing practices at community pharmacies in developing countries as well as in Pakistan. There are approximately 63,000 community pharmacies in Pakistan, and according to an estimate, 80% of the medicines are being distributed through this channel to majority of the population. They often lack adequate facilities, staffing and equipments. Absence of pharmacists and their roles being performed by the non-qualified personnel working at community pharmacies are a common practice. There are 8102 pharmacists who are categorized as a category, 31,000 pharmacy technicians categorized in B & C category in the country. There is a shortage of pharmacists who could be engaged for ensuring good pharmacy practices. There are only ten percent of the total pharmacists who work at community pharmacies in the country according to the Pharmacy Council of Pakistan. All kind of medicines are freely available irrespective of their status as prescription or over the counter drugs. The paper highlights that the professional role of pharmacist in hospitals and community pharmacies is switching from dispensing and sale of drugs, to patient counselling. But, the concept of pharmaceutical care at community pharmacies has not been acknowledged yet in Pakistan. The process of prescription handling is poor and patients are often treated without a proper prescription. Prescription validation, drug labeling and patient counseling are the missing components in effective patient management at the community pharmacies. The paper concludes that although laws exist, but due to lack of accountability and weak regulatory framework their proper implementation is not witnessed. Moreover, due to lack of research and evidence related to problems in dispensing practices in healthcare system of Pakistan, the counteractive actions for resolving these problems are limited.
Counseling Practices of Pharmacists at Medical Stores/Pharmacies in Karachi Pakistan
Journal of Pharmaceutical Research International, 2021
Introduction: Dispensing medicines means delivering complete knowledge about the medicine being dispensed to that patient. Patient’s counseling regarding their medications play a very important role to achieve the high efficacy and proper constancy on therapy. The aim of the study was to evaluate the counseling practices of pharmacist from customers’ perspective. Methodology: This was a descriptive cross sectional study, conducted among who were selected at random at pharmacies/ medical stores, while purchasing medications for them and/or for their loved ones. The study finally included 365 patients or attendants of the patients. The data obtained were analyzed using appropriate statistical analysis through SPPS version 25. Results: 289 (81.37%) patients were counseled when they purchased antibiotics about the completion of the therapy and to take the doses timely. Only 4 patients were told about missing a dose. Conclusion: There were different results of candidates majority of them...
Research in Pharmacy and Health Sciences, 2020
The purpose of this study was to investigate perception of pharmacist and prescriber regarding traditional role of community pharmacist. Questionnaire based, cross sectional study was conducted which comprised of 428 participants from Quetta, Pakistan. Majority (n=242, 56.5%) of respondents were prescribers while (n=186, 43.5%) were pharmacists with experience of 1-4 years (n=174, 40.7%). Overall the majority (n= 386, 90.2%) of the participants had positive perception regarding traditional dispensing and traditional counselling (n=314, 73.4%) role of community pharmacist. Concerning the prescribers, majority (n=200, 82.6%) had positive perception regarding traditional dispensing role and traditional counselling role (n=132, 524.5%) while concerning pharmacists, majority (n=186, 100%) had positive perception regarding the traditional dispensing role and traditional counselling (n=182, 97.8%) role of community pharmacist. This study concluded that both prescribers and pharmacists had positive perception regarding traditional role of community pharmacist, and it is recommended that further studies should be conducted regarding extended and clinical role of community pharmacist.
Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research, 2010
To determine the types and adequacy of information on dispensed medications given to consumers by community pharmacists and pharmacy assistants, and to compare this between the two categories of personnel in the community setting. Methods Using a simulated client method, a total of 128 community pharmacies in the State of Penang, Malaysia, were visited. Medications were dispensed by the community pharmacy personnel upon presentation of hypothetical common-cold symptoms by the simulated client. The types of information delivered over the counter by the community pharmacy staff were documented and evaluated. A total score was given to determine the adequacy of information given. Key findings Findings from the study revealed that there were no significant differences between pharmacists and pharmacy assistants in the delivery of information to the simulated client for the dispensed medications, except for information on indications of medication (25 compared with 5.3%; P = 0.001) and duration of drug therapy (7.7 compared with 0%; P = 0.014). None of the community personnel provided medication-related information that was deemed 'adequate' within the definitions of the analysis. Most community pharmacy personnel delivered the medication-related information in less than 1 min. Conclusions Most of the community pharmacies surveyed did not provide adequate information to patients on medication use during the dispensing process. In view of the short duration of information delivery, the extent of the information delivered to patients was limited and its adequacy could not be guaranteed.
Journal of scientific research in medical and biological sciences, 2023
Purpose: Over the counter drugs (OTC) are sold without the prescription of a registered medical practitioner. There are reports that OTC drug market in India is on the rise. This is attributed to the rising cost of healthcare, difficulty in accessing healthcare, and an alarming tendency to self-manage symptoms. The outcome of this is OTC related adverse effects, abuse and hospitalizations. Subjects and Methods: The primary objective was to assess the knowledge of drug dispensing pattern of community pharmacists. The secondary objective was to assess the knowledge regarding drug related problems of over the counter medication. The tertiary objective was to find out whether the pharmacists involving in counselling activities. A community based, observational study was conducted among community pharmacist in Kalaburagi city, to find out knowledge on dispensing pattern of OTC medication. All the community pharmacist participated in the study were provided with a data collection form including self-structured questionnaires. One week after pre-test all the community pharmacist were educated regarding OTC drugs by means of providing information leaflets about OTC drugs. Post-test has been taken after 15 days of education by means of same questionnaires. Data were entered into Excel and analyzed using SPSS software. Pre and post intervention data were compared using student's t-test. Results: Among 110 pharmacist, males 98 (89.1%) were more compared to females 12(10.9%). The mean knowledge scores on drug dispensing pattern of community pharmacist in pre-test were 57.0% and post test is 87.6%. Conclusions: Among 110 pharmacist, males 98 (89.1%) were more compared to females 12(10.9%). The mean knowledge scores on drug dispensing pattern of community pharmacist in pre-test were 57.0% and post test is 87.6%.
Dispensing of Medication Without Prescription in Karachi, Pakistan
International Research Journal of Pharmacy, 2016
Rational informed self-medication is an essential part of any health care system. This study was conducted to determine the drugs which dispensed without prescription and the nature and extent of self-medication purchases at community pharmacies in Karachi. The data were collected and recorded for different community pharmacies operating for 24 hours, or different timing schedule using a specially designed survey form. Out of the 50 pharmacy surveyed, most of the pharmacies dispensed the drugs without prescription. There were drugs which should be dispensed without prescription including antibiotic, anti-allergic, Analgesics/antipyretics and dermatological drugs. The study findings indicate the need to enforce the regulations governing the sale of drugs and the specification of drugs to be sold using prescription as well as to improve community pharmacy practice, to check the magnitude of self-medication, to check the sale of non-prescribed medicine per day and also examine which class of antibiotic or drug dispensed irrationally. The study also revealed the knowledge of the staff working and the person or pharmacist adherence to regulations.
BMC Health Services Research, 2020
Background Many organizations have suggested a minimum standard regarding pharmaceutical counselling for patients, which includes information about the name of the drug, the description the drug, the indication for use, how to use it, the method of treatment, precautions, adverse reactions, and any contraindications. Correspondingly, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that pharmacists spend at least 3 min with each patient to provide counselling. This study aimed to evaluate the counselling practices of community pharmacists for both over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription-only medicines in the Bisha Health Directorate, Saudi Arabia. Method This was a cross-sectional study designed to evaluate simulated patient visits to observe real counselling practices of community pharmacies in the Bisha area; 73 pharmacies were visited. Two scenarios were used in this study. The first scenario was for a prescription-only medicine, and the second scenario was for an OTC medicine...
Community pharmacy practice in Pakistan
Objectives: This study was planned to determine the extent to which the role of a pharmacists is established in community pharmacies in Pakistan and to determine the need of qualified and experienced pharmacists in provision of healthcare at these medical stores or so called community pharmacies. Materials and Methods: A structured questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 175 attendants at various medical stores located in different areas of Karachi with a response rate of 90.28%. Questionnaire consisted of 24 closed ended questions whose consistency and reliability were determined by Cronbach's alpha. Statistical analysis were done using SPSS (v.16.0) Results: The result shows that the average age of pharmacy attendant lies between 21 and 30 years. Only 9.49% of attendants have professional pharmacy education. It was noted that only 22.6% check prescriber signature before dispensing prescription, which is quite a low as compared with standard practice. Interestingly 57.6% attendants think that presence of qualified pharmacy at medical stores does not make any difference in the efficacy and the business of medical stores. Conclusion: This study concludes that the current status of community pharmacy practice is below par. There is a need to involve more pharmacists at community level and develop awareness programs to counter patients' routine drug issues and reducing the burden of disease from society.
Behind the counter: pharmacies and dispensing patterns of pharmacy attendants in Karachi
JPMA. The Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 2001
There is little literature available on dispensing patterns and unsupervised sale of medicines from pharmacies in developing countries. This study obtained background information on pharmacies, assessed the level of training, knowledge and dispensing patterns of pharmacy attendants in Karachi. This is a descriptive cross sectional study with convenient sampling. A structured questionnaire was used to interview pharmacy attendants. Of the 219 pharmacies surveyed, 62% reported more than 50 customers daily and 20% also sold items of general provision. Mean operating hours were 13. Only 24 (11%) had a visible license. On an average 3 attendants were employed per pharmacy. We interviewed one in each. Amongst the 219 interviewed, 77 (35%) were intermediate qualified and only 26 (12%) pharmacologically trained. Correct frequency of ORS administration was not known by 167 (76%) and 21% incorrectly suggested an anti-diarrhoeal preparation for viral diarrhoea in children. The knowledge of tho...
2014
Background: This study was aimed to investigate the knowledge, perception and attitude of community pharmacists towards written prescription in drug dispensing and substitution at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Patients & Methods : A qualitative methodology was adopted. Snowball sampling technique was used to identify community pharmacists. Riyadh city was divided into five sectors, which were further subdivided into two sub-regions. Ultimately, the 10 sub-regions were covered by 10 research assistance randomly. Results : The demographic characteristics of the current study showed that majority of Pharmacists were having bachelor degree and having experience of over 10 years. Ninety-two percent (n = 373) of the pharmacists enquired about the symptoms of disease and less than 60% asked about drug allergy while dispensing the drug. Only 35.8% and 45.7% respectively educated the patients about the drug side effects and drug interactions. The patients request (57.6%) and the pharmacist's lo...