Public feedback towards pharmacists

ABSTRACT

To systematically review the feedback from pharmacy users on their perceptions and experiences of health-related advice and services provided by community pharmacies. A nine item survey conducted by three second year, level 3 Pharm D students through interactions by questionnaire with different patients in Al-Mafraq Hospital and Khalifa Hospital in Abu-Dhabi. Thirty participants were involved in this study. This survey involved inquiring about the people's faith in pharmacist and his advice concerning health problems. 48% of participants have a positive response that pharmacists recommend a medical specialty for their health problems; 48% of participants ask pharmacists for a medical recommendation and 31% visit a pharmacy for drug compounding. When participants were asked whether the pharmacist conducts full investigation or gives full instructions for their health problem, 72% agreed about full instructions while 31% agreed about full investigation. 24% of participants visited the pharmacist for blood pressure checking as pharmacist is a health professional. 52% of participants trust pharmacist for his choice of medicines and 55% treat the pharmacist as a friend for health management. Users of community pharmacy-based health development initiatives express a high level of satisfaction. If community pharmacies are to be used to their full extent, then actions to extending the public's awareness and acceptance of the pharmacist's role in giving advice will be crucial. There is considerable interest among community pharmacists in expanding their role to include more prevention, but there are many barriers to actualizing this role. Further work should focus on ways to overcome these barriers because pharmacists are particularly well-suited to make an important contribution to prevention