Perceptions on Pharmacy Students on Consumers’ Demand for Transparent Dispensing Room in Community Pharmacies

ABSTRACT

Background@# Dispensing of prescription drugs is the most important task for community pharmacists. However, the public’s satisfaction with pharmacist services is not high, and distrust due to dispensing by unqualified person and/or under unsanitary conditions led to demands for transparent dispensing room (TDR) in pharmacies. @*Objective@#This study was conducted to investigate how pharmacy students perceive pharmacists’ credibility and professional ethics in conjunction with the TDR issue. @*Methods@#A survey using 20-items questionnaire was conducted from July 12 to 20, 2019 in pharmacy students nationwide. @*Results@#Among 218 respondents, 84.1% attended pharmacy school located in the metropolitan area, 61.1% were the 3rd or 4th graders, and 81.2% had no practical training in community pharmacy. 56.2% were unaware of the TDR issue, and 66.8% agreed on the public’s demand for TDR. 68.8% disagreed that TDR was the best way to solve the problem of unqualified dispensing, while 51.9% agreed that TDR was the best way in solving unsanitary dispensing problem. Publics’ confidence level of community pharmacists was mean 5.84 (range 1-10). In a question asking how expertise and professional ethics affect pharmacist confidence, 50% said expertise was more important, 31.7% the same, and 18.3% said professional ethics was more important. @*Conclusions@#To overcome the demand for TDR which began with public distrust in pharmacists, it is necessary to seek measures to increase the credibility of pharmacists, and as part of this, pharmacist ethics should be systematically educated at pharmacy school.