Eritrean pharmacists' job satisfaction and their attitude to re-professionalize pharmacy in to pharmaceutical care.

OBJECTIVE: Job satisfaction is a very important contributing factor for a person's productivity and motivation. Naturally, if people are not satisfied with what they practice, they will probably need to change or reshape their way of practice at a certain period in time. Pharmacists are not exception to this principle and have been observed to re-professionalize pharmacy in to clinical and/or pharmaceutical care in many parts of the world. Thus, this survey aims to investigate the Eritrean pharmacists' current level of job satisfaction and their views on re-professionalization of pharmacy. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among all Eritrean pharmacists who reside inside Eritrea. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Opinion of pharmacists about job satisfaction and re-professionalization of pharmacy into pharmaceutical care. RESULTS: Out of the 95 questionnaires distributed 86 were completed and returned giving a response rate of 90.5 %. Nearly three fourth of the respondents (71 %) have chosen pharmacy as their ever profession and they want to encourage their children or their close relatives to pursue it as a career. Sixty four percent of the pharmacists are either partially or fully unsatisfied to spend the remainder of their working life in a job like their current one and this has a strong statistical association with less years of experience (p = 0.007) and place of work of the younger pharmacists (p = 0.008). Majority of the study participants (86 %) believe there is a great mismatch between pharmacists' level of education and level of practice in the work area. This was significant with lower age (p = 0.002), less years of experience (p = 0.006) and later year of admission to university (p = 0.000). Ninety five percent of the pharmacists perceive that the current role of the Eritrean pharmacists needs to be redefined and re-oriented. CONCLUSION: Although the Eritrean pharmacists are proud to be pharmacy professionals, they want to redefine and reorient their current role into pharmaceutical care.

Physicians' views on the professional roles of pharmacists in patient care in Eritrea.

OBJECTIVE: A collaborative relationship between physicians and pharmacists is crucial in the patient oriented role of pharmacists. In order to get an optimal patient outcome, strong cooperation between pharmacists and physicians is necessary. It is evident that in patient-oriented activities of pharmacists, their roles should be appropriately perceived and welcomed by physicians. This survey, thus, aimed to explore the perception of Eritrean physicians towards the professional roles of pharmacists in patient care. SETTING: The study was conducted in all hospitals in Asmara. METHOD: A self administered questionnaire was distributed to the physicians working in Asmara hospitals. The instrument contained questions to evaluate the physicians' level of agreement using a 5-point Likert type scale. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Opinions of physicians on the professional role of pharmacists. RESULTS: Out of the 55 questionnaires distributed 50 were completed and returned, giving a response rate of 90.91 %. Most of the physicians accepted the reprofessionalization of pharmacy profession (88 %); majority disagreed that pharmacists are using their full potential in patient care (60 %); physicians strongly agreed or agreed that they should accept pharmacists' recommendations on patients' medication (96 %). CONCLUSIONS: Generally the physicians appreciated the professional role of pharmacists in patient care. They agreed with the idea of re-professionalization of pharmacy into patient care. For conclusive evidence nationwide study is recommended.