Assessment of Knowledge and Attitude of Healthcare Professionals and Students towards Clinical Pharmacy Services in Southern India

Background

Clinical Pharmacy Services (CPSs) is a branch of health sciences which render patient care by optimizing pharmaceutical therapy and providing guidance to patient regarding health, medications and disease prevention. The implementation of CPSs is required to provide safe, effective and economical drug therapy.

Objectives

The aim of our study is to assess the knowledge and attitude of HCPs and students towards CPSs in Southern India.

Materials and Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted in selected pharmacy, nursing, medical and ayurvedic colleges and selected tertiary care hospital located in Southern India. The pre and post-test questionnaires were used as a tool to gather the data for the study. The frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were calculated for continuous variables and the categorical variables were calculated as frequency and percentage.

Results

A total of 632 questionnaires were responded out of 663 handed out with a response rate of 95.3%. Most of the respondents (441; 69.7%) are between the age 17 and 20 years, with a mean age of 21.1±5.88. Most of the students (507; 85.2%) and HCPs (34; 91.8%) heard about the services and the majority of them responded that they have clinical pharmacist in the hospital in which they are currently practicing. After conducting the awareness session, the major part of students (557; 93.6%) and HCPs (35; 94.5%) responded that they knew CPs were the integral part of medical team.

Conclusion

The study found that students and HCPs had shallow knowledge and positive attitude regarding CPSs and an incremental response was observed after the awareness session. Thus more and more educational programs should be conducted in healthcare settings to clearly define the scope of CPs.