Perceptions, Experiences, and Expectations of Hospital Physicians Regarding Pharmacists’ Professional Duties in Yemen Download PDF

This study aimed to assess physicians’ expectations, perceptions, and experiences with pharmacists in two hospitals in Yemen and to clarify the intensity of interaction between physicians and pharmacists in a hospital setting. A cross-sectional survey study was performed among Yemeni physicians who are working in two tertiary hospitals in Sana'a, Yemen. This study was conducted between the 10thof November 2018 and the 20th of April 2019 using a self-administered validated questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised of four parts evaluating physicians’ expectations, perceptions, and experiences with pharmacists.

Completed questionnaires were received from 83 (37.7%) of 220 physicians. 41.0% of the physicians never or rarely had interacted with the pharmacists regarding patients’ medication. Most of the respondents showed positive perceptions regarding the role of pharmacists in providing different pharmaceutical care services. However, nearly half (47.0%) of physicians were not comfortable with pharmacists proposing to patients the use of prescription medications. The majority of physicians (73.5%) expected the pharmacist to educate their patients about the proper and safe the way of using their medication. Experiences of participants with pharmacists were less favorable; while 54.2% of the participants agreed that pharmacists are routinely a trustworthy resource of drug information, 37.3% disagreed that pharmacists appeared to be willing for taking responsibility to solve any drug-related problems. These results revealed that physicians in Yemen were more acceptable with pharmacist activities linked to traditional pharmacy services than newer clinical services. Increase awareness of physicians about the positive effect of interprofessional collaboration with pharmacists is strongly needed.