public-awareness-of-community-pharmacy-and-pharmacist

Abstract

An exploratory study to ascertain the public's awareness of community pharmacy and pharmacists in a selected subset of the Malaysian population was undertaken, utilising an interviewer-administered structured questionnaire approach. A total score was computed for each respondent, ranging from a possible minimum of 0 and a maximum of 24. The scores achieved were arbitrarily categorised into poor (<11), fair (11-14), good (15-19) and excellent (>19) levels of general knowledge regarding community pharmacy and pharmacists. The scores achieved ranged from 3 to 21, with an average "fair" score of 13.7. The results showed that 93.6% of the respondents (n = 561) interviewed had heard of the term "pharmacist" before. Interestingly, 17.5% of the respondents were of the opinion that pharmacists worked on farms. A significant 77.4% perceived that a pharmacist served in a doctor's clinic. It was noted that 84.1% of those surveyed would go to doctors for advice on medicine, while only 49.4% would seek a pharmacist. A majority (76.7%) of the respondents interviewed chose to go to a doctor's clinic for a screening test. The study amplifies the need for a more aggressive projection of the pharmacist's image in the community in order to be recognized and accepted by the public as an integral partner in the health care profession.