Knowledge, attitude and practice of community pharmacists towards cognitive pharmaceutical care services in Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The objective of this prospective cross-sectional survey was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of community pharmacists towards cognitive pharmaceutical care services in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The self-administered survey questionnaire contained a total of 20 questions out of which, couples of questions were to assess the knowledge and 9 questions each for assessing the attitude and perception of the community pharmacists. The questionnaire was validated for the reliability and validity through a pilot survey conducted with 20 respondents prior to the full-fledged survey. Two hundred fifty six pharmacists completed the self-administered questionnaire. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics. Less than 25% of pharmacists in this study were familiar with the term pharmaceutical care. Nearly 70% of the respondents felt that their knowledge and skills have to be further developed to equip themselves to provide pharmaceutical care services. Also, insufficient curriculum, training and lack of confidence were spelled as barriers for providing pharmaceutical care services. This revealed a mismatch between the basic pharmacy curriculum and training in India and the expected practice standards globally.