Community Pharmacists’ Attitudes Toward the Implementation of Good Pharmacy Practice Guidelines in Jordan: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) guidelines have been adopted in many countries around the globe to improve the quality of services. However, there is a lack of evidence regarding the extent to which community pharmacists (CPs) adhere to the implementation of GPP guidelines, as reported in the literature. This study aimed to assess CPs’ attitudes toward the implementation of GPP guidelines in Jordan. A probabilistic stratified random sampling approach was used to recruit eligible CPs. A validated Good Pharmacy Practice among Community Pharmacists (GPP-CP) questionnaire was administered to evaluate participants’ attitudes toward GPP implementation. A total of 241 participants completed the GPP-CP questionnaire (response rate: 68.1%). Of these, 65.1% were females, and 91.7% reported having knowledge about GPP. The study findings demonstrated that good knowledge of GPP significantly influenced CPs’ attitudes toward adherence to the profession’s essentials and requirements (φc = 0.16, P = 0.047), administrative professional performance (φc = 0.20, P = 0.015), and patient counseling practices (φc = 0.22, P = 0.003). Among participants, the lowest level of agreement (52.3%) was reported regarding the documentation process of dispensed medications to patients. This study highlights the imperative need for establishing structured indicators to monitor the implementation of GPP in community pharmacy settings. Documentation of pharmaceutical care should also be prioritized. Educational programs and workshops are recommended to enhance pharmacists’ practice in community settings. However, since these research findings on pharmacists' attitudes were gathered from Jordanian respondents within Arab society, they may not be generalizable to pharmacists in non-Arab societies where GPP guidelines could differ.