Pharmaceutical care and the use of routine diagnostic tools by community pharmacists in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the use of routine diagnostic tools among community pharmacists in Ibadan, Nigeria. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study with pre-tested questionnaire administered to 94 pharmacists in community pharmacies in Ibadan, southwestern Nigeria. Descriptive statistics was used to summarise data and categorical variables were compared with Chi-square at a significance level of p < 0.05. Results: With a response rate of 94.7%, the study showed that 78 (87.6%) of the respondents use routine diagnostic tools, 48 (53.9%) document results of routine diagnostic tests, 72 (80.9%) make interventions on the results but only 37 (41.6%) document the interventions made. Although all the respondents were aware of the concept of pharmaceutical care (PC), only 55.1% of them had adequate knowledge of PC, while 93.3% were willing to undergo training to improve their knowledge on PC implementation. Conclusion: Most community pharmacists routinely use diagnostic tools in Ibadan. However, there is need for improvement on documentation practices.