Knowledge and Attitude of Health Professionals Towards Clinical Pharmacy Services in Selected Hospitals in West Shoa Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Clinical pharmacy services are patient oriented services developed to promote the rational use of medicines by maximizing therapeutic effect of medicines in individual patients. The service is at the infant stage in Ethiopia and there is no adequate information about it in the country. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude & practice of health professionals towards clinical pharmacy services in selected public hospitals in West Shoa Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. A facility based cross sectional survey was conducted from April 2 to April 16, 2018. The study used a quantitative method of data collection. A total of 150 health professionals were involved in the study; and convenience sampling techniques was used to collect the data. Data was collected using structured and self-administered questionnaires and it was analyzed by using SPSS version 23. Descriptive statistics including frequency, mean, percentage and table was used to present the data. 128 (92.1%) of health professionals were heard about clinical pharmacy services in Ethiopia. 104 (74.8%) strongly agreed & agreed that they appreciated the presence of pharmacist in the ward all the times important for patient care. However, 67 (48.2%) of respondents said the performance of the pharmacists in practicing clinical pharmacy in the hospital was poor. Generally, majority of health professionals had adequate knowledge and positive attitudes towards clinical pharmacy services but their practice with clinical pharmacists was found poor. It is recommended that collaborative working relationship should be established among health professionals in order to optimize and monitor drug use problem in the hospitals.