Practice of pharmaceutical care in community pharmacies in Jordan

Purpose: To describe the current role played by pharmacists in delivering pharmaceutical care (PC) in community pharmacies in Jordan (current activities and practices undertaken in the community and extent of provision of PC standards), pharmacists’ perspectives on PC implementation and barriers to implementing PC practices.
Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in 2014in Amman, the capital of Jordan and Zarqa, the second biggest city in Jordan. The study involved a validated questionnaire administered at random by trained pharmacy students to 180 community pharmacists. The questionnaire was designed to collect demographic data, pharmacy practice features displayed by the pharmacists, dispensing activities undertaken, internationally proposed PC practice standards in community pharmacy settings, inter/intra-professional and public heath activities and barriers that may hinder the implementation of PC practice in Jordan.
Results: 163 pharmacists agreed to participate in the study (response rate was 90.5 %). Most dispensing activities (98.1%) in the pharmacies were done under the supervision of pharmacists. All pharmacists were willing to implement PC, and nearly all of them (98.8 %) provided basic information about medication use. Nevertheless, only 31.0 % adapted standard procedures for patient’s data collection, 23.1 % formulated a therapeutic plan to be included within the patient’s permanent record in their pharmacy, 24.2 % documented over-the-counter recommendations, and 29.7 % allocated time to discuss patient’s care plans. Identified barriers preventing the provision of PC practice included lack of training on the concept (44.9 %) and lack of acceptability from the physicians (43.4 %).
Conclusion: Although participating pharmacists showed willingness to implement PC practice, their actual application to the practice was found to be limited. Lack of adequate pharmaceutical training and acceptability by the physicians are the major barriers towards the provision of PC practice in the country.