Opinions of pharmacists and herbalists on herbal medicine use and receiving herbal medicine education in Jordan

Purpose: To explore the beliefs of herbalists and community pharmacists on receiving educational courses in herbal medicine (HM) use by patients at pharmacy schools.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014. Herbalists (n = 48) and pharmacists (n = 163) were randomly recruited into the study. Demographic data, beliefs on HM use by patients, and willingness to attend educational courses were collected using a validated questionnaire and one-onone interviews.
Results: The majority of the herbalists (n = 37, 77.1 %) believed that HMs are highly used in Jordan as alternative or add-on therapy to conventional medications, and the majority (n = 39, 81.3 %) reported that they need to be educated on HM use by a professional organization. More than 80 % of the pharmacists believed that they need to be experts on HM use and should apply pharmaceutical care for patients buying registered HMs at their pharmacies; a significantly higher proportion of female pharmacists (p = 0.04) agreed with this concept compared to male pharmacists.
Conclusion: Both herbalists and pharmacists showed interest in attending educational courses on HM use at pharmacy schools to improve their ability to serve their patients.

Keywords
Herbalists; Community pharmacists; Herbal medicine; Pharmaceutical care