The acceptance and awareness of healthcare providers towards doctor of pharmacy (Phram D) in the Palestinian health care system

Abstract

Clinical pharmacy (Pharm.D or MSc Clinical Pharmacy graduates) is a patient care oriented specialty. It aims to improve patient therapeutic outcomes and minimize medication errors. In Palestine, it is a new specialty taught at two universities. In order to implement this new specialty in healthcare settings, healthcare providers should have a high awareness about it, its role and importance in clinical settings. This study aimed to evaluate the awareness and acceptance levels among healthcare providers’ about clinical pharmacy specialty. A cross sectional study carried out using a self-administered questionnaire that was developed and tested by a panel of experts for validity and reliability, then it was distributed and filled by the convenient sample of health care providers in the northern and middle of Palestine between January and March 2019. An awareness scale and acceptance scale were developed from the questions used to identify the healthcare providers’ awareness and acceptance. Chi-square (X ²) -testing was performed to check for the significant association. Data were analyzed using SPSS (version22). Among 309 respondents, 203(65.7%) were male, 67(21.7%) were working at Jerusalem, 229(74.1%) of them completed their first degree at Arab countries and 69(54.7%) completed higher education. Regarding their work, 169(54.7%) were physicians, followed by 85(27.5%) nurses and 55(17.8%) pharmacists. Results revealed that the majority of healthcare providers had a moderate 182(58.9%) and good 81(26.2%) awareness level toward the Clinical pharmacy specialty roles and 217 (70.2%) had a good acceptance level toward their implementation among the health worker team. Significant differences were found between healthcare providers’ awareness level and their sex (P = 0.001), professions (P = 0.006) and job descriptions (P = 0.013). There were no significant differences between the health care providers’ acceptance level and their age, sex, qualification, profession and job descriptions. Our results revealed the ability to collaborate in the integration of such specialty within the Palestinian healthcare system. Additional interest from the Ministry of Health is recommended to integrate clinical pharmacy workers among the health system and promote their relations with other disciplines.