Knowledge, attitude, and perceived barriers towards pharmaceutical care among graduating pharmacy students in North...

Pharmaceutical care (PC) is a pharmacist's responsibility, and its provision of medication-related care is meant to improve patients' quality of life. The future of PC is in the hands of graduating pharmacy students (GPS). Good knowledge and a positive attitude toward providing PC is essential among pharmacy students. In addition, identifying and resolving perceived barriers is crucial for PC.

A Cross-sectional study was conducted among GPS using a single-stage cluster sampling technique in North West, Ethiopia. A self-administered questionnaire was used to measure knowledge, attitude, and perceived barriers of GPS toward PC provision. The data that passed the quality check were entered and analyzed using Statically Package for Social Science version 27.0. Kruskal-Wallis H test and Mann-Whitney U test were performed to assess the difference in PC knowledge and attitude, and P-value < 0.05 was used to declare statistically significant difference.

Overall, 140 GPS participated, giving a response rate of 90.3%, and the mean (± SD) age was 23.72 ± 2.87 years. Overall, 122 (87.1%) and 54 (38.6%) GPS have good PC knowledge and positive attitudes toward provision of PC, respectively. Half of the GPS perceived that lack of therapeutics knowledge prevents them from providing PC. Statistically significant differences were observed in PC knowledge and attitude based on institution, education level before joining the program, source of motivation, previous incomplete grades, and participation in extracurricular activities.

Graduating pharmacy students' knowledge on PC is adequate. But only less than half of the GPS have a positive attitude toward the provision of PC. Identifying barriers and tackling them is crucial to improve practitioners' attitude and the PC provision service. Promoting inclusive health policies on PC can improve the PC provision.