Advancing interprofessional collaboration: exploring physicians' perceptions, preferences, and barriers regarding...

Interprofessional collaboration is crucial for improving healthcare delivery and addressing workforce challenges. Physician-pharmacist collaboration enhances patient care, improves medication management and health outcomes. While patients' perspectives have been studied, physicians' views in Jordan remain under-investigated. This study assessed physicians' perceptions, preferences, and barriers to pharmacist integration.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among practicing physicians between April 1st and September 30th, 2025. Despite an extended six-month recruitment period, severe clinical time constraints resulted in a final sample of 297 participants, representing a 21.6% shortfall from the initial target of 379 and yielding a post-hoc margin of error of 5.66%. Using a convenience sampling approach with multi-channel recruitment, the survey was distributed via professional social media networks, direct electronic contacts, and targeted in-person clinic visits. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics to summarise the variables and examine the sample characteristics.

The majority of physicians (95.3%) had collaborated with pharmacists, with face-to-face communication being the most preferred method (72.7%). The responding physicians generally perceived positive roles for pharmacists in advising on drug interactions (60.3%), improving patient adherence (60.3%), and adjusting medication dosages (58.9%). A significant association was observed between practice sector and physicians' perception scores (p = 0.021), with physicians working in the private health sector having lower perception scores towards pharmacists' professional roles compared with those working in the governmental health sector.. Key barriers included the logistics of dealing with multiple healthcare professionals (54.9%), lack of face-to-face communication (52.2%), and fragmentation of care (49.2%). Financial constraints (46.5%) and concerns over shared patient responsibility (46.6%) were also significant barriers.

Although Jordanian physicians reported positive perceptions of pharmacists' expertise, systemic barriers and traditional role boundaries appear to hinder effective practice integration. Enhancing structured communication, implementing joint interprofessional training, and enacting target healthcare policy reforms are necessary to fostering effective physician-pharmacist collaboration and improving patient care outcomes.