Self-assessed Attitude, Perception, Preparedness and Perceived Barriers to Provide Pharmaceutical Care in Practice Among Final Year Pharmacy Students: A Comparative Study between Qatar and Kuwait

Background: Pharmaceutical care (PC) is changing pharmacy practice in to patient -centered care and personalized medicine approach. It focuses on maximizing drug therapy outcomes and improving patient's quality of life (QOL). Pharmacy students who are the future pharmacy practitioner, need to have adequate knowledge, skills and positive attitudes to apply PC when they graduate. However, comparative studies are limited among pharmacy students from different pharmacy schools within the Middle East region about the PC teaching received, preparedness to deliver the service in practice, and expected barriers. Objectives: This study's aims are exploring the attitudes and perceptions of final year pharmacy students in the College of Pharmacy at Qatar University (QU-CPH) and Faculty of Pharmacy in Kuwait University (KU-FoP) towards PC, assessing students’ preparedness to provide PC when they graduate and investigating the perceived barriers against the application of PC. Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional, web based survey was used to collect data. The study instrument was developed based on validated tools: Pharmaceutical Care Attitude Survey (PCAS) and Preparedness to Provide Pharmaceutical Care (PREP). The data were analyzed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS®) Version 22. Chi-Square tests and independent t-test were used to compare between the 2 universities for categorical data. P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistical significant. The results were summarized using tables and figures generated by Excel. The final questionnaire included five sections: demographics of the students (6 items); perception of PC (7 items); attitudes towards PC (13 items); preparedness to deliver PC (25 items) and; barriers that may affect applying PC (5 items). The survey was administered using SurveyMonkey®. Results: Of a total of 77 students, 63 students completed the questionnaire (21 students from QU and 42 students from KU) overall response rate 82%. The mean age of the students was similar between the two universities. The majority of the respondents (95.2%) from both universities were female (QU-CPH is female-only college). KU-FoP had significantly higher proportion of national students than QU-CPH. Both QU-CPH and KU-FoP students prefer to work in the hospital setting in the future (57.1%, 64.3% respectively). No significant differences between the two universities in terms of students’ confidence and perception in applying PC (P ≥ 0.05). There were no significant differences between the students’ attitude in the two programs about the provision of PC (P ≥ 0.05), and all respondents believed that PC services will improve health outcomes. There was a statistically significant differences in documenting information related to detecting, resolving and preventing drug-related problem (p = 0.044). Some of the barriers identified by students from both institutions include: lack of private counseling area, limited pharmacists time, lack of patients records, lack of policy for pharmacists’ patient care role. No differences in opinions between QU and KU students regarding the most important barrier that may affect PC provision above. There was statistical significant difference between students’ opinions in considering poor image of pharmacists role in society as barrier. Conclusion: Final year pharmacy from Qatar and Kuwait had demonstrated positive attitudes towards PC and its potential application in practice when they graduate. They have, however, identified some potential barriers. Students in KU-FoP placed low expectation of the pharmacist's role by the society and within health care team as important barrier; while students in QU-CPH thought that documentation and communication between pharmacists and healthcare providers can have an impact on PC services. More efforts should be directed to resolve the perceived barriers in order to optimize PC provision and ultimately patient care outcomes.