Pharmaceutical Care Education in A Nigerian University: A Cross-Sectional Study on Students’ Attitude and Perception

Background: Pharmaceutical care is the responsible provision of medication therapy to achieve definite outcomes that improve patients’ quality of life. Generally, students in pharmacy training take pharmaceutical care as part of their course in the five to six years pharmacy program and this form of education equips the students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to practice when they become pharmacists. Objective: The study assessed pharmacy students’ attitude and perception of pharmaceutical care education in a university in southeast Nigeria. Methods: The study is a descriptive, cross-sectional survey of pharmacy students in Agulu campus, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka using a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was pre-tested for comprehension and reliability on 15 pharmacy students that are not part of the study, and necessary modifications were made. The study started from March to October 2019. A convenience sampling method was adopted in this study. Data was collected via a pre-tested 34-item self-administered questionnaire. SPSS (IBM, Corp.) version 25 was used for analysis. Descriptive statistics including percentages, mean, standard deviation, medians, and Likert scale rating (SD) were calculated and chi-square was used to determine association between categorical variables. Result: A total of 299 of students participated in the study (130 males and 169 females). The response rate was 99.6%. Most of the students in the study showed positive attitude towards pharmaceutical care, as majority (73.6%) of them agreed that the practice of pharmaceutical care is valuable. Meanwhile, there is a significant association between the educational year of students and how they perceive their preparedness on their skill to administer drugs (X2 (23.03); p=0.03). Also, a significant association exists in the students’ educational year and their perceived ability to monitor therapeutic plan for a patient (X2 (28.08); p=0.005). Conclusion: The pharmacy students’ attitude towards pharmaceutical care was good. Their preparedness to practice pharmaceutical care was average. The pharmacy students’ perception of the importance of the various pharmaceutical care activities was good. There was a significant association between students’ educational year and preparedness on the technical aspects of competency such as ability to recommend appropriate drug therapy, evaluate patient pharmacotherapeutic regimes, monitor therapeutic plan for a patient and identify information to prevent or resolve drug therapy problem.