Nurses` knowledge of pharmaceutical care with their perception and expectation on the potential roles of pharmacist in private outpatient haemodialysis centres

Abstract

Pharmaceutical care issues are common among ambulatory haemodialysis patients. Provision of pharmaceutical care by pharmacist has benefitted this population, but it is yet to be implemented in private outpatient haemodialysis centres. Currently, all the centres in Malaysia do not have designated roles for pharmacist. As nurses are available in the centres at most of the times, it is best if both pharmacists and nurses could synergise their expertise and work together for better coordination of care to haemodialysis patients. This study was conducted to develop a valid and reliable questionnaire, which later on was used to evaluate the nurses` knowledge of pharmaceutical care aspect of the patient; and to determine nurses` perception and expectation of the potential roles of a pharmacist in private outpatient haemodialysis centre. A set of questionnaire was developed after an extensive literature review of the related published studies. Content validity index was used to examine the validity of the questionnaire, whereas Cronbach`s alpha was computed for its reliability. A cross-sectional study was conducted among nurses in the private outpatient haemodialysis centres in Kuantan, Pahang using a self-administered questionnaire. Data were entered into SPSS IBM version 21, where descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted. Scale-level content validity index calculated for content validity was 0.91. Cronbach`s alpha generated for reliability analysis reached a value of 0.70. A total of 63 nurses participated in this study. The majority of them (84.1%) perceived that a pharmacist is reliable as the source for general and clinical drug information. The main expectations expressed by nurses were that pharmacists provide drug information to other healthcare professionals (96.8%), educate and counsel patients on the safe use of medicines (93.7%). The reported top reason for nurses` willingness to work with a pharmacist in private outpatient haemodialysis centre was benefits to patients, whereas financial viability was concerned for those who were reluctant. The questionnaire developed in this study showed sufficient validity and satisfactory reliability. More than half of the nurses possessed adequate knowledge of pharmaceutical care. Positive perception and high expectation on the potential roles of a pharmacist were expressed by over half of those surveyed. A large proportion of them was willing to work with a pharmacist in private haemodialysis centre. The present work may shed some light on the potential implementation of pharmaceutical care services and interprofessional collaboration between nurses and pharmacists in private outpatient haemodialysis centre.