Perspectives of primary care physicians and pharmacists on interprofessional collaboration in Kuwait: A quantitative study.

Collaborative practice between physicians and pharmacists has a positive effect on healthcare outcomes. Understanding the local data related to this collaboration is vital in establishing efficient collaboration. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the collaborative relationships between ph...

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Main Authors: Abdullah Albassam, Hamad Almohammed, Malak Alhujaili, Samuel Koshy, Abdelmoneim Awad
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2020-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236114
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spelling doaj-3083558a0f54472696e66b32ab8920ba2021-03-03T21:57:03ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032020-01-01157e023611410.1371/journal.pone.0236114Perspectives of primary care physicians and pharmacists on interprofessional collaboration in Kuwait: A quantitative study.Abdullah AlbassamHamad AlmohammedMalak AlhujailiSamuel KoshyAbdelmoneim AwadCollaborative practice between physicians and pharmacists has a positive effect on healthcare outcomes. Understanding the local data related to this collaboration is vital in establishing efficient collaboration. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the collaborative relationships between physicians and pharmacists working in the primary healthcare centres regarding their attitudes and experiences, preferred methods of communication, perceptions related to the role of pharmacists, areas of potential further collaboration, and perceived barriers. A cross-sectional study was conducted using two parallel pretested self-administered questionnaires on a sample of 518 randomly selected physicians and pharmacists. Descriptive and comparative analyses were used in data analysis. The overall response rate was 86.3%. Although over 98% of respondents agreed that physician-pharmacist collaboration improves patient outcomes, more than half of the physicians (52.1%) and pharmacists (55.7%) had never practised collaboratively. Both groups preferred to communicate face-to-face (76.7%) or via telephone (76.5%). Both professions showed good agreement on pharmacists' roles related to managing side effects, improving adherence, assisting in dosage adjustment, providing advice regarding drug interactions, and providing drug information to physicians. They indicated disagreements on the importance of dispensing of prescriptions and providing advice to physicians regarding modification of drug therapy. Both groups expressed overall positive perceptions of the potential for further collaboration in areas related to the clinical roles of pharmacists, which were significantly higher among those with practice experience of < 10 years and those aged < 40 years (p<0.05). The top four perceived barriers to collaborative practice were lack of time (84.1%), lack of financial compensation (76.3%), lack of face-to-face communication (68.9%), and the possible fragmentation of patient care by the involvement of multiple healthcare professionals (68.9%). The present findings provide valuable input that could be a catalyst to enhance or establish physician-pharmacist collaboration in primary healthcare settings in Kuwait.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236114
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Abdullah Albassam
Hamad Almohammed
Malak Alhujaili
Samuel Koshy
Abdelmoneim Awad
spellingShingle Abdullah Albassam
Hamad Almohammed
Malak Alhujaili
Samuel Koshy
Abdelmoneim Awad
Perspectives of primary care physicians and pharmacists on interprofessional collaboration in Kuwait: A quantitative study.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Abdullah Albassam
Hamad Almohammed
Malak Alhujaili
Samuel Koshy
Abdelmoneim Awad
author_sort Abdullah Albassam
title Perspectives of primary care physicians and pharmacists on interprofessional collaboration in Kuwait: A quantitative study.
title_short Perspectives of primary care physicians and pharmacists on interprofessional collaboration in Kuwait: A quantitative study.
title_full Perspectives of primary care physicians and pharmacists on interprofessional collaboration in Kuwait: A quantitative study.
title_fullStr Perspectives of primary care physicians and pharmacists on interprofessional collaboration in Kuwait: A quantitative study.
title_full_unstemmed Perspectives of primary care physicians and pharmacists on interprofessional collaboration in Kuwait: A quantitative study.
title_sort perspectives of primary care physicians and pharmacists on interprofessional collaboration in kuwait: a quantitative study.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2020-01-01
description Collaborative practice between physicians and pharmacists has a positive effect on healthcare outcomes. Understanding the local data related to this collaboration is vital in establishing efficient collaboration. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the collaborative relationships between physicians and pharmacists working in the primary healthcare centres regarding their attitudes and experiences, preferred methods of communication, perceptions related to the role of pharmacists, areas of potential further collaboration, and perceived barriers. A cross-sectional study was conducted using two parallel pretested self-administered questionnaires on a sample of 518 randomly selected physicians and pharmacists. Descriptive and comparative analyses were used in data analysis. The overall response rate was 86.3%. Although over 98% of respondents agreed that physician-pharmacist collaboration improves patient outcomes, more than half of the physicians (52.1%) and pharmacists (55.7%) had never practised collaboratively. Both groups preferred to communicate face-to-face (76.7%) or via telephone (76.5%). Both professions showed good agreement on pharmacists' roles related to managing side effects, improving adherence, assisting in dosage adjustment, providing advice regarding drug interactions, and providing drug information to physicians. They indicated disagreements on the importance of dispensing of prescriptions and providing advice to physicians regarding modification of drug therapy. Both groups expressed overall positive perceptions of the potential for further collaboration in areas related to the clinical roles of pharmacists, which were significantly higher among those with practice experience of < 10 years and those aged < 40 years (p<0.05). The top four perceived barriers to collaborative practice were lack of time (84.1%), lack of financial compensation (76.3%), lack of face-to-face communication (68.9%), and the possible fragmentation of patient care by the involvement of multiple healthcare professionals (68.9%). The present findings provide valuable input that could be a catalyst to enhance or establish physician-pharmacist collaboration in primary healthcare settings in Kuwait.
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236114
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