Physicians' attitudes toward expanding the role of community pharmacists in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

Objectives: To explore physicians' attitudes toward expanding the role of community pharmacists to include traditional and advanced pharmaceutical care activities. In addition, the study assessed factors influencing physicians' attitudes. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among physicians in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates (UAE), in 2019. Participants were randomly selected and were practicing physicians in Al Ain. A questionnaire was hand-delivered and consisted of four sections: demographic information, general attitudes, attitudes towards traditional and attitudes towards advanced pharmaceutical care activities. Key findings: Two hundred twenty-nine (response rate ~92.0%) practicing physicians agreed to participate in this study. The majority (95.1%, n = 218) agreed with expanding pharmacists' activities beyond their traditional role and facilitating pharmacists' access to patients' medical records (85.4%, n = 196). Physicians' overall attitudes toward traditional pharmaceutical care were positive (~80%, n = 183), particularly regarding improving patient adherence, providing drug information, patient counselling, and identifying, monitoring, and resolving drug-related problems. On the other hand, physicians were partially accepting of pharmacists' involvement in advanced pharmaceutical care services (~46%, n = 108). The majority of them considered pharmacists competent in generic substitution (75.6%, n = 173) and in adjusting drug therapy based on agreed protocols (56.1%, n = 128). However, they considered them less competent for therapeutic substitution (41.5%, n = 95), treating certain minor illnesses (41.5%, n = 95), and refilling repeat prescriptions independently (22%, n = 50). Overall, physicians' attitudes were positive toward 9 out of 12 expanded activities for community pharmacists. Conclusions: This study has shown that UAE physicians have agreed that the pharmacist's role should extend beyond dispensing medications. Physicians have also positive attitudes toward expanding community pharmacists' activities to include all of the traditional pharmaceutical care activities. On the other hand, physicians had a negative attitude toward most of the advanced activities.