A baseline survey of community pharmacies’ workforce, premises, services and satisfaction with medical practitioners in Jordan

PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to describe the local situation in community pharmacies in Jordan by assessing the baseline resources available in terms of workforce, premises and services provided. METHODS: A survey was developed and administered to community pharmacists from Amman, the capital of Jordan, and Irbid, a large city in North Jordan. RESULTS: Three hundred sixty-seven community pharmacists, 167 from Amman and 200 from Irbid, completed the surveys. The community pharmacists were mostly females (66.6%) and predominantly (about three quarters) younger than 30 years old. The community pharmacists were in independent (69.2%) and chain (30.8%) pharmacies. Respondent pharmacists reported delivering medication review services (93.1% of the respondents delivered the service), smoking-cessation services (86.7%), nutrition services (71.5%), blood pressure testing (86.7%), diabetes screening (86.9%) and home delivery (18.8%). Patient counselling is carried out by 94.5% of respondents. Community pharmacists spend most of their time dispensing prescriptions and counselling patients on prescription and non-prescription medicines and chronic diseases. The study also shed the light on a related aspect of practice which was the relationship with local doctors. Only 9.9% of the respondents indicated high satisfaction with their professional relationship with local medical practitioners, 81.6% had a mid-level of satisfaction and 8.5% had the lowest level of satisfaction. CONCLUSION: The present study identified baseline characteristics of the local situation in community pharmacies. The majority of pharmacists dispensed medications, provided counselling, reviewed medications and provided smoking cessation service.