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Challenges to clinical pharmacy practice in Nigerian hospitals: a qualitative exploration of stakeholders' views
Author(s) -
Auta Asa,
StricklandHodge Barry,
Maz Julia
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.737
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2753
pISSN - 1356-1294
DOI - 10.1111/jep.12520
Subject(s) - pharmacy , pharmacy practice , clinical pharmacy , pharmaconomist , medicine , qualitative research , nursing , economic shortage , hospital pharmacy , medical education , family medicine , sociology , government (linguistics) , linguistics , philosophy , social science
Rationale, aims and objectives In Nigeria, a shift from the traditional pharmacists' role of dispensing and compounding of medications began in the 1980s with the introduction of drug information services and unit dose‐dispensing systems in some hospitals. More than three decades after this, clinical pharmacy practice is still underdeveloped. This study was conducted to explore stakeholders' views on the barriers to the development of clinical pharmacy practice in Nigerian hospitals. Methods Qualitative, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 44 purposefully sampled Nigerian stakeholders including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, doctors, policymakers and patient group representatives. Transcribed interviews were entered into the QSR (Burlington, MA, USA) NVivo 10 software and analysed thematically. Results Three major themes emerged from the study: pharmacists' professional identity, the structure of pharmacy practice and external barriers. The results revealed an ongoing struggle by Nigerian hospital pharmacists to establish their clinical identities as many non‐pharmacy stakeholders viewed pharmacists' roles to be mainly supply based. Barriers to the development of clinical pharmacy practice identified included pharmacists' lack of confidence, shortage of pharmacy staff, underutilisation of pharmacy technicians, lack of specialisation and clinical career structure, medical dominance and opposition and lack of policies that support clinical pharmacy practice. Conclusion Several years after its introduction, clinical pharmacy practice is yet to be fully developed in Nigerian hospitals. The barriers identified in this study need to be addressed in order for clinical pharmacy practice to flourish.