Design and Scientific Evaluation of a Quantitative Questionnaire for Pharmaceutical Care in General Hospital Wards

Abstract

Background and purpose: Pharmacists perform a diverse range of activities and services in the field of pharmaceutical care. Therefore, the quantitative and qualitative monitoring of these pharmaceutical services in hospital wards is essential. Since monitoring such services in hospitals requires a valid instrument, the aim of this research is to develop and conduct a scientometric evaluation of a questionnaire to quantify the quality of pharmaceutical care services in general hospital wards. Materials and methods: This methodological research was conducted between December 2023 and July 2024. To compile the questionnaire, the relevant areas were first identified. Subsequently, questions related to these areas were developed through a focused group discussion. Next, the appropriate scoring method was determined, and the initial questionnaire was constructed in two parts (technical and professional), formatted as a checklist. The content validity of the instrument was assessed in terms of clarity, simplicity, relevance, and necessity of each question. Internal consistency of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Results: The mean content validity ratio of the technical part was 0.84 and 0.88 for the professional part. Also, the content validity index was 0.85 for the technical and 0.84 for the professional part. The alpha values were 0.771 for the first part and 0.773 for the second part, indicating an acceptable internal consistency. Conclusion: While introducing a practical instrument, our results revealed acceptable validity and reliability indices for it. This tool can be used to evaluate and quantify pharmaceutical care services in hospital wards, and also as an indicator to identify high-risk areas where medication errors could occur.

Keywords

• hospital pharmacy
• pharmaceutical care
• monitoring
• questionnaire
• reliability
• validity