Environmental and personal barriers encountered in community pharmacy settings based on public opinions

Abstract

Aim: We aimed in this study to assess the potential environmental and personal barriers encountered in the community pharmacies in Jordan. Methods: A validated self-administered survey was distributed online to 721 participants from all regions in Jordan. Results: All approached participants (721 subjects) answered the survey. The most common environmental and personal barriers reported were that community pharmacies were not disabled patients friendly (59.4%) and pharmacist's low self-confidence (80.4%), respectively. Socioeconomic characteristics such as being male, married, receiving lower income and having higher educational degrees, were associated with an increase in reported personal communication barriers. Conclusion: Our study indicated that environmental and personal barriers are prevalent in the community pharmacy practice, which could impact the quality of pharmaceutical services provided.

Keywords

• community pharmacy
• environmental barrier
• personal barrier
• pharmacist