Bulgarian community pharmacists’ attitudes and barriers towards pharmaceutical care provision for pregnant women

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes and perceived barriers towards pharmaceutical care provision for pregnant women in Bulgarian community pharmacies. A cross-sectional web-based study was carried out among community pharmacists in Plovdiv region, Bulgaria. The survey instrument was a self-administered questionnaire including 18 statements based on a five-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistics were applied to respondents’ characteristics and opinion regarding attitudes and barriers towards pharmaceutical care provision for pregnant women. A total of 122 community pharmacists completed the survey. The majority of respondents (90%) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that providing pharmaceutical care will improve health and awareness of pregnant women. The statement that providing pharmaceutical care brings professional satisfaction, obtained the highest mean score of 4.61. Half of the respondents (50.8%) were worried about taking risks associated with assuming responsibility for the treatment outcomes of pregnant women. One of the main barriers for providing pharmaceutical care was the lack of time (mean score = 4.10). Other major barriers were the lack of additional training (83.9%) and electronic medical record of the pregnant women (68.9%). Overall Bulgarian community pharmacists have positive attitudes towards providing pharmaceutical care to pregnant women. Conducting additional training courses and workshops will help for the active involvement of the pharmacist in the care of pregnant women.