Abstract

STUDY ON DISPENSING PRACTICE AND PATIENT COUNSELLING IN COMMUNITY PHARMACIES OF BHAKTAPUR AND KATHMANDU CITIES OF NEPAL

Jasana Shrestha* and Sangita Shakya

ABSTRACT

Background: Community pharmacy is an easily accessible pharmacy set up in a community in order to fulfill the public medicine and other health care needs. As a part of pharmaceutical care, dispensing the medicine along with appropriate patient counselling is key responsibilities of community pharmacists. Dispensing includes all activities between the reception of the patient with a prescription and the distribution of medicines with the provision of counselling. Proper patient counselling is helpful for better therapeutic outcomes and identifying drug related problems. Objective: To study the dispensing and patient counselling practice in community pharmacies of Kathmandu and Bhaktapur cities. Methodology: A cross sectional, questionnaire based study was conducted using non-probability convenience sampling method among 96 community pharmacies of Bhaktapur (42) and Kathmandu (54) cities, for a time period of February to march 2022. The data collected were analyzed using Ms. Excel 2013 and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. Result: In this study, it was found that most of the respondents have a qualification of Diploma in Pharmacy (69.79%). The average time spend by dispensers on dispensing medicines was found to be 64.16s in Kathmandu and 66.42s in Bhaktapur. The most frequently provided information by the dispensers were dosing of drug (88.5%), how to use the medications (89.6%), duration of use (90.6%) and administration time (91.6%) whereas possible side effects (27.1%), drug interaction (7.3%), food interaction (19.8%) and what to do if dose is missed (13.5%) were less frequently provide information. Lack of time and language barrier are found to be major problem faced by dispensers in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur respectively. Conclusion: The study explore the extent of dispensing practice and patient counselling in Bhaktapur and Kathmandu, emphasizing on dispensing time and the information provided by dispensers during dispensing of medicines. The study also found the major problem faced by dispensers during dispensing of medicines.

Keywords: Community pharmacy, Dispensing, Patient counseling.