Pharmacists' willingness to be prescribers in Nigeria: A cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Pharmacists are legally allowed to prescribe medicines in some countries including the United States and United Kingdom. In Nigeria, only medical doctors, dentists and some nurses in primary care facilities have the legal right to prescribe medicines and patients' access to prescriptions can be seriously affected by the shortage of prescribers. An online cross-sectional survey was conducted in August 2014 among 775 pharmacists recruited from the Facebook group of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria using a simple random technique. Data obtained were analysed using SPSS v.22.The response rate was 40.6% (315/775). Three hundred and six (97.1%) respondents agreed that pharmacists should be given prescribing right. Of these 306, 295 (96.4%) were willing to be prescribers. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between hospital and community pharmacists in their willingness to be prescribers. Most respondents (n=148; 50.2%) who were willing would prefer to prescribe in collaboration with medical doctors. Of those willing to be prescribers, 285 (96.6%) reported that they would need additional training. The most perceived areas of training needed were in the principles of differential diagnosis (81.4%), pathophysiology of diseases (74.0%) and interpretation of laboratory results (68.1%).Overall, the majority of pharmacists showed a positive attitude towards pharmacist prescribing and were willing to be prescribers. However, additional training would be necessary for pharmacists to take on prescribing role in Nigeria.