A survey on the interest and the knowledge of pharmacy students at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Puncak Alam on veterinary pharmacy / Florance Kolenus

Background:The roles of the veterinarians and the pharmacists were mutually supportive whereby the role of diagnosing and prescribing drugs is undertaken by the veterinarians while compounding and dispensing drugs to the animals is undertaken by the pharmacist. The lack of veterinary and animal health education in the pharmacy curriculum may influence the graduate's choices of their career path. So this study is aimed to survey the interest and knowledge of the pharmacy students at UiTM Puncak Alam toward Veterinary Pharmacy.
Method: Survey through the use of a questionnaire consisting 4 different sections was formulated to identify pharmacy students at UiTM Puncak Alam, who have the interest and knowledge in Veterinary Pharmacy.
Results: Surveys at Faculty of Pharmacy UiTM suggest interest in Veterinary Pharmacy is high in second year students and low in fourth year students. Results also indicate that animal lovers students and students having pets at home expressed interest in Veterinary Pharmacy. Knowledge of pharmacy students was shown to be deficient in these areas, since only five knowledge statements hit more than 50% and the other four knowledge statements hit less than 50%.
Conclusion: Interest toward veterinary pharmacy was shown to be high from second year students. This group of students was also found to be interested to work as a veterinary pharmacist upon their graduation. This survey finding indicates that there is a need for education in this field. The school of pharmacy in Malaysia must identify the needs of this subject "Veterinary Pharmacy'' as an optional or necessary subject to pharmacy students.