Study on awareness, knowledge and expectation towards pharmacy profession among undergraduate students in UiTM Puncak Alam / Nurladaina Ibrahim

Knowledge and awareness on pharmacy profession among public is important in order for pharmacist to fully utilize their roles. The utilization of the roles will helps the pharmacist to practice their skills and gives the best services to the patient. The study determined the awareness and knowledge on pharmacy profession among UiTM Puncak Alam students and to identify student's expectation towards pharmacist and pharmacy profession. Cross sectional study had been conducted to 401 respondents from six different faculties (Faculty of Accountancy, Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Business and Management, Faculty of Health Science and Faculty of Art and Design). The questionnaires were adapted from Hajj et.al (2011), Hadida et.al (2014) and Iversen et.al (2001) which consist of part A (demography), part B (awareness), part C (knowledge) and part D (expectation and barrier). The data was analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 which includes Chi square test and frequency analysis. Majority of respondents were female with 78.8 % as compared to male with 21.2%. The respondents age ranged from 19 years old to 33 years old with majority (n= 118) of them were 22 years old. Majority (n=306) of the respondents were aware about basic roles of pharmacist. Most of the respondents have awareness on specialties of pharmacist with significance difference (p= 0.000) between faculties. Hospital (n=374) were the most chosen by respondents as the workplace of pharmacist and the lowest is factory (n=l81). The respondents have knowledge on correct person to refer and roles of pharmacist. Majority (n=3 l 0) of the students agree that they expect a pharmacist to have knowledge about medication and (n=232) of the students agree that the reason for not asking question is due to lack of awareness of roles of pharmacists. As a conclusion, the students have awareness and knowledgeable on pharmacy profession.