Public perception and satisfaction towards the role of community pharmacist: a cross-sectional study

Community pharmacist is the most accessible health professionals to the general public. They play an important role in patient's counselling and providing drug information such as appropriate drug usage and side effects. Since there has been an extended role of community pharmacist in which of becoming more patient-oriented, there is a need to evaluate the perception and satisfaction towards the role and services provided by community pharmacist. This study was conducted to determine the perception of the public towards the role of community pharmacist and to evaluate the level of satisfaction on the services provided. This study was conducted in Sungai Petani and Puncak Alam area using a cross-sectional method. Self­ administered questionnaire consists of 4 sections which were demographic backgrounds, public's access to pharmacy, perception on the role of pharmacist and satisfaction level, were distributed. Results were analyzed using 'Statistical Package for the Social Sciences' (SPSS) version 22.0. A total of 142 respondents were obtained in which majority were female (66.9%), Malay (92.3%), age between 18-23 years (40.8%) and working or studying in health sector (67.6%). The public had a good perception on the role of community pharmacist and believed that a pharmacist should answer their drug related questions (94.4%). Majority were also satisfied with the language used by pharmacist (84.5%). There were statistically significant difference in ethnicity and involvement in health sector with the satisfaction level on the services of the community pharmacist. Generally, the public had a good perception on the role of community pharmacist and were satisfied with the services provided to them.