Satisfaction and needs of pharmacists in prescription-checking training: a cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Objective: Prescription checking is becoming increasingly prevalent in medical institutions. However, the prescription-checking ability of pharmacists requires improvement. The study aim was to explore the main aspects of prescription-checking training and provide an empirical reference for the training of pharmacists in medical institutions.

Methods: Participants were pharmacists willing to complete a Likert questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to examine percentages and composition ratios. The chi-square test and exploratory factor analysis were used for inferential analysis.

Results: The questionnaire showed good internal consistency reliability and validity. A total of 90% of participants were satisfied with the training. Exploratory factor analysis extracted three satisfaction dimensions: training organization, teaching method, and knowledge consolidation and assessment. The average examination score for the 20 courses was 89.21/100. Regarding trainee needs, 94.66% preferred face-to-face lectures, 89.33% expected high professional skills of the lecturers and 62.67% believed that clinical expertise was highly desirable.

Conclusions: There was a high demand for prescription-checking training among pharmacists. Trainees in this study showed high satisfaction. The most important aspects of prescription-checking training were training organization and knowledge consolidation and assessment. It is recommended that training should be stratified. Pharmacists preferred face-to-face and interactive lectures as a supplement to clinical knowledge.

Keywords: Likert scale; Survey; factor analysis; pharmacist training; prescription-checking ability; satisfaction; training need.

Figure 1.

Participant self-evaluation of prescription-checking competency. The histogram shows the self-evaluation of competency in prescription checking (possible score range: 0 to 100). The x axis represents five score categories and the y axis represents the number of trainees.