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International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy

, Volume 39, Issue 4, pp 712–721 | Cite as

Assessment of evidence-based practice among hospital pharmacists in Saudi Arabia: attitude, awareness, and practice

  • Abdulrazaq S. Al-JazairiEmail author
  • Reem Alharbi
Research Article
First Online:

Abstract

Background Many studies have previously looked at the perceptions, attitude, and use of Evidence-based Practice (EBP) among healthcare providers. However, limited data is available on the implementation of EBP among pharmacists in general, and Saudi Arabia in particular. Objective To evaluate the awareness, attitude, and practice of EBP among hospital practicing pharmacists in Saudi Arabia. Setting Secondary and tertiary care hospitals in Saudi Arabia with a bed capacity of ≥200 Methods This is a cross sectional, survey-based study where a validated selfadministrated questionnaire was utilized. Pharmacists working in secondary and tertiary care hospitals with a bed capacity of ≥200 were targeted. The descriptive data consisted of percentages for discrete and medians for continuous statistics. Results The survey was distributed to a total of 1136 pharmacists. Total number of respondents is 228 which represent a response rate of 20%. Most of them (75% median score = 8) have a positive attitude toward EBP. In addition to clinical expertise, only 48.6% of them were able to identify EBP resource as the second component of EBP concept, while only 1.7% of the respondents were able to identify patient preference as a third component. Lack of personal time, critical appraisal skills, and resources, (40%, 15.6% and 13.9% respectively) are considered as the major barriers to implementing EBP in pharmacy. Conclusion The majority of pharmacists in Saudi Arabia hold a positive attitude of EBP. Unfortunately, most of pharmacists do not consider patients’ values as a component of EBP. The major barriers to practicing EBP are lack of personal time, critical appraisal skills, and resources availability.

Keywords

Evidence-based practice Evidence-based medicine Hospital pharmacists Pharmacy Saudi Arabia 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Prof. Ibrahim A. Alsarra, President, Saudi Pharmaceutical Society, Dr. Sakra S. Balhareth, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, Drug Information Center, KFSH&RC-Riyadh, Dr. Mohammed Aseeri, Director, Pharmacy Residency Program, King Saud bin Abdul Aziz University for Health Sciences, Sultan Montashari, Pharm.D. Candidate, Alqassim University for their assistance in questionnaires distributions. We are grateful for the work of Prof. Edward B. De Vol, Chair, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Scientific Computing KFSH&RC-Riyadh, Mr. Saleh Alageel, Senior Technical Specialist Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Scientific Computing KFSH&RC-Riyadh, who provided statistical support and analysis. In addition, the authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Shrouq Qaisi Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, Ambulatory Care, KFSH&RC-Riyadh to her assistance in reviewing the manuscript.

Conflicts of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Division of Pharmaceutical CareKing Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research CentreRiyadhKingdom of Saudi Arabia

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