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Clinical knowledge of community pharmacists in Croatia for detecting drug-related problems

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Abstract

Background Drug-related problems (DRPs) interfere with patient’s health outcomes and have a negative impact on healthcare resources. Successful management of DRPs is an essential part of pharmaceutical care. Pharmacists should have adequate clinical knowledge in order to effectively implement pharmaceutical care and manage DRPs. Objective To determine the clinical knowledge of community pharmacists in Croatia to detect and resolve DRPs. Method A sample of 302 community pharmacists have anonymously and voluntarily completed the validated survey-based clinical knowledge measurement tool. For each completed survey, all statements were scored individually, and a total score was calculated. The lowest possible total score was 0 and the highest was 80. Higher survey score indicates a higher level of clinical knowledge to detect and resolve a DRP. Results All community pharmacists had a mean score of 45.5 ± 8.6, while pharmacists from a pharmacy chain with mandatory education had a higher mean score of 50.2 ± 6.5. Multivariate linear regression revealed that only additional education (β = 0.272, p < 0.001) is associated with a higher mean score, while age and gender have no influence on the survey score. Conclusion Additional education of community pharmacists could increase their clinical knowledge to detect and resolve DRPs.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all participating community pharmacists and students for making this study possible, and Josipa Bukic, Doris Rusic and Dario Leskur for their support.

Funding

No specific funding was received for this study.

Conflicts of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Split-Dalmatia County Pharmacy, Kneza Ljudevita Posavskog 12b, 21000, Split, Croatia

    Lovre Zekan & Mate Portolan

  2. Department of Pharmacy, University of Split School of Medicine, Soltanska 2, 21000, Split, Croatia

    Lovre Zekan, Arijana Mestrovic, Ana Seselja Perisin, Mate Portolan & Darko Modun

  3. Pharmaexpert LLC, Dunjevac 2, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Arijana Mestrovic

  4. Croatian Chamber of Pharmacists, Marticeva 27/II, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Mate Portolan

  5. City Pharmacy Zagreb, Kralja Drzislava 6, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Nada Jambrek

  6. Jadran Pharmacy Rijeka, Trg Vlacica Flaciusa 3, 51000, Rijeka, Croatia

    Silvana Jager

  7. Farmacia, Heinzelova 47b, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Martina Sepetavc

Authors
  1. Lovre Zekan
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  2. Arijana Mestrovic
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  3. Ana Seselja Perisin
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  4. Mate Portolan
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  5. Nada Jambrek
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  6. Silvana Jager
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  7. Martina Sepetavc
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  8. Darko Modun
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Darko Modun.

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Zekan, L., Mestrovic, A., Seselja Perisin, A. et al. Clinical knowledge of community pharmacists in Croatia for detecting drug-related problems. Int J Clin Pharm 39, 1171–1174 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-017-0546-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-017-0546-z

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