Assessing evidence based practice among pharmacists in Blantyre urban community pharmacies
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Date
2021-03-17
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kamuzu University of Health Sciences
Abstract
Evidence based practice (EBP) has become obligatory worldwide as this helps to improve the
quality of health care provided to the patients. The major purpose of EBP is to optimise clinical
decision making and keep knowledge and skills updated and evidence based(1). Due to
constantly changing knowledge of medicine, health care professionals including pharmacists
and pharmacy technicians are encouraged to base their decisions on strong evidences in order
to remain competitive in health care provision. In relation to this, a study was conducted here
in Malawi among nurses where it aimed to explore and describe the knowledge, attitudes and
practices of nurses regarding evidence-based practice in PMTCT. This indicates the relevance
of EBP among different health care professionals(2).
On the other hand, SDL has become the most efficient technique that helps health care
practitioners in obtaining their clinical learning needs and obtain information from different
sources including research. It is defined as any increase in knowledge, skill, accomplishment,
or personal development that an individual brings about by his or her own efforts using any
method in any circumstances at any time(3).
The study will be based on assessing EBP among among pharmacists in Blantyre community
pharmacies and the relevance of SDL in EBP. This study will be a descriptive cross-sectional
study through a self-administered questionnaire that will be done in Blantyre community
pharmacies. Pharmacists who are practising in community pharmacists will be the target
population.
The broad objective of the study will be to assess EBP among pharmacists in Blantyre
community pharmacies. Specifically, the study will try to; explore the knowledge and
perception of pharmacists on evidence based practice, to find out the resources pharmacists
use in EBP, to find out the role of pharmacists in promoting EBP among other community
pharmacy personnel, examining the importance of Self-directed learning in EBP and to find
out the barriers to successful EBP.
The expectation from the study is that most pharmacists do not base their decisions on evidence
from relevant literature in the course of their practice and that most of them do not find SDL
as relevant to EBP. After completion of the study, the results will be presented to the academic
staff and students during and final copies will be submitted to the College of Medicine Research and Ethics Committee (COMREC); College of Medicine Library and to the pharmacy
department and these results will be disseminated at College of Medicine.