Stella F Usifoh
,
Jeffrey S Soni,
Marylyn R Asemah,
For correspondence:- Stella Usifoh Email: sfusifoh@uniben.edu Tel: +2348056226668
Published: 11 December 2019
Citation: Usifoh SF, Soni JS, Asemah MR, Pharmacists - Medical Doctors Work Relationship and Its Effect on Patient Care in Benin- City, Edo State.. J Sci Pract Pharm 2019; 6(1):309-315 doi: 10.47227/jsppharm.v6i1.5
© 2019 The author(s).
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Purpose: To evaluate pharmacists- medical doctors work relationship, factors that affect it and its effect on patients’ treatment outcome. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey of registered doctors and pharmacists was conducted in five hospitals. Socio-demographics, perception of roles and services, factors that affect work relationship; areas of poor work relationship and perceived effect of pharmacists-doctors work relationship on patient outcomes were assessed with a validated structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed with SPSS Version 22 for descriptive statistics and GraphPad Instat® Version 3.0 for inferential analysis. Results: About 305 (90.2%) respondents agreed that their work-relationship affects patient outcomes, 87 (88.8%) of pharmacists and 205 (85.4%) medical doctors agreed that poor communication affects their relationship. Also, 91% of the pharmacists and 77% of the medical doctors opined that joint clinical meetings as well as 96% pharmacists and 58% doctors agreed that grand ward rounds can help improve pharmacists- medical doctors work-relationship (p < 0.01). Similarly, many pharmacists (97%) and doctors (46%) said presence of pharmacist in the wards will significantly improve patient outcomes (p <0.01). About 177 (49.5 %) pharmacists and 129 (39.4%) medical doctors had a positive attitude to inter professional relationship and 185 (54.9%) pharmacists had positive influence on prescriptions. Majority, 85% of the respondents believed that collaboration will improve quality of service and interdisciplinary relationship with positive effect on patient care. Conclusion: There were positive views about collaboration, doctors agreed that joint clinical meetings and pharmacists acknowledged that grand ward rounds will help enhance their work relationship. This will improve quality of service and interdisciplinary relationship with positive effect on patient care.
