Factors Associated with the Participation in the Project on Development of Health Services within Pharmacies among Drugstores in the 4th Health Region

Abstract

Objective: To determine factors related to the participation in the project on development of health services within pharmacies among drugstores in the 4^th health region. Method: This study consisted of 2 parts. Part 1 was a qualitative study. The researcher conducted in-depth interview with 10 pharmacists who were the owners of drugstores in the 4^th health region. The interview focused on the reasons they used to make decision on the participation in the project. Afterwards the identified reasons were used as an input for developing the questionnaire for collecting the data on factors hypothesized to have a relationship with readiness to participate or the participation to the project which was a quantitative study in the second part of this research. The researcher mailed the questionnaire to 428 pharmacies located in 8 provinces within the 4^th health region. Pharmacy owners and the pharmacists in charge in all pharmacies were the same persons. Results: Qualitative study revealed that the reasons leading the pharmacists to join or not to join the project were being heard and known about the project, the perceived benefit of project participation, financial benefit from providing the services on the project, the opportunity for capacity building for providing the services on the project, suitability of their drugstores for providing the services on the project and the appropriateness of time to be spent on providing the services on the project. In quantitative study, the questionnaires were retuned from 121 pharmacies with 28.27% response rate. Participating drugstores (8 pharmacies) were more likely to be accredited as quality drugstores, being a member of Association of Community Pharmacy, having a pharmacist with additional pharmacy training after graduation, having longer working hours of pharmacists, and perceiving their own drugstores as having appropriate settings and adequate materials or instrument for providing the services in the project, The analysis of the data on 113 pharmacies not participating in the project at the time of the study found that factors relating to the readiness to participate in the project were the perception on benefit of project participation and the appropriateness of time spent on providing the services on the project. Conclusion: The 4^th health region should motivate the pharmacies to participate in the project by presenting the benefit of project participation and the methods to overcome the barriers on providing the services on the project especially those for time consuming services. The presentation of such information should be conducted within the network of quality drugstores and the Association of Community Pharmacy.