Original Article

Assessment of Pharmacists’ Confidence When Consulting Patients on Anticoagulants: A Cross-Sectional Study in Iran

Abstract

Abstract

Backgrounds: The pharmacists have a crucial role in providing pharmaceutical care to patients who receive anticoagulants. This study was conducted to evaluate the pharmacists’ confidence in pharmaceutical consultation in the field of anticoagulant therapy, identify their educational needs, and find their commonly used sources of medical information. In addition, their preferred method for future educations and specific areas of interest were assessed. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between June 2018 and April 2019 among pharmacists involved in different areas of professional activity. They filled out an online questionnaire specifically developed to evaluate the aims of the study. The questionnaire was prepared in three parts including 6 questions about demographic information, 13 questions about confidence level, and 9 questions about the commonly used sources of medical information and educational needs of participants. Results: At the end of the study, 229 pharmacists completed the questionnaire. The pharmacists’ confidence was significantly higher when advising patients on warfarin versus non-vitamin K antagonists oral anticoagulants (NOACs) (P=0.0001). More than 98% of participants acknowledged that additional education is required in the field of anticoagulation. Among the different educational methods, electronic learning (e-learning) was more attractive than others (P=0.0001). Conclusion: Pharmacists’ confidence was lower in providing pharmaceutical support on NOACs compared with other anticoagulants. Our findings suggest that additional educational courses are needed to enable pharmacists on the provision of anticoagulation care, preferably via e-learning methods.

1. Ageno W, Gallus AS, Wittkowsky A, Crowther M, Hylek EM, Palareti G. oral anticoagulant therapy: antithrombotic therapy and prevention of thrombosis, 9th ed: american college of chest physicians evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. Chest 2012; 141(2 Suppl):e44S-e88S.
2. Epstein RS, Moyer TP, Aubert RE, et al. Warfarin genotyping reduces hospitalization rates results from the MM-WES (Medco-Mayo Warfarin Effectiveness study). J Am Coll Cardiol 2010; 55(25):2804-12.
3. Lee T, Davis E, Kielly J. Clinical impact of a pharmacist-led inpatient anticoagulation service: a review of the literature. Integr Pharm Res Pract 2016; 5:53-63.
4. Harter K, Levine M, Henderson SO. Anticoagulation drug therapy: a review. West J Emerg Med 2015; 16(1):11-7.
5. Papastergiou J, Kheir N, Ladova K, et al. Pharmacists' confidence when providing pharmaceutical care on anticoagulants, a multinational survey. Int J Clin Pharm 2017; 39(6):1282-90.
6. Dalton K, Byrne S. Role of the pharmacist in reducing healthcare costs: current insights. Integr Pharm Res Pract 2017; 6:37-46.
7. Hou K, Yang H, Ye Z, Wang Y, Liu L, Cui X. effectiveness of pharmacist-led anticoagulation management on clinical outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Pharm Pharm Sci 2017; 20(1):378-96.
8. Ahmed NO, Osman B, Abdelhai YM, El-Hadiyah TMH. Impact of clinical pharmacist intervention in anticoagulation clinic in Sudan. Int J Clin Pharm 2017; 39(4):769-73.
9. Bishop L, Young S, Twells L, Dillon C, Hawboldt J. Patients’ and physicians’ satisfaction with a pharmacist managed anticoagulation program in a family medicine clinic. BMC Res Notes 2015; 8(1):233.
10. Schmode A, Ackman M, Bungard TJ. Antiplatelet, anticoagulant or both? A tool for pharmacists. Can Pharm J (Ott) 2019; 152(5):291-300.
11. Manzoor BS, Cheng WH, Lee JC, Uppuluri EM, Nutescu EA. Quality of pharmacist-managed anticoagulation therapy in long-term ambulatory settings: A Systematic Review. Ann Pharmacother 2017; 51(12):1122-37.
12. Lee MTM, Klein TE. Pharmacogenetics of warfarin: challenges and opportunities. J Hum Genet 2013; 58(6):334-8.
13. Ashrafi F, Rezaie N, Mousavi S. New indications for dabigatran: a suggestion from a drug use evaluation study. J Res Pharm Pract 2017; 6(4):211-6.
14. Surjono H, Muhtadi A, Wahyuningsih D. The implementation of blended learning in multimedia courses for undergraduate students in Indonesia. Int J Inf Educ Technol 2017; 7:783-6.
15. Noori A KL, Akbari F, Assarian M, Rakhshan A, Eslami K. A review on different virtual learning methods in pharmacy education. J Pharm Care 2015; 2(2):77-82.
Files
IssueVol 10, No 1 (Winter 2022) QRcode
SectionOriginal Article(s)
DOI https://doi.org/10.18502/jpc.v10i1.9126
Keywords
Warfarin Anticoagulants Pharmacist Iran
Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
1.
Ghadrdan E, Mohammadi M, Namazi S, Daie M, Ebrahimpour S. Assessment of Pharmacists’ Confidence When Consulting Patients on Anticoagulants: A Cross-Sectional Study in Iran. J Pharm Care. 2022;10(1):28-33.