Pharmaceutical Care in Children: Self-reported knowledge, attitudes and competency of final-year pharmacy students in Jordan

Objectives: Pharmacists require a baseline level of knowledge in paediatric pharmaceutical care in order to be able to adequately care for paediatric patients and counsel their families. This study aimed to explore the self-reported knowledge, attitudes and competency of final-year pharmacy students in Jordan regarding paediatric pharmaceutical care. Methods: This study took place in Jordan between November 2016 and May 2017. A 28-item questionnaire was designed and administered to 400 students from all pharmacy programmes in Jordan during their final year of training. Results: A total of 354 students agreed to take part in the study (response rate: 88.5%). Most respondents (95.2%) were aware of the term ‘paediatrics’. However, almost one-third of the respondents (30.5%) reported never having taken paediatric dose calculation courses and more than half (55.6%) were unfamiliar with the term ‘off-label medicines’. Moreover, most respondents (65.1%) had low knowledge scores (≤2 out of 5) when presented with realistic paediatric case scenarios. There were no significant differences in knowledge and attitudes between undergraduate and doctoral students or between those from public or private universities (P >0.05). Conclusion: The findings of this study highlight an alarming deficiency in paediatric pharmaceutical knowledge among final-year pharmacy students in Jordan. As such, paediatric-related content should be emphasised in the pharmacy curricula of Jordanian universities so that pharmacy students receive more formalised education and more extensive training in this area. Keywords: Pharmaceutical Care; Pediatrics; Pharmacy Students; Knowledge; Attitudes; Competency-Based Education; Jordan