Objectives: To identify the pharmacists' perception on their role, barriers to implement clinical pharmacy services (CPSs), and importance of clinical pharmacy education (CPE) to improve CPSs in Indonesian hospitals.
Methods: A predetermined questionnaire was distributed to pharmacists (n=49) in Haji Adam Malik, Pirngadi, Haji, and Columbia Hospitals and staffs of Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sumatera Utara, Indonesia for the two-month period in 2012. The participants were asked to choose answering yes or no for the importance of CPSs, poor to excellent for the current CPSs, not agree to strongly agree for the usefulness and target of CPE, way and whom to deliver it, rank priority-based topic of CPE, and choose the appropriate size, frequency, and duration of the CPE. The participants' responses were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, version 19, Chicago, IL, USA).
Results: Mean age of the participants was 48.38 ± 10.66 (years) with working experience of 17.50±9.06 (years). Most of them (82%) were female. The majority of them (79.2%) graduated pharmacy degree. Pharmacists (44.9%) argued that their understanding on clinical pharmacy (CP) was still fair. Nearly half of the participants (44.9%) revealed that CPSs in these hospitals were poor. Most of them declared that CPE was important to improve their knowledge and healthcare.
Conclusions: This study confirms that knowledge of pharmacists on CP as well as CPSs in Indonesian hospitals still need improvement through CPE to optimize health services
