Jul-Sep, 2012 - Indian Journal of Pharmacy Practice

Rao JR - Development and Validation of an Instrument to Assess the Perception of Pharmacy Students' on Medication Review ProcessTable 4: Factor loading of the itemsS.NO Item No. Item Factors1 2 31. 4 Conducting Medication Review improves the intervening capability of 0.539pharmacist2. 6 Medication Review improves patient compliance and health status 0.6123. 7 Medication Review ensures safe and cost effective therapy to the patient 0.7454. 8 Medication Review optimizes polypharmacy prescriptions 0.6665. 9 Medication Review ensures appropriateness of therapy through detection 0.455and prevention of drug related problems6. 12 Medication Review considers Medication History Interview (MHI) and 0.454Medication reconciliation to ensure therapeutic individualization7. 10 There is a need for Structured format to conduct Medication Review 0.8118. 11 There is a need of specific training to conduct and document 0.814medication review9. 13 Medication Review requires lot of Time and Effort to learn and practice 0.43610. 1 Medication Review is necessary to be conducted by all clinical pharmacists 0.65311. 2 Medication Review is professionally rewarding and valuable to one's career0.53512. 3 Medication Review is useful in improving communication with Patients0.64as well as health care professionals13. 5 Medication Review is a core requirement of Pharmaceutical care 0.445Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.(Factor loadings: > 0.4 significant and > 0.5 very significant)DISCUSSIONThe present study is an attempt to analyze perception ofmedication review by the pharmacists in India. An instrument(MeRPA) was developed to assess the medication reviewperception and the reliability and factor validity were tested.In a study conducted by MacIntosh et al a tool was developedto measure the pharmacist's attitudes and barriers ofproviding medication review. In this MacIntosh's study,Respondents agreed that Medication therapy management(MTM) services would be perceived valuable by patients,improves clinical outcomes. Survey results includespharmacists are more appropriate to provide MTM service[16]especially trained personnel. Respondents of the presentstudy also expressed positive opinion on medication reviewservice and considering it as necessary to be conducted byclinical pharmacists and useful in improving communicationwith patients and health care professionals.In a study conducted by Latif and Boardman with a developedquestionnaire to explore the attitude of communitypharmacists towards medication use review service theyfound that pharmacists felt, lack of time and non-availability19of support staff as barriers to medication review. Fewrespondents in the present study also felt the lack of time as aconstraint. According to respondents of Latif and Boardmanstudy respondents of the opinion, MURs were an opportunityfor pharmacist to improve the skill, practice the profession19and to provide better service to patients.Respondents had excellent understanding on medicationreview process. No significant association was foundbetween age, sex and level of education in perception ofmedication review. In this survey, the year of study had asignificant impact in perception of medication review.PharmD IV year students had significantly betterunderstanding on medication review process compared tofinal year B.Pharm, first year M.Pharm and second and thirdyears of PharmD courses. As these students were the firstbatch in India, their eagerness and readiness to be a member ofhealth care team, has led them to perceive the medicationreview at extreme levels.Chronbach alpha value 0.82 explains that the reliability of theresponses to the items was good. Three factors were emergedthrough factor analysis; named as Professional need of MR,Benefit of MR and Requirement of MR according to the itemsloaded under each factor.The developed instrument can be used to assess themedication review perception. The reliability and constructvalidity of the instrument were found, which givesinformation regarding impact of motivation and clinicalIndian Journal of Pharmacy Practice Volume 5 Issue 3 Jul - Sep, 2012 73