Impact of an educational program on community pharmacist’s preparedness to conduct pharmacist-led diabetes clinic in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background

Demand for diabetes care and prevention has increased due to Saudi Arabia’s high prevalence of diabetes mellitus and its insufficient treatment. This raised awareness of the significance of community pharmacists in Saudi Arabia, who may significantly improve diabetes treatment by setting up pharmacist-led diabetic clinics. Thus, to assess community pharmacists’ readiness to lead diabetes clinics in Saudi Arabia, this study evaluated the usefulness of an educational session on diabetes care.

Method

The preparation of community pharmacists for diabetes treatment and management was assessed using a validated diabetes-specific questionnaire. An engaging and thorough diabetes education class was presented by two licensed diabetes educators. One-way ANOVA, chi-square, and the Mann–Whitney U-test were used to statistically assess the pre- and post-knowledge and attitude scores of community pharmacists.

Results

Following a learning session, the community pharmacists had a significant increase in understanding oral hypoglycemic medicines, monitoring the disease’s course, and dosing of insulin for diabetics (p = 0.01). Additionally, the community pharmacist’s perspective and attitude score on managing diabetes increased from 49.74 to 52.74 (p = 0.01).

Conclusion

The study’s findings demonstrated a marked improvement in community pharmacist’s knowledge of and attitude toward running pharmacist-led diabetic clinics following a session on diabetes education in collaboration with the Pharmacy College. The study’s findings also emphasized the significance of developing a structured programme for diabetes education in Saudi Arabia to address the demands of community pharmacists in terms of professional development.

Keywords:

• Diabetes care
• Diabetes mellitus
• Community pharmacist
• Public health
• Education
• Attitude to health

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Osama Alfayez for delivering the educational lecture and helping in this research The authors would also like to acknowledge all the study participants who agreed to participate in this research.

Author contributions

Conceptualization, MKR, ZUB; methodology, MKR, ZUB; formal analysis, MKR, SHS; investigation, MKR, AA; resources, MKR, AA; writing—original draft preparation, MKR; writing—review and editing, MKR, SHS, ZUB and AA; supervision, ZUB; funding acquisition, MKR, AA. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

The authors have not received any funding for this research work.

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable.

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The ethics and scientific research committee of the Qassim University of Saudi Arabia granted ethical approval for this study (R 19/06/2019).

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors have declared that they have no competing interests.

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