Introduction: Well trained, knowledgeable and competent pharmacists are indispensable in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is a current global public health problem. The aim of this work was to assess knowledge of antibiotics, antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial stewardship of fifth year pharmacy students at three universities in Northern Nigeria. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study that used a paper-based questionnaire to collect data from July to September 2021 was conducted. The questionnaire was self-administered and divided into four sections. The first section collected information about the demographic data of respondents, while section B explored their knowledge of antibiotics and AMR. Section C contained six questions assessing knowledge of various aspects of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS), while the final part assessed respondents’ preparedness to work with antibiotics and perceptions of their current knowledge of these concepts. Descriptive statistics were used to report the results obtained. Results: A total of 164 questionnaires were retrieved. Majority of respondents were male (58.3%) and aged between 21 and 25 years (53.4%). Most of them had some knowledge of antibiotics and AMR, however several misconceptions with respect to these concepts were identified. Only 80 (48.8%) of respondents indicated that they knew what AMS was, although most of these students were correctly knowledgeable about the goals and scope of AMS and composition of the AMS team. Generally, less than half of respondents agreed that their current knowledge of antibiotics, AMR or AMS was adequate for their future careers, and over 90% of them agreed that they would like more education about these topics. Conclusion: Many of the study’s’ respondents were somewhat knowledgeable about these concepts, although several knowledge gaps were also observed. Improving undergraduate pharmacy education with respect to these concepts is recommended.

Background: Medication counselling is an important activity that improves patient therapeutic outcomes. After this activity has been carried out, patients should be satisfied with counselling, and possess adequate knowledge about their medications.Objectives: To describe outpatient/caregiver medication knowledge and satisfaction with medication counselling at the main outpatient pharmacies of eight public secondary and tertiary hospitals located in two states in Northwestern Nigeria.Methods: Exit interviews were conducted from December 2019 to March 2020 with randomly sampled patients/caregivers who had just been dispensed one or more prescription medications from the main pharmacies of the hospitals. The questionnaire used contained 31 questions in three sections. The first section collected demographic information. The second section assessed respondents’ experiences and overall satisfaction with the counselling they had received. The last section evaluated respondents’ knowledge of one randomly selected prescription medication that had been dispensed to them. Data collected were coded and analyzed to generate descriptive statistics. To explore associations between respondent characteristics and overall satisfaction, non-parametric tests were used, and statistical significance set at p<0.05.Results: A total of 684 patients/caregivers were interviewed. Majority of respondents agreed that the time spent (97.1%) and quantity of information (99.1%) provided during counselling was adequate. However, over 60% of them also agreed that dispensers did not assess their understanding of information provided or invite them to ask questions. Despite this, their average overall satisfaction with counselling on a 10-point scale was 8.6 ± 1.6. Over 90% of them also correctly identified the routes and frequency of administration of the prescribed medication selected for the knowledge assessment. Although, more than 60% of respondents did not know the duration of therapy or names of these medications.Conclusion: Respondents’ satisfaction with medication counselling was fairly high even though they did not seem to know much about their medication.

Management of musculoskeletal pain in retail drug outlets within a Nigerian community: a descriptive study

Pharmacy Practice is a free full-text journal with a scope on the practice of pharmacy. Pharmacy Practice covers pharmaceutical care, social pharmacy, pharmacy education, process and outcome research, health promotion and education, health informatics, pharmacoepidemiology

Objective: To describe outpatient medication dispensing and counselling processes in pharmacies located in eight hospitals in North-Western Nigeria. Methods: An observational study was conducted from January to March 2020 in 19 hospital pharmacies located in the eight hospitals. Two types of observations were carried out, structured observations to describe the content of patient medication counselling encounters and general observations of other activities. Quantitative data were generated from the structured observations, whereas qualitative data were collected from field notes and informal discussions with dispensers. Data collected during the structured observations were descriptively analysed, whereas other data collected during the general observation periods were grouped and organized into categories. Key findings: A total of 782 patient counselling encounters were observed during the structured observations. The most frequent types of information provided by the dispensers during these encounters included dose (98%) and route of administration (85%). Information about the name(s), indication(s), side effect(s) of medication as well as the importance of adherence were provided in less than 5% of these cases. Dispensers also made attempts to verify ownership of prescriptions to be dispensed in only 35% of these cases. Other issues observed included lack of interventions by dispensing staff during these processes. A total of 100 dispensing errors were observed, and provision of incomplete information (usually about duration of medicines use) was the most common type of dispensing error seen. Conclusions: Several problems were observed with the medication dispensing and counselling processes for outpatients in the hospital pharmacies observed. Interventions aimed at improving these processes are required if patients are to use their medicines correctly and safely.