TRAINING NEED ASSESSMENT OF DISPENSING PHARMACISTS IN MAHARASHTRA

Background: A crucial part of Continuing Education is Training needs assessment (TNA). TNA assists in design and development of relevant educational courses and training modules, which are valuable for health care professionals to improve their knowledge and skills in accordance to latest developments in the field of clinical practices. Methods: A qualitative study was designed constituting Focused group discussion (FGD) which included office bearers and a Questionnaire survey (Knowledge, Attitude and Practices-Training: KAP-T) that included dispensing pharmacists. FGD was basically to understand the training policy of organization and Questionnaire survey was to understand Practicing pharmacists Knowledge, Attitude and current Practices related to their tasks and assess their training and development requirements. Results: Out of total 229 participants enrolled, 25 office bearers participated in FGD; remaining 204 pharmacists participated in Questionnaire survey. FGD result revealed no organizational training plan existed and officials were not having any insight about training needs of Pharmacists. Questionnaire survey showed low response in terms of knowledge (3 – 9.3%) and low practice level (2.4 – 33.8%) in terms of patient oriented services, whereas attitude to provide patient care services was high (80 – 100%). Pharmacist’s responses regarding KAP-T had no significant difference on comparison (p>0.05). More than 80% pharmacists felt that regular trainings are very much required for updating knowledge and enhancing their skills to provide effective patient care. Conclusion: Despite community pharmacists’ highly positive attitude, their knowledge and practice of patient care was found to be at a low level.