Community pharmacist's knowledge, attitude, roles and practices towards patient‐centred care in Saudi Arabia: a systematic review of the literature

Objectives This study aimed to evaluate published original studies in Saudi Arabia about knowledge, attitude, roles and practices of community pharmacists in providing patient‐centred care services. Methods Systematic searching of original studies published between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2017 using electronic databases: PubMed, International Pharmaceutical s, Scopus, Science Direct, Cochrane Library, TRiP database, Springer Link and Google Scholar. Studies were included if they outlined community pharmacist's knowledge, role, attitude and professional practice behaviours towards patient‐centred care provided by pharmacists alone or in collaboration with other healthcare professional (s). The studies were identified, and data were extracted independently by two reviewers. The modified Newcastle‐Ottawa scale for cross‐sectional studies was used to assess the quality of each study. Key findings Twenty‐four original studies conducted in Saudi Arabia were included. Majority of studies were questionnaire‐based surveys (62.5%). One quarter of the studies investigated knowledge, roles and attitude of community pharmacists about irrational dispensing and prescribing of antibiotics and prescription only medicines. Included studies highlighted numerous gaps in knowledge, attitude, roles and practices of community pharmacists in Saudi Arabia in providing efficient patient‐centred care services. Lack of knowledge and time, absence of pharmacy information database, deficiency of continued professional development training, unavailability of adverse drug reaction reporting forms and professional and cultural issues were some of the barriers in providing patient‐centred care. Conclusions The studies showed that although community pharmacists in Saudi Arabia do provide medicine counselling and other patient‐centred care services; however, these services need substantial improvement. This review may be useful for policy makers, regulators, pharmacy educators and researchers in understanding the work being performed in the community pharmacy setting in Saudi Arabia.