Affiliations 

  • 1 International Medical University
  • 2 Community Pharmacist (Petaling Jaya)
MyJurnal

Abstract

Nowadays, community pharmacist plays an important role in medication counseling, patients’ side effects monitoring and
drug information delivery. The need of patient counseling has become a vital part of the pharmacy practice and
pharmaceutical care. Through Continuing Pharmacy Education (CPE) program, pharmacists can develop into professions in
different areas including drug delivery, drug information, technology and patient education. This study was conducted to
evaluate the perception of community pharmacists towards patient counseling and continuing education program in
Sabah and Sarawak, East Malaysia. A cross-sectional study design utilizing questionnaires was prepared by an extensive
literature review. The research was carried out in four major areas in Sarawak; Sibu, Kuching, Bintulu and Miri and in
three major areas Sabah; Kota kinabalu, Sepilok, Tawau by convenience sampling method. Descriptive analysis was
conducted using SPSS version 18. Perception of community pharmacists towards patients counseling and continuing
education program was analysed using scaling method. A cut-off score of 25.8 was used to indicate the perception of
community pharmacists. The Pharmacists scored a cut-off point of 25.8 and above were considered to have good
perception. A sample of 174 community pharmacists from Sabah and Sarawak were participated in this study. All of the
respondents except one had positive perception towards patient counseling and continuing education program. Overall,
almost all the community pharmacists had positive perception towards patient counseling and continuing education
program in Sabah and Sarawak, East Malaysia. Further research is needed to evaluate perception of community
pharmacists in different states of Malaysia and explore more on continuing education program in Malaysia.