Community pharmacists' preparedness and responses to COVID‐19 pandemic: A multinational study

Itani, Rania; Karout, Samar; Khojah, Hani M. J.; Jaffal, Fatima; Abbas, Fatme; Awad, Reem; Karout, Lina; Abu‐Farha, Rana K.; Kassab, Mohamad B.; Mukattash, Tareq L.

BACKGROUND: Community pharmacists play a pivotal role in healthcare worldwide. Their role became more critical during the COVID‐19 pandemic. This study aims to investigate the community pharmacists' preparedness and responses to the COVID‐19 pandemic and how efficiently they were prepared to contain and prevent the spread of infection. METHODS: An online questionnaire was distributed to community pharmacists in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Jordan through social media platforms. A scoring system was developed to measure their level of adherence to the preventive measures of the global infection. RESULTS: The total included responses were 800. Around 44% of the pharmacists reported spending less than 15 min/d reading about COVID‐19 updates. Although more than half of them were reviewing official sites, 73% of them were also retrieving information through non‐official channels. Additionally, almost 35% of them were directly contacting customers without physical barriers, 81% reported encountering infected customers, and 12% wore the same facial masks for more than a day. Moreover, 58% of the pharmacies reported the absence of door signs requesting infected customers to declare the infection, 43% of the pharmacies were not limiting the number of simultaneous customers, and 70% were not measuring customers' temperatures prior to entry. Collectively, the mean total score of applied protective measures was 10.12 ± 2.77 (out of 17). CONCLUSION: The level of preparedness of the community pharmacies in these three Middle Eastern countries was not adequate for facing the COVID‐19 pandemic. Health authorities in these countries should closely monitor their adherence to the protective guidelines.