A qualitative study exploring community pharmacists’ awareness, attitudes and perceptions about drive-thru community pharmacy service in Malaysia during COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Introduction:

Drive-thru services are not given sufficient focus in the community pharmacy setting which was highlighted during COVID-19, particularly in Malaysia. This study aimed to explore the community pharmacists’ perspectives regarding drive-thru community pharmacy service during COVID-19 in Malaysia.

Methods:

In-depth online semi-structured individual interviews were conducted among 25 community pharmacists working in Malaysia. All interviews were conducted between March 2022 and May 2022 and were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, and then analysed by thematic analysis.

Results:

Thematic analysis yielded seven major themes, 1-familiarity with drive-thru community pharmacy service during COVID-19, 2-willingness toward this service during COVID-19, 3-perceived benefits toward drive-thru community pharmacy service during COVID-19, 4-perceived disadvantages toward this service, 5-barriers toward drive-thru community pharmacy service, 6-factors affecting the preference toward this service, and 7-facilitators to drive-thru community pharmacy service. Enhancing social distancing and preventing the spread of COVID-19 were the major perceived benefits of this service during COVID-19 as reported by participants.

Conclusion:

Overall, community pharmacists reported positive attitudes toward drive-thru community pharmacy service during COVID-19. However, concerns about poor communication between the pharmacist and the patient, limited counselling, and dispensing errors were acknowledged. These concerns would need to be addressed to improve the provision of drive-thru community pharmacy service.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitudes
• awareness
• community pharmacists
• drive-thru community pharmacy service
• COVID-19
• Malaysia

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the community pharmacists who have contributed their time and efforts to the completion of this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction. All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bayan F. Ababneh

Bayan F. Ababneh, PharmD, MSc is a PhD candidate at USM, skills and expertise: pharmacy practice, public health pharmacy, clinical pharmacy, qualitative research, quality of life, social and administrative pharmacy.

Siew Chin Ong

Siew Chin Ong, PhD., Programme Chairman, Discipline of Social and Administrative Pharmacy at USM, skills and expertise: pharmacy practice, public health pharmacy, pharmacoeconomic, qualitative research, quality of life, social and administrative pharmacy.

Iffat Elbarazi

Iffat Elbarazi, DrPh, Assistant Professor at Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine & Health Sciences at UAE University, skills and expertise: public health, public health pharmacy, qualitative research. Please add for this third author her ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7151-2175.

Hisham Z. Aljamal

Hisham Z Aljamal, MD, MSc, Orthopedic specialist at Discipline of Orthopedics, Dr. Sulaiman AL Habib Medical Group, skills and expertise: medicine and surgery, orthopedics surgery, quality of life, qualitative research, public health.

Rabia Hussain

Rabia Hussain, PhD., Lecturer at Discipline of Social and Administrative Pharmacy at USM, skills and expertise: pharmacy practice, public health pharmacy, quality of life, pharmacoeconomic, qualitative research, social and administrative pharmacy.