Counseling preferences of patients visiting community pharmacies in Palestine: a cross-sectional study

To assess the magnitude of patient counseling in Palestine. a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based, composed of four sections: demographics, information that participants wanted to be counseled about their medications, about their diseases, and reasons why counseling was not done. Results were analyzed using SPSS program.500 participants filled the questionnaire, majority (41.2%) were in the age group of 20-29 years old, about half were females, and had medium income. More than half lived in villages, were mainly healthy, and had a bachelor degree. Most participants wanted to know how to use their medications (93.6%), therapeutic uses (92.6%), whether to be taken before or after meal (91.6%), and routes of administration (91.4%). Regarding their diseases, participants wanted to know if is contagious (84.2%), possible exacerbations (83.2%), and duration (82.6%). The reasons for not doing counseling were the desire to get the information from the physician (60%), or didn’t want to listen (55.6), lack of time (31%), or did not trust the pharmacists (22.4%). Significant differences were found in gender and education in the desire for information. Pharmacists-patient counseling is highly required. Modification of the curriculum is highly encouraged to adapt with the up-to-date needs to practice pharmacy