Impact of pharmacists council of Nigeria (PCN) activities on hospital pharmacy practice in the Southwest zone of Nigeria

Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), a Federal Government parastatal mandated to regulate and control the practice of pharmacy profession in all its aspect and ramifications, introduced the regulation of hospital pharmacy practice in the year 2003.

 This was followed by the creation of minimum standard of practice vis-a-vis personnel, service delivery, and facilities in the hospital pharmacy department and later the production of Four-part compendium of minimum standard for the assurance of pharmaceutical care in Nigeria. Inspection and monitoring of these facilities were also to be embarked on to assess the level of compliance.

This study was done to appraise the impact of PCN since the introduction of standard of practice, the improvement in the practice and to suggest ways of achieving the objectives of the program.

The study was conducted in the Southwest zone of Nigeria. A questionnaire was administered to hospital pharmacists in this area. Secondary and Tertiary government facilities were targeted and the responses given were analyzed.

The result revealed that 71.5% agreed that there has been improvement in hospital practice since the introduction of the standards of practice, 84.6% also agreed to the significance of the standards while 65.3% agreed to the effectiveness of the introduced standards.

While considering the level of improvement through the different variables, the study showed that not much has been achieved in the practice to the desired goals of the program.

 It was concluded that Inspection and monitoring Taskforce is necessary to ensure compliance, regular communication/feedback mechanism is desirable between the hospital pharmacy and PCN as a determining factor to the degree of compliance with the standard of practice. Pharmacists’ relevancy in hospital practice through further training in recent advancement in clinical pharmacy, pharmaceutical care and recognition of pharmacist’s consultancy services are required while provision of facilities and equipments are essential.