PHARMACEUTICAL SERVICES SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH WORKFORCE SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT

Ighorodje Austine Esejuvwevbo*, Egere Eustace Chijioke and Okoronkwo Ngozi Augustine

ABSTRACT

The healthcare services have witnessed increasing fulfilling roles and responsibility in pharmaceutical services, especially in improving access and appropriate use of medicines. Currently, The current Pharmacists role of multidiscipline healthcare, adequate workforce is required to enable improved health. Researches on support workforce development are limited hence this investigation on the development of a viable pharmacy support workforce in Nigerian. The objectives of the study is to understand the rationale for human resources management and identify caps in workforce training and development. Descriptive survey of 125 pharmacists were sampled with the aid of a pretested semi-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire comprises three main sections in line the study objectives and designed using simple statements on Likert-type scale having weighting scores of 0-4. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics at 5% level of significance. The respondents agrees with the statement measuring the concept of Human resources management with a Mean weighted average(MWA) of 33.97 for knowledge, 27.0 for attitude and 27.7 for human resources practices. There were clear indications that shortages of health workers being a critical challenges to pharmacy practice with necessity to build reputable workforce training and development to promote sustainable practice.

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Sustainability, Support Workforce, Pharmacy technicians, Auxiliary nurses.