Abstract

PHARMACY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE SCOPE OF CLINICAL PHARMACOGNOSY COURSE IN PAKISTAN

Tehseen Quds, Farah Saeed, Sadia Shakeel*, Riffat Yasmin and Sadaf Farooqi

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify pharmacy students’ perception towards the value and scope of clinical pharmacognosy in Pakistan and their attitude towards the contents of the course of clinical pharmacognosy. Method: This transversal study was conducted from Sept’14 to Jan’15 by adopting a pre validated questionnaire distributed to senior pharmacy (fourth and final year) students in different private and public sector institutes of Karachi. Results: The present study revealed a very positive attitude of students towards the clinical pharmacognosy course. More than 90% of students were agreed that contents of clinical pharmacognosy course increases their knowledge about herbal drugs used in clinical practice and pharmacist should have sufficient knowledge about herbal drugs to provide consultancies to prevent various drugs and food interactions. Around 92% of the students considered that clinical pharmacognosy is essential to work in herbal industries as well as in research and development department of pharmaceutical industries. Conclusion: It is concluded that our undergraduate pharmacy students showed positive attitude towards the clinical pharmacognosy course and highlighted that clinical pharmacognosy is a flourishing field in this era due to growing interest of health care industry towards drugs of natural origin.

Keywords: Clinical pharmacognosy course, students’ perception, health status, Pakistan.