Abstract
Roles of community pharmacy are changing to extend cooperating services with the National Health
Security Office (NHSO). Its change could be a strategic policy to support patient service continuity. Objectives
of this study were to evaluate the readiness and decision of community pharmacy preceptors to coservice
with the NHSO, and to investigate factors affecting the co-service decision. Samples were 408
community pharmacies that provided experiential education to pharmacy students of 17 pharmacy faculties
across the country. This was a cross-sectional survey study design. A self-developed questionnaire
was administered during May-August, 2014. The survey questionnaire was validated by six experts, and
the reliability was tested with Cronbach’s alpha > 0.7. The survey response rate was 46.1% (n = 188).
Almost half (49.4%) of respondents were owners and practitioners as community pharmacists. Three highest
services provided in community pharmacy preceptors were 1) medication therapy management (MTM)
for individual patients (64.5%), 2) diseases screening and monitoring (60.1%), and 3) smoking cessation
counseling (58.0%). The two criteria that community pharmacy preceptors gave scores lower than 50% of
minimum requirements were: 1) accessing to data of health service units in the area, and 2) capacity of
prescription evaluation and patient referral system. Regarding the readiness of NHSO co-services participation,
the community pharmacy preceptors gave high scores on both quality and willingness to participate.
Significantly positive relationships with a decision to participate were found in service system (B =
0.248, p<0.05) and management towards customer’s need (B=0.214, p<0.05). All community pharmacy
preceptors for Year-6 Pharm.D. students should be supported to be in the accreditation program. This will
strengthen the readiness to co-service with the NSHO and be one quality assurance for pharmacy education
in experiential practices.
