Assessing community pharmacists’ confidence with and knowledge of veterinary medications

Abstract

Objectives: With rising numbers of pet prescriptions, pharmacists play an important role in distinguishing appropriate therapies for animals. This study examined pharmacists’ confidence with and knowledge of veterinary medications. Methods: This descriptive study surveyed pharmacists between January 24, 2023 and March 19, 2023. A link was distributed through many social media platforms, email, and word-of-mouth. The survey contained seven knowledge questions pertaining to counseling points and drug toxicities. Three questions had pharmacists subjectively score their confidence in resolving a given scenario. The primary outcome was to assess pharmacists’ confidence with and knowledge of veterinary pharmacotherapy. The secondary outcome was to determine which demographic factors influenced pharmacists’ confidence and knowledge. All responses were analyzed using a chi-squared test. Results: A total of 622 responses were collected with three pharmacists denying consent and 96 incomplete surveys. A total of 523 responses were analyzed by SPSS software. 41 (7.79%) respondents had a passing score of 70% or higher on the knowledge assessment. 37 (7.03%) respondents scored themselves to having high confidence in situations involving veterinary prescriptions. Baseline characteristics (veterinary prescriptions filled per month, access to veterinary pharmacotherapy resources, and veterinary pharmacotherapy lecture in pharmacy school) were significantly associated with higher knowledge and confidence scores. Conclusions: The lack of reliable resources and education regarding veterinary medicine correlates to pharmacists' knowledge gap. Further studies will need to be conducted to determine if these associations are causal or if other factors affect confidence and knowledge.