Physicians' Acceptance of Pharmacy Residents' Recommendations on Drug Therapy

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of a training program delivered to pharmacy residents. During their clinical pharmacy training program, the residents have to learn more about how to deal with drug related problems, develop clinically relevant recommendations, and develop communication skills to make therapeutic recommendations acceptable for the prescriber. Six pharmacy residents, working in different clinical wards, collected data during six consecutive weeks every time they gave a recommendation to a prescribing physician. The main issue was the prescribers’ level of acceptance of pharmacy residents’ recommendations. The items taken into account were the type of recommendation, the physician’s status and the mode of interaction between pharmacy residents and prescribers. Two hundred and twenty one interventions were collected. The major recommendations were changing drug regimen (39%) and enhancing monitoring (31%). The rate of prescribers’ acceptance of recommendations made by pharmacy residents was 47% (higher for senior prescribers (59%) than junior prescribers (41%)). Oral recommendations of around 80% were accepted.