Shaping future pharmacists: Transformative effects of clinical rotations on attitudes toward depression and diabetes care

Abstract

Background: Clinical rotations play a vital role in preparing future pharmacists for the responsibility of providing care for patients with chronic diseases. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of clinical rotations on the attitudes of final-year pharmacy students at a Nigerian University toward providing Pharmaceutical Care (PC) for patients with depression and diabetes. Methods: This was a pre-post interventional study design among randomly selected final-year pharmacy students of a Nigerian public University. All participants took part in a nine-week clinical rotation. Two validated self-administered questionnaires were used for data collection before and after the clinical rotation. Descriptive statistics and paired sample t-tests were used for data analysis. Results: A total of 301 pharmacy final-year students participated in this study. The findings showed that clinical rotation improved students’ attitudes toward providing PC for patients with depression (29.90 ± 10.35 vs 32.00 ± 8.10, p = 0.006) but had no significant effect on diabetes care (32.47 ± 9.58 vs 33.60 ± 8.23, p = 0.120). However, pharmacy students had more positive attitudes toward providing PC for people living with diabetes than those with depression (30.95 ± 9.35 vs 33.03 ± 8.94, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Although clinical rotation improved students’ attitudes toward providing care for people with depression, the study findings underscore the need for the inclusion of more mental health training to ensure that future pharmacists are equally prepared to care for patients with both mental and physical illnesses.