Instrument to assess pharmacists' perception on application of pharmaceutical chemistry subjects in pharmacy practice

Pharmaceutical chemistry is one of the core subjects in the curriculum of Bachelor of Pharmacy program, however, its relevance in the practice of pharmacy in Malaysia has not been reported. Thus, this study is aimed to develop an instrument to evaluate pharmacists' perception on the application of such knowledge in the community and hospital settings. This survey instrument consist of three sections: (1) demographic information, (2) knowledge of pharmacist in pharmaceutical chemistry, and (3) perception of pharmacist on pharmaceutical chemistry subjects in pharmacy practice that were measured using 5-point Likert scale. Minor amendments were made after the first piloting (group 1, n=10) and then re-tested on another group of pharmacists (group 2, n=10). Cranach's alpha reliability test value was 0.308 (group 1) for the items measuring the knowledge domain, and 0.766-0.914 (group 1), 0.745-0.889 (group 2) for the items measuring the perception domain. Thus, due to the low reliability value, knowledge domain was removed. The final version of the survey was used to assess pharmacists' perception on the application of pharmaceutical chemistry knowledge in pharmacy practice. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer reviewed under responsibility of the UKM Teaching and Learning Congress 2011