Protective measures against COVID-19 and provision of pharmaceutical services in Nigerian hospitals

Background: The World Health Organization has specified guidelines for healthcare workers when providing healthcare services in the bid to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Objectives: The study aimed at evaluating the level of adherence to protective measures against COVID-19 in the provision of pharmaceutical services in Nigerian hospitals.

Methods: A cross-sectional self-administered structured questionnaire based survey of 109 hospital pharmacists across 55 hospitals in Nigeria between April and May 2020. Data was summarized with frequencies and percentages and Chi-square was used to compare categorical variables at p<0.05.

Results: Majority of the respondents; 92 (84.4%), reported that they had direct contact with patients when conversing and 54 (49.5%) of them complained that the challenge of maintaining physical distancing impeded their effectiveness. Physical distancing was sub-optimal in about three- quarter; 78 (72.5%), of the pharmacy waiting area of the facilities studied. About one-third of the respondents; 43 (39.6%), reported optimal standards of other protective measures in their pharmacies. Non-tertiary level hospitals had better protective measures in their patient waiting area than the tertiary level hospitals ( 2 = 5.586, p = 0.018), but the practice setting did not 2 affect protective measures in the pharmacy ( = 2.022, p = 0.155).

Conclusion: Majority of the hospital pharmacists did not adhere to protective measures against COVID-19 in the provision of pharmaceutical services in Nigerian hospitals.