Willingness to practice basic first aid care among community pharmacists in Lagos Nigeria

Background: The growing incidence of terrorism and/or disasters across the world makes it important that all healthcare professionals get empowered with the skills to offer first aid to self or others when the need arises.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the knowledge and willingness to practice basic life saving first aid care (FAC) among community pharmacists in a metropolitan city, South West Nigeria

Methods: This study was conducted with the aid of structured interview and questionnaires among registered community pharmacists in two Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Lagos State and the reports obtained were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis.

Results: The feedback showed that almost all (136, 96.1%) of the respondents could correctly define first aid care and also gave the correct aim of the provision of first aid care. Majority 126 (88.1%) had been involved in the practice of life saving first aid care though only very few (13, 9.1%) attended a recent training on FAC. However, their practice of FAC was affected by lack of adequate FA skills, the inability of most clients to pay for their bills, lack of cooperation from other members of the health team regarding referral of FAC cases in Lagos state, and lack of standardized skills acquisition protocols for the training of community pharmacists in the provision of FAC .

Conclusion: The community pharmacists in the two study areas demonstrated good knowledge of first aid care but few applied this knowledge in their daily practice. The pharmacists indicated willingness to practice first aid effectively if properly trained. There is a need to sensitize all stakeholders to ensure that good quality first aid care services are made available in the community pharmacies.