Community Pharmacist's Background, Barriers and Competence towards Counselling and Administering COVID-19 Vaccines and Policymaker's Responsibilities

Community pharmacists have an important role in administering vaccines and educating the public about them. Vaccines are one of the most important means to prevent the spread of infections. This study was designed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practice of community pharmacists towards providing counseling and administering vaccines in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a sample of 500 pharmacists of Saudi and non-Saudi origins, sampled from various community pharmacies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The age bracket of the participants was between 23-60 years. The entire duration of the study for was a period of 3 to 6 months. The researchers used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software to carry out the data analysis. A total of 730 community pharmacists participated in this study, and the response rate was 83.24% of the 877 potential participants to whom the online questionnaires for data collection were emailed upon their informed consent to participant in the study. Most of them (86.58%, n = 632) were males. Their ages ranged between 20 and 59 years, with the age bracket 30-39 years being the modal class with a representation of 54.79% of all the participants. Few of them, 16.99% (n = 124) had Pharmacy diploma as their highest educational qualification, 1.23% (n = 9) had a master's degree, 0.41% (n =3) had a diploma, but the majority, 81.37% (n = 594) had a bachelor's degree in pharmacy. With an exception of 6 respondents (<1%), the participants had good knowledge regarding vaccination and more than half of them had extensive knowledge of doses, indications, side effects of interaction and contraindications to vaccines. Most respondents reported the pivotal role of the vaccine in preventing and controlling the spread of infectious diseases, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccination continues to gain great importance. Among the participants, 46.16% (n = 337) of them believe that the current situation and the mechanism of adult vaccination is sufficient and (61.10%, n = 446) believe that increasing vaccination coverage among adults is important. A proportion of 40.82% ( n = 298) of respondents highly recommend the importance of having an official certificate in the field of vaccination for pharmacists. Female community pharmacists showed limited experience and average knowledge about vaccination but higher willingness to provide such service. The contribution of female pharmacists in the vaccination against COVID-19 is highly needed and by offering proper training to them they will be ready to succeed in the provision of service.