Assessment of Drug Information Service Utilisation Among Pharmacists in Teaching Hospitals in Anambra State

Drug information services are vital for evidence-based clinical decision-making in hospital pharmacy practice. This study assessed the availability, utilisation, and perceived importance of drug information services among pharmacists in teaching hospitals in Anambra State, South East Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 95 hospital pharmacists at two major teaching hospitals in Awka and Nnewi. A structured self-administered questionnaire collected data on access to drug information resources, frequency of drug information queries, types of queries received, and confidence in answering drug information requests. Results showed that 71.6 percent of pharmacists reported receiving drug information requests at least once weekly. The most common query types were drug dosing (41.1 percent), drug interactions (28.4 percent), and drug use in special populations (18.9 percent). Tertiary printed resources such as the British National Formulary were available in 63.2 percent of pharmacy departments, while dedicated online databases were accessible to only 36.8 percent. Internet connectivity limitations were identified as the primary barrier to accessing current drug information. Only 28.4 percent of respondents were aware of a formal institutional drug information centre within their hospital. The study recommends the establishment of formal drug information centres, institutional subscriptions to online clinical databases, and pharmacist training on efficient drug information retrieval to strengthen evidence-based pharmaceutical care in Nigerian teaching hospitals.

Keywords: drug information service, hospital pharmacy, evidence-based practice, Anambra State, pharmaceutical care