PERCEPTIONS AND EXPECTATIONS OF CONSUMERS CONCERNING COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS IMAGE
Selen ONARAN*, Ismail ÜSTEL* °
*Hacettepe University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy Management, 06100 Sihhiye, Ankara, TURKEY.
°Corresponding Author

Summary:
Especially in the last decades, together with clinical pharmacy practice in the western countries, there has been positive changes for pharmacist professional identity. In thsi study, pharmacicts image is surveyed in two socioeconomically different quarters of Ankara (Çukurambar and Küçükesat). In Çukuramabar, 83 % of the respondents stated that pharmacists themselves dispensed their prescriptions in the pharmacy while this ratio was 67 % for Küçükesat.
Of the 50 respondents in Çukurambar, 47 indicated that the pharmacist displayed personal attention while providing professional service (94 %), this ratio was 82 % for Küçükesat. In Çukurambar 70 % of the respondents felt that the pharmacist was professionally knowledgeable, this figure being 60 % in Küçükesat. In both quarters, more than 75 % of the respondents stated that the pharmacist was a health professional in the first place. In both quarters, consumers expected the pharmacist to be knowledgeable, personally involved, friendly, good looking, providing quality service, being honest and not demonstrating a merchant attitude.
In both quarters, respondents ranked the pharmacy profession in the third place according to it’s importance for the community.

Keywords:
Pharmacist, pharmacy, community pharmacist, clinical pharmacy, health professions