Health care professionals' and students' attitude toward collaboration between pharmacists and physicians in Croatia

Background As traditional roles of pharmacists and physicians seem nowadays insufficient to ensure patient safety and therapy effectiveness, interprofessional collaboration has been suggested to improve health outcomes. Objective To assess and compare the attitudes of physicians and pharmacists, as well as medical and pharmacy students in Croatia, toward interprofessional collaboration in primary health care. Methods The study included 513 pharmacists and physicians, and 365 students of pharmacy and medicine from Croatia. The validated questionnaire, Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration, was translated in Croatian and completed, anonymously and voluntarily, by all participants. Results Pharmacists showed a more positive attitude toward collaboration than physicians (53.8 +/- A 4.8 vs. 50.7 +/- A 5.0). Pharmacy students expressed the most positive attitude (56.2 +/- A 4.9), while medical students showed the remarkably lowest attitude toward collaboration (44.6 +/- A 6.2). Conclusion Pharmacists and physicians in Croatia expressed a relatively positive attitude toward their collaboration, comparable with their colleges in the USA. On the other hand, medical students expressed a 21 % less positive attitude than pharmacy students which could have an effect on interprofessional collaboration in the future when those students start working as health care professionals. Future studies, focusing on the promotion of this collaboration, on both under-graduated and post-graduated level, are warranted.