Family Planning and AIDS/HIV Intervention from a Cross-Cultural Perspective: Enhancing the Pharmacist's Role.
55 million couples worldwide buy family planning supplies in pharmacies while an additional 450 million families may be using the supplies sold by pharmacies. Pharmacists have contact with people that other family planning providers never see but their services are generally underused in many developing countries. Pharmacists in countries throughout the world sorely need more training in reproductive health and contraception counseling. This study was therefore conducted with the goal of eliciting the perceptions held by pharmacy students about counseling clients on reproductive health. The study specifically explored the perceptions of samples of students from Malaysia Thailand and the US on the basis of how they rated their comfort levels in each of 7 contraception counseling vignettes. Participants religiosity erotophobia and professionalism were also assessed. A total of 72 usable questionnaires were received from the students in Malaysia 90 from those in Thailand and 99 from those in the US. Analysis found the US students to be generally more comfortable with all of the counseling situations with women being the most comfortable. The level of comfort regardless of country was predicted by students sexual attitudes religiosity and level of professionalism. These results suggest that students from different cultural backgrounds and by gender require different training emphases to help them respond appropriately to these issues as professionals.