report on pharmacist perception in india

Pharma Times - Vol. 43 - No. 04 - April 201112

Background & ObjectivesDuring the 1980-1990 lot of activity took

place which impacted the way medicines aredispensed and sold through licensedpremises commonly called as Drug storesor chemist shops in India. Such premises inIndia are regulated under Drugs & CosmeticsAct and rules [DCAR]1 as well as PharmacyAct & Rules2. Under both regulations thesepremises are required to be manned by aqualified person who has the necessaryqualification and experience as prescribedunder the Pharmacy Act and also requiredsuch a person to be registered as aPharmacist with the respective StatePharmacy Council. The association ofchemists had been demanding that such aregistration requirement under rule 65(15) Cof Pharmacy Act is not required and thisprovision should be deleted. Howeverprofessional associations including IndianPharmaceutical Association (IPA), thenational body of pharmacists of all facets aswell as Pharmacy Council of India (PCI)argued that 65(15)C should not be deletedfrom the provisions and sale of medicinesdefinitely need supervision by a qualifiedpharmacist. The Ministry of Health afterconsultation with all stake holders and aftercareful consideration upheld the demand ofprofessionals and didn't remove therequirements. Several cases in high courtsof Allahabad and other states also haveupheld putting such reasonablerequirements for need of a qualified personin the chemist outlets as completely legal andlogical and that the Government of India hasexercised their powers under sec 33 ofDCAR, in the interest of public, a factwelcomed by everyone.

Article

Report of an All India Quantitative Study of ConsumerPerceptions, Availability, Role, Services Provided,Medicines and Expectations of Pharmacists In IndiaPart 1- Report of the study on professional and general aspectsD. B. Anantha Narayana*, Kusum Devi1, Asha A. N1, Nimisha Jain1, Uday Bhosale1, T. Naveen Babu1 and co-investigators Roop K.Khar2, Moitreyee Mandal3, Manjiree Gharat4

* Managing Trustee, Delhi Pharmaceutical Trust, New Delhi.1 Dept. of Pharm.Marketing and Management, Al-Ameen College of Pharmacy, Bangalore.2 Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi.3 Dept. of Pharmacy, J.C.Ghosh Polytechnic, Kolkata,4

K.M.Kundnani Pharmacy Polytechnic, Ulhasnagar-3, Maharashtra.

For Correspondence : [email protected]

During 1990's most of the professionalassociations of pharmacy concentrated theiractivities primarily on various facets ofpharmacy other than that dealing withpharmacist /chemist at the end of theprofessional chain. Delhi PharmaceuticalTrust (DPT)[ www.delhipharmtrust.org ] wasconstituted in 1998 by a set of professionalsas an off shoot of IPA (Delhi branch). DPTinitiated a number of activities all of whichfocused on helping the practicing pharmacistto professionalise and work to improve theirknowledge and services leading to efficiency.DPT initiated Continuing ProfessionalDevelopment programs (CPD) for chemistsworking in Delhi and all their activitiescentered towards Community Pharmacists.This initiative started a chain of reactionsacross India with number of otherprofessional associations including chemistassociations as well as a number ofpharmacy colleges planning and conductingcontinuing education and training programsfor community pharmacists. During the lasttwo decades changes in the chemist bodieshave also reflected in more and more numberof qualif ied pharmacists (D.Pharm's,Graduate Pharmacists and in some caseseven Post Graduate Pharmacists) taking upjobs or setting up chemist shops as well asgetting elected to positions on chemistassociations. This has also brought someimpact on the mind set changes in thoseinvolved in dispensing and sale of medicines.

However, there have been manyopinions expressed about the role ofpharmacists, in various professional circles.Most of these opinions are at best theperceptions of individuals not necessarilyinvolved actively nor form part of thecommunity pharmacy profession in retail,commonly referred to as chemists. One

common perception amongst members ofthe pharmaceutical industry/ professionother than those involved in communitypharmacy is that pharmacists/ chemistswork merely like traders and do not provideany professional service and that there isno image of high esteem for them in societyas shown to other members of the healthcare team. Delhi Pharmaceutical Trustconducted a qualitative market researchamongst consumers in Bangalore and Delhiand found that the situation is not true. Theresults of the study brought out manyinteresting observations about pharmacistsand their role including high expectations aswell as changing expectations from theconsumers3. In another study conductedearlier, by Ramesh Adepu and B G Nagavi,in 2003., titled "Public Perception ofCommunity Pharmacists in the State ofKarnataka, India", in which many aspects ofpharmacist's role were found wanting andnot meeting the requirements, to provethemselves as health care professionals4.

Delhi Pharmaceutical Trust [DPT],decided to follow up the qualitative studyalready published with an all India largerquantitative study. For this, the trustcommissioned a research study to beconducted in Greater Bangalore, GreaterMumbai, and National Capital Region ofDelhi and in and around of Kolkata (thesewill be referred as Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhiand Kolkata). The study involved gettingwritten responses to a validated question-naire consisting of 30 questions, among cus-tomers of different profile who have visitedchemists' outlets. The study design andmethodology was conceived by the first twoauthors and the active phase of the studywas conducted between March 2009 andDecember 2009. A request to fill up the

Keywords: pharmacist, retail outlets and availability, first all India survey, quantitative survey

Pharma Times - Vol. 43 - No. 04 - April 2011 13

questionnaires and send it to DPT was alsomade through other publications and someresponses were received till July 2010. Thisreport is based on the responses receivedfrom 3086 respondents across India,analyzed using a dedicated and validatedsoftware developed for the purpose.

MethodologyThe research study has been

conducted using a quantitative method ofresearch. For this a questionnaire wasdeveloped with 30 questions, in English,having either predefined set of responses,multiple choices, or open ended spaces forresponses, validated for readability andunderstanding, translated to Kannada,Marathi, Bengali and Hindi. Translationswere also validated. Printed questionnairewere made with English and one regionallanguage for each location. Volunteers(students for pharmacy colleges) weretrained on the study, their role and work,using a Training Guide. To meet statisticalrequirements, a minimum of 650 Reponseswere obtained from each location, with atleast 50 from rural respondents. Questionsrelated to availability, identification, frequencyof visits, accessibility, services provided bypharmacists, consumer level of satisfactioncurrently and expectations for future,consumer understanding of medicines, theircategories, Pricing, information on storageand usage which they should know,medicines they perceive to be commonmedicines that do not need any prescriptionor consultation with a physician and how theyrate a pharmacist etc. For developing thequestionnaire a guideline to questionnairedevelopments5, was adopted. (please visitwebsite of DPT for the questionnaire). Since,a study of this nature and magnitude wasbeing done for the first time in India, it wasconsciously decided to make it open type andhence a crisp paragraph was drafted aboutDPT, intention of the study, and a specificrequest to provide their responses includingpersonal details of the respondents. As a partof ethical aspect it was clearly informed tothe respondents that their identity and viewswould be kept confidential and only the totalresponses received and analyzed would bepublished. The respondents were also givenan email ID to correspond if they had anyqueries or doubts of the study. Thequestionnaire was designed with logo toindicate the profession of pharmacy.

The questionnaire at the end asked therespondents to provide some basicinformation about them, and they were toldclearly that this information would be keptconfidential. Ethically, only one definitecontact detail was insisted upon so that if atany time a need arises for cross checking,and to identify and get demographicinformation, the region of the country, urbanor rural respondent.

The number of volunteers who assistedthe study in each region varied from 15 - 102and no monetary benefit was linked to their

performance. The filled questionnaire wereserially numbered, stamped with the region,urban or rural area from which they wereobtained, Questionnaires that did not answerat least 50 % of questions were rejected.Table 1 shows the Number of Fil ledquestionnaires (FQ's)

Table 1: Total number of responses citywise

S. No City Number OfResponses

1. Bangalore 754

2. Delhi 764

3. Mumbai 784

4. Kolkata 784

5. Total 3086

Software DevelopmentA search on the net revealed a number

of open ware software available which aregenerally used for analyzing results of largesurvey data whether obtained orally orthrough filled questionnaire for example,those used for opinion polls. Most of themdid not suit for analyzing this study as thequestionnaire in this study consisted of morethan one type of response structure. Hence,a dedicated analytical tool was got developedby an experienced firm engaged in suchactivities. Technical inputs on the studydesign, analysis required, expected outcomein the form of tables, graphs, charts etc weregiven to the tool developer and number ofmeetings were held with the tool developer.A written expectation from the tool with builtin validation step was given to the tooldeveloper, along with a few FQ's. Theresultant tool developed was validated at thedeveloper's end and then installed in theinvestigator's premise, with built in safety andpasswords. Student volunteers keyed inmeticulously the responses from each FQ'safter undergoing a session on training for thesame. In each FQ a mark was placed after itwas entered into the tool. After responses ofall the 3086 FQ's were keyed in 10 % of thedata put into the database were selected bythe tool randomly for auditing and validation.The respective FQ numbers that appearedin this 10% was physically taken out fromthe files and the data fed into the computerwas cross checked for accuracy. The degreeof accuracy obtained was greater than 99%

which was -accepted and no further re-validation was undertaken.

The questionnaire had 30 questionsand the responses have been analyzed inthree categories:Category 1: To cover availabil ity,accessibility, frequency of visits, identificationand gross image.Category 2: To cover professionalism of thepharmacist including drug informationprovided.Category 3: To cover consumer perceptionson medicines and expectations from thepharmacist.

Results and DiscussionAll results reported below are those

obtained by use of the analytical tool. Thetool provides data as analyzed linked tospecific demographics. Analysis were carriedout with linkage to all responses obtainedfrom all India separation region wise, urban-rural, men- women, occupation, educationand family income groups. In some cases,analysis across these linkages was alsodone. The data obtained, have been eitherreported as percentages of responses/respondents or given in numbers or graphs.Such resultant data have been interpretedand the interpretations have also beenrecorded. It may be recognized that the poolof data available is too large and moreanalysis can be done, however specificanalysis that have been done in this first setof analysis to get focused information fromthe study are reported in this first part of thereport of the study. Additional analysis ifrequired for any specific purpose will beundertaken. In this report, results of data andthe analysis for category 1 & 2 listed aboveare reported.

The results of analysis for category 1 &2 responses includes responses to questionsat serial no. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 12, 18, 19, 20, 21,22, 23, 24, 26 and 30, along with theresponses filled for personal information ofthe respondent.

Demographics: Table 2 provides a summaryof the demographics giving the broad

As observed, rural population was takeninto account more from Kolkata, whilst theurban population constituted from the othercities respectively Bangalore, Delhi andMumbai. More number of men were seen asrespondents as compared to the women.

Table 2. Demographics of total respondents

Bangalore Delhi Mumbai Kolkata Total

Men 488 653 511 597 2249

Women 266 111 273 187 837

Rural 160 106 32 775 1073

Urban 594 658 752 9 2013

Total 754 764 784 784 3086


As observed around 35% of total populationof men is from ruralareas, Delhi showed the maximum number of working people andstudents. Mumbai showed the minimum of rural men. In Kolkatamore rural population was taken into account.

Figure 1 : Demographic data for total men

Figure 2 : Demographic data for total women

As observed more number of women responded from Mumbai andBangalore as compared to rest two cities. Matriculate qualificationand self employment is highest in Kolkata among women. Graduatesand Working women are highest in Bangalore, Highest number ofstudents have taken part from Delhi coverage of the respondents.Figures 1 & 2 provide detailed demographic data for men and womenseparately which are self explanatory.

Further with regard to how often people visit a chemist/medical shop, amongthe total population 67% said that they go to chemist shop when required only,16% of retired said that they visit once a week, 23% of rural population said thatthey visit once a month.

In Bangalore 72% of the population said that they go to medical store whenrequired only and 80% of the rural population has reported the same. In Kolkataonly 54% of them said that they visit the medical store when required only, 27%of the housewives said that they visit once in a week. In Delhi 22% of the retiredpopulation said that they visit the medical shop once a week and 65% of thepopulation said that they visit when required. In Mumbai 78% of the totalpopulation said that they will visit medical shop only when required.

Surprisingly, there was only 4% of population who don't visit medical shops.Results are displayed in Figure 3.

Access To Medicine OutletsTo find out whether people have access to medical

stores we asked them if they have medical shop/chemistshop near their house or in their locality and if yes what isthe number of such shops.

An overall analysis on access to an outlet reveals thatirrespective of the regional difference, accessibility of amedical shop for consumers is the same. The density ofmedical shops in urban areas is more than that in rural areas.Only 12% people think they don't have a medical shop intheir locality and 88% have at least one shop out of with39% have more than one.

Figure 3. The perceptions of the respondents with regard to availabilityof a medical outlet

RecognitionTo find out how people recognize a medical shop, we asked them whether

they can identify a medical shop by sign board, green cross or Red Cross or bythe display of medicines.

In Bangalore, students, retired and working people can recognize a medicalshop with a Green color Cross sign as compared to housewives who arerecognizing by red color sign, which is the sign for Red Cross. Graduates andhigher qualified people can recognize a medical shop by sign board and greencross while SSLC and Non-Matriculates people are recognizing by display ofmedicines. Overall around 31% people can recognize medical shop by a signboard in Bangalore with lesser percentages recognizing by other signs. In Kolkata,

Responses from Bangalore Responses from Kolkata

Responses from Delhi Responses from Mumbai


almost 50% of population identify a medicalshop by sign board. Surprisingly housewivesin rural area showed maximum identificationof medical shop by green cross andsignboard. In Delhi most of students areaware and can recognize chemist shop bygreen cross and sign board. Only 50%population in Delhi can identify correctly bygreen cross and sign board as compared to67% in Mumbai. Around 50% of housewivesin urban area of Delhi have perception of RedCross for medical shops.

An overall analysis on recognitionreveals that 37% of people can recognizemedical shop by signboard and 24% bygreen cross. Qualified people can betteridentify a medical shop as compared to theother strata's.

There is a need to improve theawareness that green cross is associatedwith pharmacy (medical shop). Henceinitiatives should be taken to recognize theprofession of pharmacy by green cross.

IdentificationTo find out whether the people are able

to identify the qualified or the trainedpharmacist in the medical shops we askedthem whether they are able to identify thetrained person or not. We found out thatmajority of the people cannot identify atrained person across all cities covered inthe survey. An overall 56% of urban peoplecan identify trained person in a pharmacy ascompared to 43% of rural population.

In Bangalore 70% of rural populationcannot identify the trained person in themedical shop. A higher percentage of peoplewith higher education are able to identify thequalified person as compared to lesseducated people, for example 75% of Non-matriculate people cannot identify a trainedperson. In Delhi, 71% people are able toidentify a trained person and surprisingly80% of housewives and 75% of Non-matriculates were also able to identify thequalified person. In Mumbai only 50% of thepopulation, (out of which 96% is from urbanareas) are able to identify the trained person.While in Kolkata also only 41% can identifytrained people (out of which 96% is from ruralareas). The results indicate the need for thePharmacist to do more to distinguishthemselves from other support staff in theoutlets

Look/Appearance ofPharmacist

To find out what can aid in the betteridentification of trained or qualified personin medical shops we asked people aboutwhat chemist should wear while giving themedicines. They were given options of whitecoat/ identity badges or both.

In Bangalore, 43% people wantpharmacist to wear both white coat and ID

badges while 34% want only White coat and23% only ID badges. Around half of Non-matriculate people want him to wear whitecoat, which might be because of their lowereducation status. In Delhi and Kolkata around50% want both, while 31% in Delhi want onlywhite coat and 32% in Kolkata want only IDbadge. In Mumbai around 50% want him towear only ID badge which can be probablymore authentic as compared to a white coat.

Majority of the people want thepharmacist to wear both white coat as wellas ID badges, which aid them in identifyingthe pharmacist. On all India basis 50%people want him to wear both, and out of theremaining 50%, half wants only ID badge andthe other half wants only White coat.However survey shows that all therespondents are in favor of having aparticular dress code for the pharmacist andthis probably improves the professionalstatus of the pharmacist.

Perception TowardsAppearance of MedicalStore

To find out about the perception ofpeople about proper maintenance andstorage of medicines in the medical shopswe asked them whether the medicines werestored neatly and properly in the store andwas the pharmacist able to get the correctmedicines easily and quickly.

Across all four cities people think andagree with the fact that the medicines arearranged neatly and properly (78%). InMumbai where the majority populationconsidered is urban, around 90% people feelmedicines are arranged neatly, and it is thehighest among other cities. In Kolkata wheresurvey is mainly concentrated in the ruralareas, only 62% people feel medicines arearranged neatly. This may suggests thatthere should be improvement in arrangementof medicines in medical stores in rural areas.In the national capital Delhi which is alsomainly concentrated on urban areas 80%people feel medicines are arranged properly.In Bangalore also 82% population fells thatmedicines are arranged neatly.

Further to get information about thestorage of medicines we asked people if theyhave seen a refrigerator in the medicinesstore where they buy medicines.

Majority of people agree to have hadseen a fridge within the pharmacy premises.In Bangalore 89% have seen a fridge, inMumbai 83% seen a fridge, and in Delhi andKolkata also good number of people haveseen fridge in medical shops. Over all a goodvisibility of fridge can be seen across thecountry in medical shops proving that themedicines are being stored as per theirrequirement.

To further confirm the adequate storageof medicines we asked people whether theyhave seen the chemist taking out medicinesfrom fridge and giving it to customers.

Out of the total population 78% peoplehave seen a chemist taking off medicines outof a fridge. Majority of the High income group(85%) have seen the same while the majorityof the low income group and non matriculateshave said that they have never seen achemist take medicines from a fridge.

In Bangalore 41% of the non matricu-lates also are of the same opinion, of nothaving seen the chemist taking medicinesout from a fridge. While the high incomegroup reported to have seen the chemisttaking out medicines from a fridge. 26% ofthe Kolkata population said that they haven'tseen the chemist take medicines out of thefridge while dispensing, where majority of therural population is covered and 20%population of Mumbai and Delhi also say thesame.

Overall, people have seen a fridge andthe chemist taking out medicines from afridge as well, implying adequate storage ofmedicines. However around 20% respon-dents have not seen a fridge, principally inthe rural areas and this could be a cause forconcern.

Information To TheConsumer RegardingShelflife

To find out if the chemist is givinginformation regarding the shelf-life or expirydate of medicines we asked people if thechemist has ever provided them with suchinformation.

Of the total population, 55% of peoplewere not informed about the expiry date ofthe medications, which is extremelyimportant as a factor to be considered whiledispensing medications. 63% of retiredpopulation and 58% of mid income group areof the same opinion. In Bangalore 69% ofthe population, say that chemists do notexplain about the expiry date of themedication. 78% of the rural population andlow income group, 73% of the retiredpopulation have the same opinion. In Kolkata64 % of the students say that the chemistsnever explained them about the expiry dateof the medications. Surprisingly the non-matriculate people have said that chemistshave explained about the expiry date of themedicine in the city. In Mumbai also, midincome group and non matriculates andSSLC people felt that chemists neverexplained about the expiry date of themedicine.

It has to be noted that, the informationabout the expiry date of the medications isimportant information which has to be


communicated to the medicine buyers andparticularly so to the people from low incomegroups, rural and retired population due totheir lack of proper education or dependencyon the chemist.

Information Provided onStorage of Medicines

To find about whether the chemist isgiving information about the proper storageof medicines after their purchase a query inthis regard was posed to the respondents.

58% of the total populations agree tothe fact that the chemists explain about thestorage conditions of the medicationswhereas 44% each of rural and retiredpopulation opined the contrary. In Bangalore51% populations haven't been explained bythe chemist anytime about how and whereto store the medicines. A similar situation wasseen with non-matriculate (66%), rural(63%), and low income group people (60%).

In Delhi, 43% of the students and 53%of the retired people agreed to the fact thatthey were not explained about the storageconditions. In Mumbai, 49% of nonmatriculates, 44% of low income group and

45% of retired population are also of thesame opinion.

In addition it was also asked theconsumers if anytime they were asked tobring a "Cool Pack" or a "flask" before buyingany specific medicines. Out of the totalpopulation, 89% are of the opinion that eitherchemist didn't inform the customers to get acool pack or they don't know what a cool packis as far as medicines are concerned. It isencouraging to note that nearly 60% of theconsumers pan India, opine that chemist isgiving them information about the properstorage of medicines and it would be good ifall chemists would follow such practices infuture.

Education RequirementA query was posed to the respondents

to determine their awareness about theminimum qualification required to run amedical store.

It is good to find out that around 85% ofthe people are well aware about B.Pharm/D.Pharm being the requisite for qualificationas pharmacist, in fact around 61% of the totalpopulation in all four cities are also awarethat D.Pharm is the minimum requisite for

getting license to run a medical store.

In Bangalore, 57% said D. Pharma and31 % said B.Pharm is the minimumqualification of a chemist. In Mumbai, Kolkataand Delhi, 72%, 63% and 54% of people feelD.Pharm is the minimum qualification of achemist respectively.

Trustworthiness of aPharmacist

To determine whether people trust theirchemist, we asked them if they think that achemist is a good source of information onmedicines. The respondents were furtherquizzed about the usefulness of informationthus provided.

The results are displayed in Figure 4.77% of total population believes that the

chemist is a good person to ask forinformation regarding the usage and sideeffects of the medicines, whereas 23% havethe belief that he is not a good person. Ruralarea people believe in chemists more ascompared to urban people. Also 67% peoplesaid that the given information has helpedthem and both the rural and people feel thesame in this case.

Figure 4. Results of the Trust worthiness of Pharmacists graphs below where, A1Y : respondents who said the chemist is a good person to seek such information.A1N : respondents who said the chemist is not a good person to seek such information.A2Y : respondents who said such information has helped them to get better A2N : respondents who said such information has not helped them to get better

TOTAL RESPONSE

PERCEPTIONS IN BANGALORE PERCEPTIONS IN KOLKATA


85% of Mumbai people believe thatchemist is a good person to ask forinformation and 75% have told that they havebeen benefited by such information. 81% ofKolkata and 76% Bangalore people believethat chemist is a good & trustworthy. In Delhionly 65% of people believe that chemist asan information giver, and only 62% agreesthat this information has helped them.

Elderly and retired people (90%)believe the chemist more and 75% of themfeel that the information given by the chemisthas helped them to use medicines effectively.

As majority of the respondents opinethat a chemist is the good person to getmedicine related information, such professi-onal services rendered by a chemist will goa long way in improving the image of thepharmacist besides ensuring the properadministration (use) of medicines.

Ranking of PharmacistsNumber of studies done in USA and

other countries report the ranking ofpharmacist in their country for theirperformance or service or behavior. In thisstudy consumers ranked a pharmacist intheir opinion for their ethical behavior, afterthey have responded to all the questionsamongst a doctor, a teacher, a chemist, anda lawyer, by ranking them in the descendingorder. In such a context the response to thisquestion would mean "the consumers overall opinion about the Pharmacist/chemist".Consumers ranked doctors first on an allIndia basis and even at regional basis. It wasinteresting to note that a pharmacist wasranked at number 2 higher than a teacherand a lawyer on an all India basis and alsoin each of the region surveyed. This is in linewith an international finding reported recentlyin Gallup poll conducted in the United States,where pharmacists came in third positionbehind nurses and military officers as themost trusted profession6. Also in a surveyconducted by Readers Digest where peoplewere asked to rank 40 everydayprofessionals and the Pharmacist wasranked fairly high in order7.

This finding is highly encouraging andshould be taken on board by pharmacyprofessionals who have been thinkingotherwise and have been critical of the publicimage of a chemist. Authors also wish to

sound a word of caution that this should notlead to "complacency" but more needs to bedone by Pharmacists to take this to evenhigher levels.

Observations and AuthorsNotes

The study has for the first time broughtout documented quantitative data on theavailability of pharmacies/chemist outlets,identif ication of chemist and outlets,neatness, storage, belief in chemist and trustin their roles and work done. These resultspoint out that the visibility of "pharmacist" inthe medical shop needs to be enhancedgreatly. Pharmacists need to create a moreprofessional image and ease of identificationwithin the outlet by wearing a specific dress,uniform, badge is highly necessary andsooner the profession adopts it is better. Morework needs to be done to almost create abrand image for a pharmacist that they arequalified and trained persons, knowledge onGreen and Red Cross signs, neatness of theoutlets, information provided to patients. Theauthors also recognize that the study hascovered four major cities and surroundingrural areas, though the proportion of therespondents of urban and rural in each cityis not same. Results of responses receivedfor questions related professional services,future expectations and medicines are stillunder analysis and would be reportedseparately

AcknowledgementsSincere appreciations and thanks to all

the student volunteers for their contributionsto the project and each of them have beengiven a certif icate by DPT. Authorsacknowledge the encouragement andsupport by the Trustees of DPT andPrincipals of the four colleges of pharmacyfor permitting and encouraging their facultyand students to participate in the project. Wethank Ms. Ritu Walia, of Consumer ScienceDepartment of HUL research, Bangalore forher constant encouragement and inputs.

Bibliography1. h t t p : / / c d s c o . n i c . i n / h t m l /

copy%20of%201.%20d&cact121.pdf.The drugs and cosmetics act, 1940,

Chapter IV, Manufacture, sale anddistribution of drugs and cosmetics.

2. http://www.pci.nic.in/RulesRegulations/PharmacyAct1948/Chapter1-5.aspx.

3. D. B. Anantha Narayana, Kusum Devi,Asha A. N. and Nimisha Jain "Percept-ions of consumers about Pharmacists -Report of the results of a Marketresearch conducted amongst consum-ers in Bangalore and Delhi", PharmaTimes, September 2009, Vol 42, No.9,15-18.

4. Ramesh Adepu and B G Nagavi,"Public Perception of CommunityPharmacists in the State of Karnataka,India", in which many aspects ofpharmacist's role were found wantingand not meeting the requirements, toprove themselves as health careprofessionals". Ind. Jour. HospitalPharmacy, Jan-Feb 2003, 15-18.

5. Dr. Robert Frary, A brief guide toquestionnaire development, Placebased education evaluationcollaborative available from http://www.testscoring.vt.edu/fraryquest.html)

6. Readers Digest, March, 2010.

7. Jeffrey M. Jones, Nurses Top Honestyand Ethics List for 11th Year. Gallup,December 3, 2010. http://www.gallup.com/poll/145043/Nurses-Top-Honesty-Ethics-List-11-Year.aspx

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