Pharmacists' Satisfaction with Their Pharmacy Education: Were They Prepared for OBRA-90?.
On January 1, 1993, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OBRA-90) went into effect. This law mandates that pharmacists counsel patients and perform prospective drug utilization review. The question to be answered was: Are pharmacy schools properly preparing their students to perform according to the OBRA-90 guidelines? A questionnaire was mailed to 665 recent graduates of seven pharmacy schools around the country. A total of 303 individuals returned the questionnaire for a 45.6 percent response rate. MANOVA techniques were utilized to analyzed the data. Results indicated that recent graduates were generally satisfied that their pharmacy education prepared them to meet OBRA-90 counseling and drug use review requirements. Pharmacists were most satisfied with their education in preparing them to address problems relating to duplicative therapies and least satisfied with their knowledge of self-monitoring techniques. This study was an attempt to evaluate recent graduates opinions about their pharmacy education with respect to their practice.