Background: Community pharmacists play an important role in counseling of rational drug use for population. The study aimed to characterize counselling activities of drug use and demand of counselling tools at some community pharmacies at Hue City.
Materials and method: A 17-question survey were asked to fill pharmacy staffs of a convenient sample of 100 community pharmacies at Hue City from 2/2017 to 7/2017.
Results: There were 58 pharmacies (58.0%) answered this survey. Cough, headache, fever, high blood pressure and diabetes were the most popular symptoms/diseases presented in pharmacies. Patients often need counselling about dose (82.8%) and when to take medicine (79.3%). The main bariers for counselling were a lack of time (53.4%), and of skills/medthods for counseling (31.7%). About 96.6% pharmacies demanded counselling tools and favorite formats were book (32.9%) or pocket handbook (29.3%).
Conclusion: Most pharmacies demanded counselling tools. Other studies should be conducted to develop supporting tools for counseling and to assess the quality of counseling in pharmacies.
Key words: community pharmacy, counseling of drug use, pharmacist, Hue