Pharmacy students’ provision of health promotion counseling services during a community pharmacy clerkship: a cross sectional study, Northwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Globally, undergraduate pharmacy education comprises practice programs aimed to address different competencies. This study was intended to investigate pharmacy students’ provision of health promotion (HP) counseling services during a community pharmacy clerkship in Northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted on fifty one fifth-year pharmacy students immediately after completion of a 2-week community pharmacy clerkship. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire. Relationship between variables was examined using Pearson’s Chi-square test of independence, Mann–Whitney U test, and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The mean number of HP counseling service types delivered during the clerkship was 6.3 ± 2.8 out of 12. It is positively correlated with the number of HP counseling service types delivered in students’ previous training (rho =0.437, p = 0.001). Nearly half (n = 25, 49%) of the students were actively-involved (i.e delivered ≥ 7 types of HP counseling service types) in the service and those who were well involved in previous training are more likely to do the same during the clerkship (X(2) = 4.581, p = 0.032). The main barriers perceived to hinder health promotion service were clients’ lack of time and interest as well as absence of a guideline for health promotion service. CONCLUSION: Community pharmacy clerkship is a good opportunity for pharmacy students to develop health promotion counseling skill. Clerkship performance can best be improved through successful exposures to similar activities in previous courses and students shall be encouraged to carry out self-assessments of their health promotion counseling practice against standards set for the clerkship. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-018-1216-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.