Abstract
. Demand for self-medication is on the rise. However, self-medication has inherent risks to the patient. It is against this backdrop that community pharmacists have a crucial counselling role in ensuring the OTC medication is safe, effective, and that patients use OTC drugs appropriately. The study aimed to explore the role of pharmacists in patient counselling for OTC medication in Saudi Arabia. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey approach. Data were collected via self-reported questionnaires disseminated through Google Workspace. WhatsApp social medial platform was used in distributing the questionnaires. Data were analyzed using SPSS V24. Percentages and frequency distributions were carried out to present the findings. Almost half of the pharmacists (47.1%) often ask the patients about the family history of known diseases. One- third of pharmacists always or often enquire about the history of any experienced side effects relating to the medication. It was also found that another one-third often or sometimes counsel patients regarding the dosage regimen. Two-thirds of the respondents reported that there are barriers to providing patients counselling; for example, work overload, inadequate/lack of knowledge, time allotted to patients counseling, and unavail- ability of designated counselling areas. Though community pharmacists are determined to counsel patients on the appropriate use of OTC medications, their efforts faces several challenges that reduce the efficacy of the process. This study recommends that having an optimal pharmacist to patient ratio, and offering training courses would overcome these challenges. Thus, pharmacists will provide better patients counseling for OTC medications.