Willingness and readiness to test for COVID-19; A qualitative exploration of community pharmacists.

Objectives: The present study aimed to exploring community pharmacists' willingness and readiness to test for COVID-19 in Jordan.

Methods: Purposeful sampling was used to identify a list of 30 community pharmacies, which were approached to participate in the study. Twenty interviews were needed to reach data saturation. In-depth interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed, and analysed using NVivo 11 Software. Interviews followed a previously prepared and validated 10-item interview guide. The interview guide discussed pharmacists' willingness and readiness to test for COVID-19.

Results: Twenty community pharmacists were interviewed for the purpose of the present study. Interviews took place during April 2020 and the mean interview duration was 23.30 minutes. Respondents had a mean age of 36.4 years and a mean experience of 8.8 years. The majority were female (70%) and 50% held a BSc in Pharmacy. Regarding respondents' willingness to test for COVID-19 emerging themes were helping other healthcare professional, willingness to contribute to official efforts in fighting COVID-19, acting as an accessible testing cite, willingness to carry out home testing. Regarding respondents' readiness to test for COVID-19 emerging themes were Pharmacists lack basic testing skills, pharmacies are not ready to preform tests and the need for training and certifying.

Conclusion: Jordanian pharmacists are willing to test patients for COVID-19 in community pharmacies, however, they thought they are not ready enough to undergo such tests and needed extra training and better safety precautions.