Oct-Dec, 2011 - Indian Journal of Pharmacy Practice

Indian Journal of Pharmacy PracticeAssociation of Pharmaceutical Teachers of IndiaEvaluation of the Impact of a Training Module on Patient Counseling for Practising CommunityPharmacistsRamanath K.V*, Nagavi B.GDepartment of pharmacy practice, S.A.C. College of pharmacy, B.G. Nagar, Mandya(Dist.)A B S T R A C TSubmitted: 12/11/2011Accepted: 15/11/2011Patient counseling is considered as an important responsibility of the community pharmacists. An effective counseling will improve themedication adherence and help in achieving the therapeutic goal. Due to various barriers, most of the community pharmacists in India are notproviding patient counseling. The study aimed at assessing the impact of training on patient counseling to the selected community pharmacists.Two six hours training modules were conducted twice for this purpose. Through postal letters and personal interviews, 14 & 22 qualifiedregistered and practicing pharmacists respectively were selected in the first and second training programs. A pretest was conducted to assessthe entry-level knowledge of the pharmacists, followed by six hours teaching and role-plays on patient counseling. At the end a post test wasconducted to assess the exit level knowledge. A pseudo patient method was adopted to assess the counseling process of the trainedpharmacists at their pharmacy by the research pharmacist. United States pharmacopoeia counseling guidelines were used to assess thecounseling process. The result of the study showed an improvement in the post test scores and utilization of more counseling items duringcounseling sessions. The feedback results of the community pharmacists showed that the six hours training module was good and they neededmore such training in future to gain confidence in practicing patient counseling.Keywords: Patient counseling, Community pharmacistsINTRODUCTIONThe pharmacist is the first point of contact in the community1.setup on matters related to drugs and drug usagesCommunity pharmacists are a vital link between thephysician and patients. His role as a counselor to thecommunity satisfies the medical needs of the society, which2can draw the acceptance and respect from the society .According to the WHO report, the roles and responsibilities ofthe community pharmacists includes – 1. Verify the legality,safety and appropriateness of the prescription order, checkingthe medication record before dispensing and dispensingaccurately with appropriate patient counseling. 2 Monitor ofdrug utilization, potential drug allergies and drug interaction.3. Provide the drug related information to the prescribers andpatients for proper utilization .4. Actively involve in healthpromotion like rational usage of drugs, alcohol abuseprevention, family planning program and AIDS preventionprogram.5. Health care screening services like monitoring ofblood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, pregnancy testing. 6.Consulting services to both patients and staff, like patientprofile monitoring, staff education and in services.Address for Correspondence:K.V. Ramanath, S.A.C. College of Pharmacy, B.G.Nagar, Mandya ( Dist)Email- kattavenkateshramanath@gmail.com,kattavenkatesh_ramanath@rediffmail.comThe community pharmacist in US and UK are well acceptedand trusted by the public. As patient counseling is mandatory,the pharmacist is involved in providing the health carescreening services, and home medication review (HMR)activities.In India the community pharmacist's role is not well defined.They were restricted to dispensing rather than counsel.Reasons for failure to extend the pharmaceutical servicesare.1.Most of the pharmacist basic minimum qualification isDiploma in Pharmacy 2. Lack of awareness about theprofessional roles and responsibilities 3 .Lack of training,knowledge, confidence, incentives, and availability ofpharmacist 4. Lack of coordination between the physician and4, 5, 6-12patient .The present study was carried out to eliminate these barriersand to impart patient counseling knowledge in their serviceswith the following objectives1. To train selected community pharmacists on patientcounseling.2. To impart knowledge, skills and patient counselingmethods to the practicing community pharmacists.3. To evaluate the impact of training module in practicingcommunity pharmacists.Indian Journal of Pharmacy Practice Volume 4 Issue 4 Oct - Dec, 2011 80