The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7216 p382
21 September 2002

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Asking for directions [more]
Is this the way to Manchester? [more]

Asking for directions

Differences between what patients know about their disease and its treatment and what doctors and nurses think they know are brought into sharp relief by research on inhaler switches presented at this week's European Respiratory Society congress in Stockholm (p384).

Despite the best efforts of health care professionals, of whom about 90 per cent believed that they had given patients enough information to cope with a switch to a chlorofluorocarbon-free inhaler, only 59 per cent of patients said that they had been given sufficient information.

What can be done to improve this? The short answer is that health care professionals should never overestimate what patients know and understand. There is a parallel in any communication we have with a driver who stops us to ask for directions. If we give directions to, say, our local town centre and add "Do you understand?" the temptation for the driver is to say "Yes" — not only because he does not want to appear stupid but also because he may genuinely think he understands. The proof is in whether or not he manages to find where he wants to go.

This is where pharmacists can make a huge difference. As they hand over a medicine, instead of telling patients about it, they need to ask patients to describe what they have been prescribed and why. There are always time constraints and problems with confidentiality in many pharmacies, but the principle holds good: do not make assumptions based on your own knowledge. Unless you are blessed with a perfect sense of direction and excellent orienteering skills (and armed with an up-to-date map) you are quite likely to have become lost in a strange town at some time in your life. Perhaps that is something to consider when you are next faced with a patient with a prescription for a new medicine.

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Is this the way to Manchester?

While we are talking about directions, a survey conducted as part of Bradford's campaign to become European Capital of Culture 2008 has found that only one in 10 southern respondents could correctly place nine northern cities on a map of Britain.

So for all southerners travelling to the British Pharmaceutical Conference next week, Manchester is the big city to the right of Liverpool, a bit further north from Birmingham, and if you reach the Scottish border you have gone too far.

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