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Letters to the Editor
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Concordance
IPSF does recognise “partnership with patients”
From Mr S. Bell, and others
We are writing in response to the article by Joanne Shaw entitled “The
concept of concordance appears to be internationally understood” (PJ,
October 2, p464).
As co-presenters at the concordance
workshop in New Orleans we are surprised
that participation in the workshop has caused Ms Shaw to express “real
concern” over the activities of the International Pharmaceutical
Students’ Federation (IPSF). We believe Ms Shaw may have misinterpreted
the purpose of the IPSF patient counselling events, an example of which
was presented at the workshop, causing her to be unfairly critical of
IPSF and the role of such events in developing concordant models of practice.
The IPSF is an organisation with over 400,000 members active in 91 countries,
and is operated entirely by volunteer pharmacy students and young pharmacists.
It has worked hard to encourage pharmaceutical students around the world
to take an active interest in promoting good quality and innovative pharmacy
education. This has included conducting several international research
projects on pharmacy education, co-authoring the document “Pharmacy
education: a vision for the future” and jointly holding two recent
international symposia on pharmacy education.
The IPSF encourages member associations to conduct patient counselling
events as a means of developing skills in communication and pharmacy
practice. In many cases these events have been organised by pharmacy
students who are taught little or no pharmacy practice within their undergraduate
curricula. Voluntary participation in these events represents a strong
desire by students worldwide to develop their own professional practice
skills and work in a rapidly changing health care environment.
The benefits of a “partnership with patients” are well recognised
by IPSF. However, as Ms Shaw says, to implement concordant practice “a
range of different strategies would be needed to suit local circumstances”.
The short video clip recorded at the IPSF congress in Canada earlier
this year and presented at the concordance workshop in New Orleans depicted
one undergraduate student attempting to counsel another student (acting
as a patient). The video clip was not presented as a model for good patient
counselling, but rather a demonstration of the potential role that patient
counselling events could have in developing communication skills. In
many countries pharmacy students have formed alliances with practitioners,
professional associations and university academics to conduct these events.
At the patient counselling event in Canada, an accompanying education
programme was delivered by internationally recognised academics and practitioners.
The IPSF and the Pharmacy Information Section of the International Pharmaceutical
Federation are pleased to be collaborating to produce a patient counselling
booklet. The purpose of this booklet is to make additional resources
available on patient counselling for pharmacy students, university academics
and professional associations worldwide. We expect to include material
on concordant models of practice in this publication.
Both IPSF and the Pharmacy Information Section of FIP are committed to
developing excellence in pharmacy practice and look forward to increasing
opportunities for pharmacy students and young pharmacists to develop
effective communication skills.
Simon Bell
Immediate Past President
IPSF, Australia
Inka Puumalainen
President
Finnish Pharmacists’ Association, Finland
Past Executive Committee Member, IPSF
Marja Airaksinen
Professor of Social Pharmacy
University of Helsinki, Finland
Executive Committee Member, Pharmacy Information Section, FIP
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Pharmaceutical Journal