Patient counselling events — teaching
pharmacy students how to take a concordant approach
 Katja
Hakkarainen, of Finland, immediate past-president
of the International Pharmaceutical Students Federation, explained
how the theory contained
in the “Concordance, compliance and communication” booklet
had been given a practical application in parts of the world where
there was thought to be a lack of formal education on counselling
in pharmacy undergraduate curricula.
She said that patient counselling events (PCEs) had been held in
16 countries in 2005–06, some 20 per cent of IPSF member countries.
PCEs are intended to help students focus on their communication skills
rather than on their clinical knowledge.
They use hypothetical cases
where students act as pharmacists, and academics, actors, pharmacists
and consumers act as patients. Scenarios are acted out in private
rooms or in front of a live audience and are followed by peer evaluation
or by self-reflection by means of videotaped recordings.
PCEs have been held in Singapore, Finland, the Netherlands, Romania
and Taiwan, and other countries. Singapore Over 100 pharmacy students participated in Singapore,
where the PCE was run in collaboration with a hospital pharmacy and
was preceded by professional presentations from pharmacists and a
senior psychologist. Role-plays were carried out in small groups
and were evaluated by senior pharmacists.
Finland In Finland, a PCE was set up as a team
competition during the national pharmacists’ conference and in collaboration with
faculties of pharmacy. A professional actress was the “patient” and
role-plays were evaluated by pharmacists and a communications skills
specialist.
The Netherlands In the Netherlands, again the PCE took the form
of a competition and the winner was awarded attendance at the 2006
IPSF congress. It was organised in collaboration with the Royal Dutch
Pharmaceutical Society.
Romania In Romania, a PCE took the form of a workshop where students
undertook role-plays and acted as a jury, evaluating videotaped recordings
of the role-plays, which had taken place privately in small rooms.
Taiwan In Taiwan, where there is no specific
course on patient counselling in the pharmacy curriculum, 200 pharmacy
students from seven pharmacy
schools took part in a PCE. The campaign co-ordinator said: “The
students were very interested in the PCE. Even though they did not
get used to role-playing in the beginning, with the help of our pharmacists
acting as ice-breakers it was easy for students to get into character,
no matter whether they were playing pharmacists or patients.”
Ms Hakkarainen said that since the PCE events had taken place a
working group had been created after a patient counselling session
at the International Social Pharmacy Workshop that took place in
Oxford, UK, in July 2006. The working group is aiming to facilitate
a consultative process to develop new internationally recognised
guidelines for patient counselling that take the concordant approach
into account.
For the future, said Ms Hakkarainen, the IPSF is looking into the
application of patient counselling skills in specific areas, for
example, medication review. It also hopes to raise funds to facilitate
further translations of the concordance booklet and to promote it
in under-represented regions like Africa and Latin America.
However, there are challenges. Collaboration with professional organisations,
practising pharmacists and faculties is essential to structure a
successful PCE. The challenge lies, especially in countries with
traditional science-based curricula, in finding competent and supportive
individuals with whom the students can work.
Ms Hakkarainen urged those pharmacists present at the congress session
to get involved. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
