IJPP 2003, 11: 135-142
© 2003 Int J Pharm Pract
Received November 19, 2002
Accepted June 14, 2003
DOI 10.1211/0022357021954
ISSN 0961-7671

Health Services Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Pauline Norris, senior research fellow

Bridget Rowsell, research fellow

Correspondence: Dr Norris, School of Pharmacy, University of Otago, Box 913, Dunedin, New Zealand
E-mail: pauline.norris@stonebow.otago.ac.nz

Acknowledgments: This work was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand, and carried out while the authors were employed at the Health Services Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington. We would like to thank the 12 surrogate shoppers; Medsafe (Ministry of Health), the Pharmacy Guild and the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand for their input into the study; Marianna Churchward for transcribing the shoppers’ tapes; and audiences at the Health Services Research Centre, the Drug Usage and Pharmacy Practice group at the University of Manchester, and the British Sociological Association Medical Sociology conference 2000 for comments on earlier versions of the paper.

Original Papers

Interactional issues in the provision of counselling to pharmacy customers

Pauline Norris and Bridget Rowsell

Abstract
Objective To investigate issues of manner and politeness in encounters between pharmacy staff and their customers.

Method Twelve surrogate shoppers (research assistants posing as customers) made 360 visits to pharmacies around New Zealand. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of the accounts they gave of these visits.

Setting 180 community pharmacies throughout New Zealand.

Key findings Interactional issues were important to the shoppers. They expressed a range of concerns about wanting to feel at ease in pharmacies, to feel confident in the quality of counselling, to feel included and to understand the counselling, privacy issues, and wanting to feel genuine concern from the pharmacy staff. Lack of staff attention to these concerns jeopardised the quality of some interactions.

Conclusion We argue that quality interactions are essential conditions for the provision of adequate counselling in pharmacies, and suggest that this is because counselling is not universally accepted as part of pharmacists’ role. Pharmacists must make extra efforts to negotiate their role as medication counsellors with customers.