PATIENT COUNSELING

 “Counselling may be defined as ‘ a one-to-one interaction’

between a pharmacist and a patient and /or caregiver”
 OR
 “Patient counseling is defined as providing medication
information orally to the patients or their caregivers on
directions of use, advice on side effects, precautions,
storage, diet and life style modifications”
 Patient counseling is under taken by pharmacist:
 During dispensing,
 In disease management,
 In providing advice on self care: advice on product
selection and use , non drug self care, and health
assessment.
Objectives of Patient Counseling

 The pharmacist should appropriately educate patients on

following:

 1)Name and class of drug( e.g. antibiotic, pain reliever)

 2)Directions for use including education about drug devices.

 3)Special storage requirements.

 4)Common or important DRUG-DRUG or DRUG- FOOD

interactions.

 5)The reason for the drug and intended therapeutic response

and associated time frames.
 6) Common or important side effects.

 7)what the patient should do to monitor his / her therapeutic

response or development of side effects .

 8)actions a patient should take , if the intended therapeutic

response is not obtained or side effects develop.
9) Should ensure better patient compliance .

10) Patient should recognize the importance of medication for

his well being.

11) Patient becomes an informed, efficient and active

participant in disease treatment and self care management
PATIENTS WHO SHOULD ALWAYS BE COUNSELED :

 -Confused patients, and their caregivers

- Patients who are sight or hearing impaired

- Patients with poor literacy

- Patients whose profile shows a change in medications or dosing

 -New patients, or those receiving a medication for the first
time(transfer prescription)

- Children, and parents receiving medication

- Patients receiving medication with special storage

requirements, complicated directions,
PATIENTS WHO SHOULD BE COUNSELED AT CERTAIN INTERVALS

Asthmatic patients
- Diabetic patients
- Patients taking 4 or more prescribed medications
-Patients who are mentally ill
-Patients using appliances
-Epileptic patients
-Patients with skin complaints
-Patients misusing drugs
-Patients who are terminally ill
COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN PATIENT COUNSELING

 Communication is exchange of information, ideas, thoughts

and feelings. It involves not just the spoken words , but also
what is conveyed through inflexion, vocal quality, facial
expression, body posture and other behavioral processes.
 Effectivecommunication with patients depends greatly on
the degree of empathy demonstrated in the course of
conversation.
 Pharmacist
should use proper verbal and non verbal
communication skills during counselling session.
 Studies repeatedly show effective patient counseling can
significantly reduce patient non-adherence , treatment
failure, and wasted health sources.
 There are some important skills required for pharmacist to
interact successfully with patients like:
 -Active listening
 -Questioning
 -Responding
 -Explaining
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Questions!