PHARMACISTS need to use their communication and counselling skills honed through undergraduate training to develop strategies to boost patients' health literacy, Monash University Senior Research Fellow, Gergory Duncan, believes.
Speaking during a webinar on Sat discussing health literacy, hosted by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), Duncan urged pharmacists to ask questions of patients to ensure they have understood information.
Studies had found some pharmacists describing the approach as "quite awkward" and were concerned that by questioning patients they may feel judged, he said.
However, Duncan said such concerns could be overcome by rethinking questions, so patients do not feel like they are being put on the spot.
"It's really around how we frame it, we need to make sure we sit any responsibility for any errors that come through on us, so we frame our question around that," he said.
"Instead of [saying] 'tell me how you're going to take this medication at home', it would be something like, 'just to make sure I haven't missed any important points can you explain back to me how you're going to use this medicine?'
"So if they don't get it right it's the pharmacist's fault, and we're not judging the patient.
"Often that feels unnatural when we engage with people, so it's important that we practise, that we start to find our natural voice - what feels right to you and what you observe that patients respond well to."
Duncan said that the challenges of poor health literacy were "quite pervasive" in society, adding that pharmacists needed to be aware that a patient's ability to process health information can vary in different circumstances, "we need to keep that in mind when we engage with people," he said.
"One of the challenges that we often come across when we talk about new services or approaching things in a different way is that we need to learn new skills.
"Importantly with health literacy most of us have all the skills we need - the communication skills that we practice as undergraduates are the basic skills that enhance that interaction with people, but it's about how we use them.
"We need to be consistent in the application [of health literacy strategies] not just saying 'I think this patient needs it so we'll do it for them.
"We actually need to have this structured systematic approach to engage with all of our patients to reduce risk."
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