Help Counseling Patients

[diplomat]

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I want help on how to counsel patients at the pharmacy. Are there any resources that have specific cases and which OTC medications to recommend or anything to help with counseling? Just memorizing information in school and actually applying it in a real setting is going to take some getting used to for me.

 

[FAMUPharmD09]

There are books that discuss effective communications for pharmacists, however Patient Counseling is a skill that in my opinion can not be learned through books. For me, I learned a lot from watching pharmacists I worked with, various skills labs in school and PRACTICE. The more that I counseled patients the more comfortable I became. But don't worry as a pre-pharm you will have plenty of time for customers to ask you weird questions and show you parts of their bodies that you would rather not see😱

 

[diplomat]

So there are no resources that have examples of what I may encounter in a pharmacy. I am looking for the basics up to more advanced. Anything?

 

[Aznfarmerboi]

I want help on how to counsel patients at the pharmacy. Are there any resources that have specific cases and which OTC medications to recommend or anything to help with counseling? Just memorizing information in school and actually applying it in a real setting is going to take some getting used to for me.

When you start pharmacy school, there will be at least one class to teach you how to communicate interpersonally including counseling.

 

[Pianopooh]

When you start professional years, you do get classes to help you understand what counseling consists of - how to greet a patient, what questions to ask, what signs to look for (posture, physical symptoms, etc). Then you apply it in lab scenarios (where your professors or 6th year students, or TA's are "patients"). Do you work in a pharmacy? The best place to learn how to counsel is to observe your pharmacist.

If you want a quick and dirty breakdown of how I would counsel, here:
1) Greet the person. Hi, how are you. How are you feeling?
2) Person usually tells you they're not feeling well. Ask them what's the problem, what are the symptoms, how long the problem has been. -- Because you haven't had pharmacy courses yet (or else you would have had a counseling-related class), this information wouldn't be too useful to you because you cannot determine if you can recommend OTC or send the person to the doctor.
3) Give a suggestion, if you can.
4) Wish them well, thank them for asking and coming to speak with you.

Pharmacy school makes you memorize facts, but you have to find ways to use it. It just takes a lot of practice to counsel smoothly.

 

[johnep34]

Good advice, here in UK majority of pharmacies have a consultation room where we can advise on anything of a private nature, piles, morning after pill, chlamydia etc. Once inside that small room I was surprised how much some pts want to tell you. The privacy releases their inhibitions.

People with wounds or rashes are very keen to show you. Golden rule, never be alone with a child or young woman.

We also use this room for supervised methadone.

johnep

 

[Vitamin K]

One of the main purposes of pharmacy school is to provide you with the knowledge and resources to counsel and make recommendations. You're not going to learn this from some reference book. You'll pick up little bits all along your curriculum. When you're working, your best bet is to pass the consults onto your preceptor and then (instead of moving onto the next customer) stay and listen to what they ask, say, and observe. Preceptors are a huge resource for you and you shouldn't take it for granted!

 

[Quiksilver]

OBRA 90 is y0 friend