community pharmacy

1. STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME
BARRIERS OF PATIENT
COUNSELLING

2. CONTENTS :
• Barriers to patient counselling.
• Patient- based barriers.
• Provider-based barriers.
• System based barriers.
• Strategies to overcome barriers of patient
counselling.

3. BARRIERS TO PATIENT COUNSELLING:
• Patient counselling may not take place in community pharmacies due to various
reasons, known as barriers. These barriers are classified as:
• 1. Patient-based barriers.
• 2. Provider-based barriers.
• 3. System-based barriers

4. PATIENT-BASED BARRIERS:
• • In India, many patients are unware that pharmacists may provide
counselling and generally ask their prescriber about medication use.
• • Gender and language differences may also inhibit patients from
asking the pharmacist about medication use information.

5. PATIENT BASED BARRIERS

6. PROVIDER-BASED BARRIERS:
• • Many pharmacists lack the confidence to counsel patients due to lack of
knowledge and counselling skills.
• • A heavy patient load for prescription filling is also an important barrier in
many practice situations.

7. SYSTEM-BASED BARRIERS:
• In India, counselling is not a mandatory legal requirement and officially
pharmacists are not entitled to charge for dispensing or for the information provided
to patients.
• These factors act as regulatory and financial disincentives to providing a
counselling service.
• Lack of privacy in many busy community and hospital pharmacies can also
be a problem.

8. TYPES OF BARRIERS

9. STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME BARRIERS OF
PATIENT COUNSELLING:
• To overcome the patient based barriers, following strategies can be implemented.
 Using multimedia materials
 Pictograms
 Oral or written information
 Compliance aids
 Follow up schedules
 Audio visual tapes
 Tailoring prescription instructions.

10. STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME BARRIERS

11. Legalization of patient counselling, introduction of counselling fee and
continuous professional development programs are the important strategies to
improve the counselling activity in pharmacies.
 Pharmacists can start by updating their knowledge and counselling skills.
 Confidence can be developed by initially focusing on one particular disease or
group of drugs (for example, antibiotics)
 A good approach is to ask patients ‘have you used this medication before?’
when they collect their prescription.
 Encouraging patients to ask questions about their medication or median
campaigns will also improve counselling opportunities.

12. BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION