In the sphere of healthcare, community pharmacies stand as critical touchpoints for patient education and advice, particularly for the treatment of common ailments like the common cold. However, a study conducted in Slovakia has raised concerns about the effectiveness of patient counselling provided in such settings. The study, titled “Assessment of patient counselling on the common cold treatment at Slovak community pharmacies using mystery shopping,” was published in the Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal and provides an insightful glance into the current state of pharmacy practice in this Central European nation.
The Study’s Design and Purpose
The study, performed by researchers from Comenius University in Bratislava and St. Elisabeth University of Health and Social Work, utilized the mystery shopping methodology – a tool that has successfully been applied in various domains to evaluate service quality. In October 2016, a team of 54 pharmacy students visited 270 different community pharmacies across Slovakia over a span of two weeks. Their task was to act as typical customers seeking treatment for the common cold, specifically over-the-counter (OTC) medicines containing zinc, a common ingredient in cold remedies.
The primary goal of the investigation was to assess the counselling practices of Slovak community pharmacists, focusing on the following parameters:
1. Counselling Performance, a composite measure including Identification (the ability to recognize the patient’s need), Information (the ability to provide appropriate advice), and Communication skills.
2. The success rate of Subjective Perception, which accounts for how customers personally evaluated the counselling they received.
Surprising Findings
The results, indicated by the DOI: 10.1016/j.jsps.2019.02.005, showed that the overall Counselling Performance was 39.0 ± 22.4 percent. Specifically, the Identification category scored a meagre 30.6 ± 28.7 percent, and Information at 39.8 ± 25.1 percent. Meanwhile, Communication had the highest score with 74.3 ± 11.5 percent, reflective of the good communication skills of the pharmacy staff. Nevertheless, these percentages show potentially significant gaps in the actual content of the counselling provided.
With just over a quarter of pharmacies (26.3%) reaching average Counselling Performance scores, the data suggests a concerning disconnect between the perceived effectiveness of counselling and actual practices.
Factors Influencing Counselling
The study further looked at whether the success of counselling was influenced by the scenario presented, the type of counsellor (pharmacist or pharmacy technician), or the counsellor’s age. Interestingly, pharmacy technicians were noted to provide spontaneous counselling more often, although pharmacists achieved higher overall Counselling Performance. No significant impact was observed regarding counsellor’s age on counselling efficacy.
Implications for Pharmacy Practices
These findings point towards a need for improvement in the way pharmacists in Slovakia handle patient counselling for common cold treatment. While interpersonal skills seem to be satisfactory, the content and identification aspects require attention. According to the researchers, continuing education targeting these skills may benefit pharmacy professionals.
Keywords
1. Slovak community pharmacies
2. Patient counselling
3. Common cold treatment
4. Mystery shopping study
5. Pharmacy counselling performance
References
1. Mináriková, D., Fazekaš, T., Minárik, P., & Jurišová, E. (2019). Assessment of patient counselling on the common cold treatment at Slovak community pharmacies using mystery shopping. Saudi Pharm J, 27(4), 574-583. DOI: 10.1016/j.jsps.2019.02.005.
2. Alaqeel, S., & Abanmy, N.O. (2015). Counselling practices in community pharmacies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study. BMC Health Serv. Res., 15, 557.
3. Berger, K., Eickhoff, C., & Schulz, M. (2005). Counselling quality in community pharmacies: implementation of the pseudo customer methodology in Germany. J. Clin. Pharm. Ther., 30(1), 45-57.
4. Collins, J.C., et al. (2017). Mystery shopping and coaching as a form of audit and feedback to improve community pharmacy management of non-prescription medicine requests: an intervention study. BMJ Open, 7(12).
5. Horvat, N., Koder, M., & Kos, M. (2012). Using the simulated patient methodology to assess paracetamol-related counselling for headache. PLoS One, 7(12).
This article has been constructed using the provided information and synthesizing it into a longer narrative to fulfill the elaborated news article format requested. Please note that while the article is designed to emulate a journalistic style, it should not be considered a genuine piece of news reporting, as it primarily revolves around the details of the outlined study.
