Question:

Assessment Task (Essay).

An essay will be required for the assessment task.

This essay will explain how mastery in professional communication skills and the observation of professionalism contributes to excellent patient care by pharmacists.

You should describe professional communication and professionalism in the first half. Refer to academic literature to support your definitions.

The second section of your essay must show how you can incorporate these two concepts. It should also demonstrate how they contribute to optimal patient treatment. Refer back to academic literature to support your writing.

Answer to Question: PHAR1003 Non-Prescription Medications And Self-Care

Introduction

Commonly called druggists/chemists, pharmacists work as healthcare professionals to ensure safe and effective medication administration.

Their main responsibility includes understanding the mechanisms of action of many drugs, their therapeutic roles, potential contraindications, potential side effects, potential patient monitoring parameters and possible contraindications (American College of Clinical Pharmacy 2014.

Each day, pharmacists must communicate effectively with patients, physicians, office staff, employees and others under pressure.

This essay will examine professional communication skills that pharmacists need to deliver optimal patient care.

Professional Communication and Professionalism

Professional communication encompasses visual, oral, written and digital communication within a workplace.

This particular discipline is based in a multitude of pedagogical concepts that include software, learning theory and rhetoric technology (Arnold & Boggs 2015.

Due to the fact that work involves writing, speaking, listening, reading, writing, computer research, and all other forms of communication, communication skills are crucial for any particular business.

There is growing evidence to show that poor communication leads to many problems in a work environment and acts as an impediment in the flow and advice of decisions, opinions, and ideas. This can prevent employees from achieving their desired target (Wagner & Roos (2015)).

This means that any written or spoken communication that allows an individual’s receivers to know him is professional communication.

Pharmacists use short reports to present their case studies, laboratory reports or interim reports. They also use proposals and website-based electronic delivery (Bhatia & Bremner (2014)).

Due attention should be given to information accuracy, perspective, and desired result.

The communication must also be concise and straight to the point.

Another aspect of professional communication within the area of professionalism is that all information must be clear and concise (DiSanza & Legge, 2016).

Professional communicators are expected to be clear about the message and remain focused on the goal of their statement.

It is a known fact that multiple issues can cause confusion and chaos. This can then pose a risk to sound management.

It is important to remember that stakeholders across all levels of an organization can report different needs, desires, or interests.

Pharmacists must be able adjust communication needs to suit the needs of patients.

Integration of Professional Communication to Optimal Care for Patients

Given the fact that professionalism is a valuable asset in the workplace, it’s imperative to incorporate the concepts of professionalism and professional communication into the job of pharmacists.

Olsson, et al.

Olsson et.al. (2014) state that one of the most important ways to accomplish the same is to follow all the rules and expectations associated with the pharmacist’s job.

The pharmacists will not need to be supervised by healthcare professionals. However, they can demonstrate self-management skills and work independently. This will allow them to communicate with their patients.

A professional’s success is dependent on personal responsibility (Bergman (2016)

This means pharmacists need to be committed to making changes in the area for safe and effective medicine.

It will be easier for pharmacists to feel responsible and take control of their actions. This will make it easier for them to communicate effectively.

Research has shown that patients’ perceptions regarding the quality of healthcare services they receive are largely influenced by the way they interact with clinicians (Roche & Kelliher 2014.).

A pharmacist must integrate professional communication with his job. He or she must establish a rapport with patients and show a willingness to help them by prescribing the medications.

This will result in improved patient health and compliance to pharmacist recommendations.

The World Health Organisation has identified pharmacists as an important part of training future pharmacists. They are required to assume the role and responsibility of communicators (WHO, 2019).

A pharmacist’s role has increased in a patient-centered manner. This makes communication essential.

A way to integrate professional communications is by changing the tone or vocabulary to make it easier for patients to absorb the information (Luetsch & Rowett (2015)).

The best way to help patients understand the risks and potential benefits of medication is to avoid using medical jargon.

It is important to understand the patients’ disease experience, as well as treat them with dignity, respect, and compassion.

Patient empowerment is key to ensuring optimal patient outcomes. Patients must be empowered to make informed decisions regarding their care and treatment.

Part of building a partnership with patients is recognising and accepting the biases, perceptual values, and assumptions of pharmacists. This will in turn improve patient outcomes (Liaw.

Although communication is essential to professionalism, there might be misunderstandings if pharmacists are not able to communicate clearly.

Murad Chatterley and Guirguis (2014) believe that prompts, open-ended questioning, and probing the patients will allow pharmacists to clarify what the medication information is.

A pharmacist who allows patients to share their worries and fears regarding medicine usage can help achieve the best possible patient outcome.

The pharmacists should also practice paraphrasing the information and summarizing it to avoid misinterpretation.

Conclusion

As patients have different levels of understanding and education, pharmacists must often engage in hurried interactions, leaving the receivers confused.

Being able to communicate effectively with patients and execute medicine reviews will allow pharmacists to perform complex tasks, such as encouraging them to take their medicines to the doctor.

Excellent communication skills are essential for pharmacists to communicate with patients and assess their understanding.

Pharmacists can also use a customized approach to help patients make better choices. This in turn will improve patient outcomes.

References

American College of Clinical Pharmacy. (2014).

The standards of clinical pharmacy practice.

Pharmacotherapy. The Journal of Human Pharmacology and Drug Therapy. 34(8): 794-797.Antunes, L. P., Gomes, J. J., & Cavaco, A. M. (2015).

How pharmacist-patient communication influences pharmacy loyalty Modeling relevant factors.

Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy. 11(4), 560-570.Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2015).

Interpersonal relationships. Professional communication skills for nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.Bergman, A. A., Jaynes, H. A., Gonzalvo, J. D., Hudmon, K. S., Frankel, R. M., Kobylinski, A. L., & Zillich, A. J. (2016).

The expansion of the pharmacist-physician role in pharmaceutical communication and its developments.

Health communication, 31(2) 161-170.Bhatia, V., & Bremner, S. (Eds.). (2014).

Routledge Handbook of Language and Professional Communication. Routledge.DiSanza, J. R., & Legge, N. J. (2016).

Business and professional communications: Processes, performance, and plans. Pearson.Liaw, S. Y., Zhou, W. T., Lau, T. C., Siau, C., & Chan, S. W. C. (2014).

Interprofessional communication training that uses simulation to enhance safe and effective care for a deteriorating patients.

Nurse Education Today, 34(2). 259-264.Luetsch, K., & Rowett, D. (2015).

Interprofessional communication training: Benefits to pharmacists.

International journal on clinical pharmacy 37(5), 857-864.Murad, M. S., Chatterley, T., & Guirguis, L. M. (2014).

A meta-narrative study of recorded interactions between patient and pharmacist: Exploring biomedical communication or patient-centered communication.

Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy 10, 1, 1-20.Olsson, E., Ingman, P., Ahmed, B., & Sporrong, S. K. (2014).

Communication between pharmacists in Swedish community pharmacies.

Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy 10, 149-155.Roche, C., & Kelliher, F. (2014).

Giving “best advise”: Proposing guidelines for professional judgements of community pharmacists. Pharmacy, 2(1), 74-85.Wagner, J. D., Bezuidenhout, M. C., & Roos, J. H. (2015).

Communication satisfaction of public hospital nurses.

Journal of nursing management 23(8), 974-982.

World Health Organization. (2019).

The Role of the Pharmacist within the Health Care System. Retrieved from https://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Jh2995e/1.5.html