Communication and relationship building in pharmacy education: Experiences from a student-patient buddy project.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: In order to deliver patient-centred pharmaceutical care, pharmacy students need to develop the appropriate competences and skills. During their regular study program, they have limited long-term patient contact. We therefore implemented a student-patient buddy project to give students opportunity to practice and learn from the patient contact. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: A student-patient buddy project was implemented in a 10-week first-year master experiential learning course, including a community pharmacy internship. The pharmacist paired the student with a community-dwelling patient. Student learning activities included: (1) three meetings at the university to prepare and discuss buddy contact moments, (2) three buddy contact moments, (3) discussion with the internship providing pharmacist, and (4) a written reflection report. FINDINGS: In total, 66 students participated from April to June 2021. Most students found patient contact fun and a useful learning experience. Students mentioned that patients were very open and there was opportunity to build a relationship. The first conversation was experienced as exciting and sometimes difficult. Understanding the person was perceived as important. Internship pharmacists were positive about the project and saw learning benefits for students, as well as added value for the pharmacy, mainly because patients seemed to appreciate the contact. SUMMARY: A student-patient buddy project is a good way to expand the limited long-term "real" patient care experiences of pharmacy students. This enables them to practice communication and building relationships with patients.

Health literacy of patients admitted for elective surgery.

AIM: Patients with limited health literacy have poorer surgical outcomes. However, current studies assessing the prevalence of limited health literacy in patients expecting surgery are small scale. We aimed to provide insight into the health literacy level of patients undergoing planned surgery. SUBJECT AND METHODS: Patients aged ≥18 years visiting the preoperative screening department were approached in the waiting area and invited to participate in a brief interview including the Functional Communicative Critical Health Literacy (FCCHL). RESULTS: In total, 225 patients (84.9% response) were studied. Based on the FCCHL, 37.3% of the patients were classified as having limited health literacy. The mean score in the critical domain (2.7 ± 0.9) was lower than scores in the functional (3.3 ± 0.6) and communicative (3.3 ± 0.6) domains. CONCLUSION: More than one third of the patients admitted to the hospital for surgery had limited health literacy. Healthcare professionals should be aware of the different health literacy levels and tailor their information provision strategies accordingly.

Association between concomitant psychiatric drug use, and patients' beliefs about and persistence with chronic cardiovascular medication.

OBJECTIVE: Psychiatric disorders are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and may result in additional risk of non-adherence. No data on the influence of concomitant psychiatric drug use on patients' beliefs and persistence related to cardiovascular medication are available. The objective of this study was to assess to what extent the use of concomitant psychiatric drugs is associated with patients' beliefs about and persistence with chronic cardiovascular medication. METHODS: An observational study in patients using cardiovascular medication was conducted. A mailed questionnaire containing socio-demographical questions and a measure of beliefs about medication (Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire - specific) was sent to patients selected from fifteen participating pharmacies. Persistence was evaluated based on pharmacy records. RESULTS: Of the 1547 included patients, 551 responded to key questions in the questionnaire and were included for beliefs about medication analysis. In concomitant users of psychiatric drugs significantly higher necessity (17.0 vs. 16.0) and higher concerns (14.3 vs. 13.3), as well as higher proportion of ambivalent (34.5% vs. 25.6%) and lower proportion of indifferent patients (24.1% vs. 33.0%) were found compared with non-users (p < 0.05). 65.2% (n = 1009) of patients were persistent on all their cardiovascular drugs. There was no significant association between concomitant use of psychiatric drugs and non-persistence (OR = 1.2; 95% CI 0.9-1.5). CONCLUSION: Concomitant use of psychiatric drugs was found to be associated with increased beliefs about the necessity of and concerns about cardiovascular medication. Clinicians caring for cardiovascular patients should give additional attention to identifying patients' beliefs about medication among those concomitantly using psychiatric drugs.