THE ROLE OF PHARMACIST AND PHARMACY TECHNICIAN TEAMS IN PATIENT COUNSELING AND EDUCATION

Abstract

The value of collaborative work in delivering patient education and counseling within hospitals is starting to be appreciated as more and more pharmacists work with pharmacy technicians. In this study we set out to determine at which level the pharmacy-technicians teams could enhance the overall pharmacy services and improve quality of the patients inhaler in a tertiary hospital. We reconducted both quantitative and qualitative data approaches, using survey data together with interviews. The results were encouraging: 65% of patients expressed being very satisfied with the counseling, while 70.8% said they quite understood their instructions on the medications. Most importantly, the duration of the counseling sessions was decreased by 40% because of the cooperation. Qualitative interviews describe greater patient comfort and increased effectiveness of workflows, as well as relative deficiencies concerning role definition and more training for the technicians who were novices. increase both the effectiveness and the quality of the patient who seeks this type of care, although there are some increases that need to be addressed, such as the definition of tasks and further training.