Communication Skills in Pharmacy Practice

Communication in the context of patient care. Part 1 What is communication?: principles and elements of interpersonal communication - setting the stage, components of the interpersonal communication model, in search of the meaning of the message, words and their context, congruence between verbal & nonverbal messages, preventing misunderstanding, using feedback to check the meaning of the message toward the improvement of communication; perception and communication - the importance of perception, sharing the same perception, using feedback to check perceptions, perceptions, credibility, and persuasion; nonverbal communication in pharmacy - nonverbal versus verbal communication, kinesics, proxemics, environmental nonverbal factors, distracting nonverbal communication, detecting nonverbal cues in others, overcoming distracting nonverbal factors; barriers in communication - why barriers?, environmental barriers, personal barriers, patient barriers, adminstrative and financial barriers, time barriers. Part 2 Practical skills for pharmacists: listening and empathetic responding - listening well, empathetic responding, attitudes underlying empathy, nonverbal aspects of listening, reflection of feelings statements; assertiveness - defining assertiveness, theoretical foundations, assertiveness and patients, assertiveness and physicians, assertiveness and employees; assertiveness and employers; assertiveness and colleagues. Part 3 Putting it all together: interviewing and assessment - patient assessment and educational diagnosis, essential skills in effective interviewing, interviewing as a process, interviewing using the telephone; how to build better patient understanding - pharmacists reluctance to assess understanding, false assumptions about patient understanding, techniques to assess patient understanding, techniques to improve patient understanding, changing behaviour after changing understanding; communications in special situations - older adults, speech impairments as barriers to communication, terminally ill patients, patients with mental health problems, care givers; ethical patient care - ethical principles, patient provider relationship, development of moral reasoning, resolving ethical dilemmas. Epilogue: practice and self awareness.