Drug Information Services: The Answer to Your Drug-Related Questions

Drug Information Services: The Answer to Your Drug-Related Questions

 

Patient counseling at the pharmacy counter is an acquired skill. Yes, filling prescriptions accurately and expeditiously is paramount to the community pharmacy profession; however, assuring that the patient understands the therapy is just as critical.
Without a discussion with the pharmacist, the patient leaves the pharmacy with nothing more than the directions on the label and the consumer medication information flyer that may or may not make it into the patient's prescription bag.

Pharmacists play a vital role in the health care system through the medicine and information they provide.

Although drug information(DI) is readily available in books and drug databases accessed via the Internet or personal digital assistants, there are still some situations in which verbal communication with a knowledgeable source is often the quickest strategy for answering clinical questions about medications. A noncommercial, pharmacist-operated drug information service can be a useful information alternative that offers a personalized approach.

The primary goal of a drug information service is to improve patient care by providing objective and unbiased information for drug-related questions. Drug information services are facilities or personnel dedicated to and specializing in the provision of written or oral information about drugs and pharmacotherapy, in response to a request from other health care professionals, organizations, committees, or patients. A drug information expert can estimate how much time may be necessary to perform the research, consider the urgency of the requestor, and prioritize requests. There is no special accreditation or licensing for drug information services; it is the pharmacist who is licensed.

One resource that provides an excellent guide to patient counseling is the ASHP Guidelines on Pharmacist-Conducted Patient Education and Counseling. This document was developed specifically to help pharmacists provide effective patient education and counseling.

 

 

Drug Information Activities

 

To be an effective provider of DI, the pharmacist must exercise excellent oral and written communication skills and be able to

1. Anticipate and evaluate the DI needs of patients and health care professionals;
2. Obtain appropriate and complete background information as described under the section  

Systematic Approach for Responding to Drug InformationRequests;
3. Use a systematic approach to address DI needs by effectively searching, retrieving, and

critically evaluating the literature (i.e., assessment of study design, statistics,bias, limitations,   

applicability); and
4. Appropriately synthesize, communicate, document, and apply pertinent information to the

patient care situation

Answering Drug Information Questions

 

These are the steps you should go through when you are asked a question:

•Step 1: Identify the requester. This will help you get an idea of the depth and detail of information the requester is probably expecting.

•Step 2: Determine and categorize the “real” question. It is remarkably common for the question you are asked to not be the requester’s “real” question. Determining the true question involves answering the question with some questions.     

•Step 3: Choose an appropriate resource (or resources) to consult.

 

Initially, as I approach the pharmacy counseling counter, I ask patients whether they are familiar with the medication their doctor has prescribed, how they are going to take it, and what it is being used for specifically. This is an important step in order to assess the patient's current knowledge of the therapy.
I have developed a simple acronym that helps keep me focused while providing a patient medication counseling session. We all need some sort of tool to help us remember to cover all of the important medication counseling aspects of the specific drug. The acronym I use is DRUG, and it goes as follows:
Dosage: I discuss the dose of the medication, how it should be taken, any specific dosage timing issues, and what to do if the patient misses a dose.
Results: What should the patient expect while taking this medication? How is the drug working in the body, and how can the patient tell if the medication is working? It is also important for the patient to understand the consequences of nonadherence.
Underlying Issues: I present potential issues that the patient needs to be aware of when taking the medication, including:

         Does this medication have any Black Box Warnings?

         Is t patient allergic to this medication?

         Is the patient taking any other medications that may interact with this medication?

          Does his medication have any specific alcohol, grapefruit, or sun sensitivity warnings?

 Does this medication have an effect on any other disease states that the patient may    have?

          Are there any special precautions with the elderly, young, pregnant, or breast feeding patients?

          Are there any other medication specific cautions or precautions that should be discussed?

         General information:  Assess the patient's understanding of the above information. Discuss how to properly store the medication, what to do about refills, how to dispose of unused meds, and assure that the patient knows who to call for questions.

         Speaking as a community pharmacist, many patients rely on us for medication information and education. Therefore, we need to stay current on our understanding of the important counseling topics with each and every medication we dispense, and it is our duty to maintain our skills as patient educators so that we may convey such information in an appropriate manner to our patients.

Source :

 ASHP Guidelines on Pharmacist-Conducted Patient Education and Counseling

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