COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS’ COUNSELLING SKILLS ON OVERTHE-COUNTER (OTC) MEDICATIONS

Abstract

Patient counseling is a responsibility of a pharmacist, more so, for a community pharmacist. It has always been attached to the roles and responsibilities of a pharmacist. Patient counselling is a growing demand by patients who purchase medications in pharmacies. In Cebu City, patient counselling has been observed to be rare to none by patients which can be attributed to many reasons. In a study, Issues and Concerns on Utilization of the Pharmacy Workforce in the Philippines by Loquias and Robles (2012), the researchers found that pharmacists in the community setting are hard to fill positions. Pharmacy owners hire even those who have no plans to stay. Due to the fast turnover of pharmacists, training and development has become more costly for owners. This could mean unavailability of pharmacists in the drugstore at certain times of the year to provide counseling service. The community pharmacists are expected to do managerial tasks such as purchasing and inventory, sales monitoring, and even personnel supervision which takes up most of the shift hours of the pharmacists. Patient counseling takes a backseat and is only provided when patients asks for it. In a study on Assessment of Community Pharmacists Willingness and Barriers of Medication Therapy Management (MTM) Focused on Pain Management and Mental Health by Keller, et al. (2014), community pharmacists strongly agreed that they will benefit from additional training on pain and depression medication management. This is the expressed concern community pharmacists in the United States of America who have a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree and adequate training to manage patients.