Piloting the Describing and Evaluating community Pharmacy practice to Improve patients' Care and Treatment tool.

Objective: To pilot the Describing and Evaluating community Pharmacy practice to Improve patients' Care and Treatment (DEPICT) tool to determine its utility in collecting data about Australian community pharmacist activities and patient-related encounters.

Methods: DEPICT tool was developed and tested. Two pharmacy students recruited study patients and collected data in four urban pharmacies.

Developing Preliminary Steps in a Pharmacist Communication - Patient Outcome Pathway.

Background: Nonadherence to medication therapy has been associated with poor health outcomes and increased health care costs. The literature describes pharmacists as key health care professionals in identifying and addressing nonadherence issues but does not explain how and why effective pharmacist-patient communication affects patients' medication adherence. Previously published pathways used in linking effective physician-patient communication to patient outcomes are proposed for the context of pharmacist-patient communication.

Using Discursis to enhance the qualitative analysis of hospital pharmacist-patient interactions.

Introduction: Pharmacist-patient communication during medication counselling has been successfully investigated using Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT). Communication researchers in other healthcare professions have utilised Discursis software as an adjunct to their manual qualitative analysis processes. Discursis provides a visual, chronological representation of communication exchanges and identifies patterns of interactant engagement.

Investigating barriers to immunosuppressant medication adherence in renal transplant patients.

Aim: Immunosuppressant medication non-adherence can result in allograft rejection and loss. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of non-adherence and barriers to adherence with immunosuppressant medications, in an adult renal transplant cohort.

Methods: Kidney transplant recipients completed a self-report survey consisting of five validated questionnaires (Basel Assessment of Adherence to Immunosuppressive Medications Scale (BAASIS), Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire, Immunosuppressant Therapy Barrier Scale, Brief-Illness Perception Questionnaire, and Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale), and provided sociodemographic information.

Hospital pharmacists' and patients' views about what constitutes effective communication between pharmacists and patients.

Objectives: The study's objective was to explore hospital pharmacists' and patients' views about what constitutes effective communication exchanges between pharmacists and patients.

Methods: This was a novel theory-based qualitative study using semi-structured interviews to elicit patients' and pharmacists' perspectives. Pharmacists providing clinical pharmacy services in either inpatient or outpatient settings were recruited first.

Investigating strategies used by hospital pharmacists to effectively communicate with patients during medication counselling.

Background: Medication counselling opportunities are key times for pharmacists and patients to discuss medications and patients' concerns about their therapy. Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) describes behavioural, motivational and emotional processes underlying communication exchanges. Five CAT strategies (approximation, interpretability, discourse management, emotional expression and interpersonal control) permit identification of effective communication.

Hospital pharmacists' perceptions of medication counseling: A focus group study.

Background: Medication counseling sessions are key times for a pharmacist to speak to patients about their medications and the changes made to their therapies during their hospital stay.

Objectives: To explore hospital pharmacists' perceptions of their roles and goals in patient medication counseling, and perceived barriers and facilitators to achieving their goals.

Methods: Hospital pharmacist focus groups were held in two tertiary referral hospitals.

Examining hospital pharmacists' goals for medication counseling within the communication accommodation theoretical framework.

Background: Medication counseling opportunities are key times for pharmacists to speak to patients about their medications and any changes made during their hospital stay. Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) posits that an individual's goals drive their communication behavior. The way in which pharmacists communicate with patients may be determined by the goals they set for these medication counseling sessions.

Exploring beliefs about heart failure treatment in adherent and nonadherent patients: use of the repertory grid technique.

Purpose: Beliefs about medicines impact on adherence, but eliciting core beliefs about medicines in individual patients is difficult. One method that has the potential to elicit individual core beliefs is the "repertory grid technique." This study utilized the repertory grid technique to elicit individuals' beliefs about their heart failure treatment and to investigate whether generated constructs were different between adherent and nonadherent patients.