Assessment of Communication Barriers in Community Pharmacies

• Published in: Evaluation & the health professions 2003-12, Vol.26 (4), p.380-403
• Main Authors: Paluck, Elan C., Green, Lawrence W., Frankish, C. James, Fielding, David W., Haverkamp, Beth
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Attitude of Health Personnel; British Columbia; Communication (Thought Transfer); Communication Barriers; Communication style; Community Pharmacy Services - standards; Community Pharmacy Services - statistics & numerical data; Community Pharmacy Services - utilization; Drug Prescriptions; Drug stores; Evaluation; Female; Health administration; Health technology assessment; Humans; Interpersonal communication; Male; Middle Aged; Multiple Regression Analysis; Patients; Pharmacies; Pharmacist-Patient communication; Pharmacists; Pharmacists - standards; Pharmacists - statistics & numerical data; Pharmacy Administration; Professional-Patient Relations; Prospective Studies; Regression Analysis; Reproducibility of Results; Surveys and Questionnaires; Verbal Behavior
• ISSN: 0163-2787; 1552-3918
• DOI: 10.1177/0163278703258104

This study identified previously reported facilitators and barriers to pharmacist-client communication and then evaluated their impact on the observed communication behaviors of pharmacists. Pharmacists (n = 100) completed a seven-page questionnaire collecting information on 11 variables that had been organized according to the Policy, Regulatory and Organizational Constructs in Educational and Ecological Development (PROCEDE) model as predisposing, enabling, or reinforcing of pharmacist communication with their clients. Demographic variables also were included. “Communication quality” served as the study’s dependent variable, whereas pharmacist responses served as the independent variables. Communication quality scores for each pharmacist were obtained from the analysis of 765 audio recordings of verbal exchanges occurring between the study pharmacists and their consenting clients during 4-hour, on-site observation periods. Four of the variables examined in the study were found to share a unique relationship with communication quality (pharmacists’ attitude, year of graduation, adherence expectations, and outcome expectations). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that the variables measured in the questionnaire accounted for 23% of the variance in communication quality scores. Plausible explanations for why the study was unable to capture more of the variance in its proposed relationships and future areas for research are provided.