Exploring pharmacists' communication with customers through screening services.
OBJECTIVE
To describe pharmacist-customer communication, during blood pressure and capillary cholesterol services, in a community pharmacy setting.


METHODS
Participants were purposively selected and data collected by audio-recording. The encounters' verbal content was transcribed verbatim, utterances identified, time stamped, and classified according to a coding scheme of 15 categories. Four dialogue structures were analyzed: speaker turn, interactivity, turn density and turn duration.


RESULTS
Eighty-three episodes were registered (51 blood pressure, 32 cholesterol). The average blood pressure episode lasted 5:35 min, with 81.2 utterances (55.3% customers), and an interactivity rate of 7 turns/min. The average cholesterol episode took 7:05 min, with 135.3 utterances (52.7% pharmacists), and an interactivity rate of 13.3 turns/min. In both cases, pharmacists asked more questions (mainly closed ones), while customers gave more information. An increased number of speaker turns and closed questions were associated to higher systolic pressure. No correlations were identified with cholesterol values.


CONCLUSIONS
It would seem that pharmacists tend to control the exchange and its content through closed questioning. Although talk dominance is balanced, hypertensive episodes induce a higher information search.


CONCLUSIONS
Educational interventions, focusing on pharmacists' communication competencies, should be available to favor interaction skills resulting in a customer's augment of proactive information seeking behaviour.
Cavaco
Afonso M
AM
Social Pharmacy Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, Av Prof Gama Pinto, Lisboa, Portugal. acavaco@ff.ul.pt
Romano
João
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000924:Anticholesteremic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000032:analysis; D003142:Communication; D003157:Community Pharmacy Services; D003376:Counseling; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010358:Patient Participation; D010595:Pharmacists; D011174:Portugal; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D055815:Young Adult
D000924:Anticholesteremic Agents; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents; D002784:Cholesterol