title: Pharmacist and general practitioner ambivalence about providing written medicine information to patients-a qualitative study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Written medicine information is an important aspect of patient education, increasing patient knowledge and satisfaction. It can play an important role in promoting education, communication, and improving health literacy. In Australia, standardized, comprehensive written medicine information is available for all medicines. Patients' want such written information, however they report it is generally not supplied or there is limited interaction between healthcare professionals and patients when provided.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  A qualitative study was conducted to explore the opinions and attitudes of healthcare professionals toward the use of written medicine information in practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study involved focus groups with 32 general practitioners (4 groups), 29 community pharmacists (4 groups) and 7 hospital pharmacists (1 group) in Sydney and rural New South Wales. All discussions were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic content analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Across the groups, professionals were aware of patients' needs for medicine information, but provision to patients in practice appeared the exception rather than the rule. Common reasons for non-provision were lack of time, possible creation of patient anxiety, low literacy, and perceived length and complexity of the information. Many desired more balanced information for patients on both benefits and risks. Most felt current materials were not useful information-sharing tools; some perceived that it undermined their relationship with patients. Improvement strategies proposed included increased consultation times and improved quality of the information.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Participants were ambivalent about supplying written medicine information to their patients and concerned about its impact on the patient-provider relationship. This contributed to limited provision, despite the information being available for all medicines. A tailored approach to meet individual patient information preferences, together with efforts to support professionals as facilitators of information may increase written medicine information utilization as an information-sharing tool to improve health literacy and patient engagement.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Pharmacy, The University of Sydney, Pharmacy and Bank Building A15, NSW 2006, Australia. Electronic address: kim.hamrosi@sydney.edu.au.
authors.forename: Kim K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Hamrosi
authors.forename: David K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Raynor
authors.forename: Parisa
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Aslani
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D058005:General Practitioners; D058015:Health Communication; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009517:New South Wales; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010361:Patients; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D010595:Pharmacists; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
keywords: Barriers; Facilitators; Health literacy; Healthcare professionals; Information sharing; Patient education; Written medicine information