Interactional issues in the provision of counselling to pharmacy customers

Abstract

Abstract Objective To investigate issues of manner and politeness in encounters between pharmacy staff and their customers. Method Twelve surrogate shoppers (research assistants posing as customers) made 360 visits to pharmacies around New Zealand. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of the accounts they gave of these visits. Setting 180 community pharmacies throughout New Zealand. Key findings Interactional issues were important to the shoppers. They expressed a range of concerns about wanting to feel at ease in pharmacies, to feel confident in the quality of counselling, to feel included and to understand the counselling, privacy issues, and wanting to feel genuine concern from the pharmacy staff. Lack of staff attention to these concerns jeopardised the quality of some interactions. Conclusion We argue that quality interactions are essential conditions for the provision of adequate counselling in pharmacies, and suggest that this is because counselling is not universally accepted as part of pharmacists' role. Pharmacists must make extra efforts to negotiate their role as medication counsellors with customers.