Counselling practices in an East Javan district, Indonesia: what information is commonly gathered by pharmacy staff?

Abstract

Abstract Counselling by pharmacy staff plays a key role in ensuring the quality use of medications in community settings. Information gathering is the first step and an essential part of counselling. Yet, data on information gathering during counselling in Indonesia is lacking. Objective To identify pharmacy staff’s practice of counselling and information gathered during counselling in an East Javan district, Indonesia. Methods A survey questionnaire was conducted in community-based health facilities in the district (i.e. 3 hospital outpatient clinics, 69 community pharmacies and 24 Community Health Centres [CHCs]); one health facility was represented by one pharmacy staff. Quantitative content analysis was used to summarise data regarding information gathering. Key findings Sixty-six pharmacy staff responded, giving a 69% response rate. Almost all staff reported providing counselling; those at CHCs and outpatient clinics mostly provided prescription medicine counselling (95.5% and 100.0%, respectively), while those at community pharmacies mostly provided non-prescription medicine counselling (symptom-based versus product-based requests: 94.9% versus 71.8%, respectively). For non-prescription counselling, the most frequent information gathered was details of symptoms (symptoms-based versus product-based requests: 97.3% versus 75.0%, respectively). While for prescription medication counseling, pharmacy staff mostly asked the patient’s identity (76.2%). Less than 20% of the pharmacy staff for non-prescription/prescription medication counselling gathered information on concurrent medications or history of allergies or adverse drug reactions. Conclusions Pharmacy staff in these Indonesian settings provided prescription/non-prescription counselling to some extent. Improved information gathering skills are required for effective counselling, especially for prescription medications, thus ensuring rational drug use among Indonesians.