Counseling

Patients are pretty finicky people. Pharmacists are expected to counsel every patient under certain laws that are currently for the most part ignored because of this. You know those forms you're always signing when you pick up medications? You're signing away your right to be counseled, and rarely are you being properly informed of what you're signing.

Given that the average reading level of Medicaid patients is below fifth grade, we can't count on people figuring out what things mean. 42% of Americans can't comprehend directions for taking a medication on an empty stomach. 86% don't understand the rights and responsibilities section of a Medicaid application. Not surprising as that government forms are not known for being easy to comprehend to anyone that's ever done their taxes. In any case, it's clear that patient counseling is very important in modern America with so many people unable to understand what they read alone.

It's certainly uncomfortable to health care professionals just starting out to learn how to counsel, but particularly pharmacists. Many shy people go to pharmacy school hoping to never have to talk to patients. Hardly the case, pharmacists are likely the most accessable health professional because they don't charge a fee to counsel patients about any health matter under the sun and the people with the most health problems, the elderly, often see pharmacists more often than their doctors.

It's important that patients know about their medications so they actually take them, and take them correctly. When the bottle says no alcohol, it should be pretty clear to avoid alcohol at all costs. There's relatively complex science at work with drug action that no one but pharmacists really want to know anything about including the mechanisms of drug metabolism and elimination. The point is, people are more likely to listen to an actual person than what they read if they have difficulty reading. They don't need to understand the complexities of the matter, only the important message that results in the same way that you don't really need to know how a car creates kinetic energy to drive it.

Medical professionals need to start taking better care of their patients. They're not entirely to blame. The government has consistently decreased funding to the point that general practitioners are overburdened and thus are limited in time. Pharmacists hare filling more and more prescriptions and have less time to talk to patients. These are almost valid excuses, but there's a reason that technology exists to help with this, as well as Physician Assistants and Pharmacy Technicians.

All this to say that counseling should really be the focus of most medical professionals today. People want to feel in control of their lives, and counseling helps with that by including the patient in the treatment process.