抄録
The objective of this study was to grasp patients' thoughts and feelings that are directly linked to their medication nonadherence. We provided communication skill training to pharmacists, focusing on observation of patients' expressions. The training encourages pharmacists to observe patients while providing explanations and ask open-ended questions in response to changes in the patient's expressions. The participants were 51 pharmacists. Significant improvements were seen after the training in both the recognition rate of changes in patients' expressions and the acquisition rate of new data from patients after asking open-ended questions. Open-ended questions accompanied by observation led to a significantly higher acquisition rate of new patient data compared with open-ended questions alone. More detailed data regarding problem-oriented medical record was provided in patients' subjective data after the training, and consequently, significantly improved the quality of pharmacists' care; for instance, this improvement included encouraging the development of more suitable care plans for patients. In addition, the results of the patient questionnaire showed almost all patients, including those who said that they were not normally able to do so, could ask questions or consult the pharmacist after the training. The most common reason given for this was that “the atmosphere was conducive to asking questions and there were opportunities to do so.” These findings suggest that when pharmacists observe changes in patients' expressions for the purpose of asking open-ended questions, more attention is given to the patients, thereby promoting a more comfortable atmosphere and creating more opportunities for patients to ask questions.
