2021 Volume 5 Article ID: 2020-040
In 2001, Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) people started to be legally permitted to obtain a license to practice pharmacy in Japan. Since then, the number of license holders has continued to increase, and there have been some DHH students who enrolled in colleges of pharmacy. Understanding the role of DHH people who obtained a license as a pharmacist and entered the workforce would help us better understand how meaningful it is to provide pharmaceutical education for DHH students. According to the author, it is important for pharmacists who are DHH to be empowered to educate hearing medical professionals regarding communication challenges so that DHH patients and licensed pharmacists experience can help to address communication challenges. Both DHH patients and DHH pharmacists experience communication challenges with hearing medical professionals because of a lack of knowledge about Deaf culture and sign language. There continues to be communication challenges between DHH patients and hearing medical professionals as well as between DHH pharmacists and hearing medical professionals. In this article, we will identify communication challenges and discuss actions that can be done to address the challenges. It is my hope that “Deaf and Hard of Hearing” and “Japanese Sign Language” issues will be discussed in term of Cultural Model in pharmaceutical education to train students on how to learn communication skills that can be used when giving medication counseling to DHH patients and when working with DHH licensed pharmacists.
