The use of consultation skills assessment tools in pharmacist-patient consultations

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Abstract
Objective The consultations assessed in this study occurred as part of a larger randomised controlled trial (the HeartMed trial) which was evaluating the impact of home visits by pharmacists to patients with heart failure. Pharmacists are increasingly being expected to take on roles involving extended interviews with patients, but while the doctor-patient consultation has been well researched, such analysis has rarely been undertaken in pharmacy practice. The aim of this study was to analyse the consultation skills used by pharmacists using two validated consultation skills assessment tools (the Henbest and Stewart rating scale and the SEGUE score), and to assess the applicability of these tools to the pharmacist-patient consultation. Setting The study involved pharmacist consultations with patients who were aged over 18 years, living in independent accommodation and were prescribed two or more medicines taken on at least a daily basis. These patients were recruited to the HeartMed trial during an acute admission to hospital with heart failure, and were visited by a pharmacist during the first six weeks following hospital discharge. Method The pharmacist-patient consultations were tape-recorded, transcribed and evaluated using two different consultation skills tools — the Henbest and Stewart rating scale which assesses ‘patient centredness’ and the SEGUE score which assesses the content of the consultation. Key findings Both consultation skills tools were easily applied to the pharmacist-patient consultations. The pharmacists scored well on both the tools despite relatively little formal training. Conclusions Existing consultation skills tools can be used to assess pharmacist-patient consultations.