Community Pharmacists' Competence for Educating Asthmatic Patients on the Use of Inhalers and the Peak Flow Meter.

Community pharmacists are readily accessible to patients for counselling services on their disease state, medications and medical devices. Previous studies have reported asthma patients’ poor inhaler techniques. This study evaluated community pharmacists’ competence for educating asthmatic patients on the use of asthma devices. The cross-sectional study was conducted with community pharmacists in Enugu State, Nigeria (May 2017 – July 2017). A 29-item structured self-administered questionnaire assessing information on stock, action plan for pharmacists, interventions with asthma patients and factors influencing these interventions was utilized. Validated checklists assessed inhaler techniques and peak flow meter use, from participants’ demonstrations. Dummy inhalers and peak flow meters were used to teach correct techniques. Of the 116 registered community pharmacists, 62 completed and returned their questionnaires (53.4% participation rate). More than half of the participants were less than 40 years old (63%), male (71.0%), had community pharmacy experience less than 10 years (67.7%). Few of the community pharmacists (3.2%) stocked spacers or peak flow meters. More than half (71%) of the participants claimed to educate patients on correct inhaler techniques but a quarter (24.2%) agreed that they lacked competence to educate on inhaler techniques. Less than half of them (46.8%) were willing to intervene with asthma patients. Summarily, the demonstrated good techniques were: pMDI (35.5%), Accuhaler (29.0%), Turbuhaler (14.5%), pMDI plus spacer (9.7%), peak flow meter (4.8%). The community pharmacists demonstrated poor inhaler techniques and were deficient in the knowledge of peak flow meter use which limited their roles in asthma management

Communication skills and their association with self-reported academic performances of Nigerian pharmacy students

Background. Effective communication is an important attribute for practising pharmacists worldwide. However, little is known about the effects of communication skills on pharmacy students’ academic performances in Nigerian pharmacy schools.Objectives. To identify the distribution of two communication skills, i.e. assertiveness and reticence, among pharmacy students and the association of these skills with the students’ academic performances.Methods. Seven pharmacy schools were randomly sampled in this study. A validated 18-item questionnaire measuring communication constructs, assertiveness and reticence was distributed to eligible students after ethical approval had been obtained. The questionnaire adopted a 5-point Likert scale for responses. Demographic details and self-reported academic performances in the most recent pharmacy examinations were also collected. Descriptive and regression statistics were reported for the distribution of these communication skills and student factors that influence performances, respectively.Results. Pharmacy students (n=1 550) were surveyed. Students were more assertive (mean 3.40) than reticent (mean 3.30) in their communication. Female students were more reticent and less assertive than male students (p≤0.05), but age had no influence on either construct. Being highly assertive was associated with higher grade performances in the three courses examined (p≤0.027 for each course). However, for clinical pharmacy, lower reticence scores were associated with better academic performances (p=0.035). Regression analysis showed that assertive pharmacy students were less likely to report lower grades in all three courses (p≤0.004) and reticent students were more likely to report lower grades in only clinical pharmacy (p=0.042).Conclusions. Assertive and reticent communication skills were present among Nigerian pharmacy students. Being assertive and reticent, as well as students’ gender, age and marital status, were associated with the students’ self-reported academic performances