Exploring beliefs about heart failure treatment in adherent and nonadherent patients: use of the repertory grid technique

William Neil Cottrell,1 Charles P Denaro,2,3 Lynne Emmerton1,41School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia; 2Department of Internal Medicine and Aged Care, The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane, Qld, Australia; 3School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia; 4Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, School of Pharmacy, Curtin University, Perth, WA, AustraliaPurpose: Beliefs about medicines impact on adherence, but eliciting core beliefs about medicines in individual patients is difficult. One method that has the potential to elicit individual core beliefs is the "repertory grid technique." This study utilized the repertory grid technique to elicit individuals' beliefs about their heart failure treatment and to investigate whether generated constructs were different between adherent and nonadherent patients.Methods: Ninety-two patients with heart failure were interviewed using a structured questionnaire that applied the repertory grid technique. Patients were asked to compare and contrast their medicines and self-care activities for their heart failure. This lead to the generation of individual constructs (perceptions towards medicines), and from these, beliefs were elicited about their heart failure treatment, resulting in the generation of a repertory grid. Adherence was measured using the Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS). Patients with a MARS score ≥ 23 were categorized as "adherent" and those with a score ≤ 22 as "nonadherent." The generated grids were analyzed descriptively and constructs from all grids themed and the frequency of these constructs compared between adherent and nonadherent patients.Results: Individual grids provided insight into the different beliefs that patients held about their heart failure treatment. The themed constructs "related to water," "affect the heart," "related to weight," and "benefit to the heart" occurred more frequently in adherent patients compared with nonadherent patients.Conclusion: The repertory grid technique elicited beliefs of individual participants about the treatment of their heart failure. Constructs from self-reported adherent patients were more likely to reflect that their medicines and self-care activities were related to water and weight, and affect and benefit to the heart. Providing clinicians with better insight into individuals' beliefs about their treatment may facilitate the development of tailored interventions to improve adherence.Keywords: adherence, heart failure, repertory grid, beliefs, treatmen

Hospital pharmacists’ and patients’ views about what constitutes effective communication between pharmacists and patients

202304 bcwwAccepted ManuscriptSelf-fundedPublishe

Developing preliminary steps in a pharmacist communication – patient outcome pathway

202304 bcwwAccepted ManuscriptSelf-fundedPublishe

Investigating strategies used by hospital pharmacists to effectively communicate with patients during medication counselling

2016-2017 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journal201812_a bcma; bcrcVersion of RecordPublishe

Assessing communication behaviours of hospital pharmacists : how well do the perspectives of pharmacists, patients, and an independent observer align?

202304 bcwwAccepted ManuscriptSelf-fundedPublishe

Chronicles of a primary care practice pharmacist

Christopher R Freeman,1 W Neil Cottrell,1 Greg Kyle,2 Ian D Williams,3 Lisa M Nissen11School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; 2Faculty of Health, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia; 3Camp Hill Healthcare, Camp Hill, Brisbane, AustraliaBackground: In 2009, a pharmacist commenced working in a nondispensing role at a primary care medical center located in a metropolitan suburb of Brisbane, Australia. Research into the role and function of a practice pharmacist in this setting is still in its infancy.Methods: Ethnographic methods were used over a 3-month period to record activities undertaken by the practice pharmacist on a daily basis.Results: During the 3-month period, 296 hours of activity were documented. Activities the practice pharmacist performed most frequently included medication review, “pharmaceutical opinion,” student supervision, drug information, and administrative tasks.Conclusion: This study demonstrates the broad range of activities which were conducted by a practice pharmacist in the primary care setting as part of a multidisciplinary team.Keywords: practice pharmacist, general practice, integration, medical cente

Exploring the beliefs of heart failure patients towards their heart failure medicines and self care activities

Aim To identify Heart Failure patients' beliefs towards their medications and how these beliefs relate to adherence. Method Patients attending a multi-disciplinary, community based heart failure clinic on the Gold Coast, Australia were interviewed using a questionnaire composed of fours parts: repertory grid technique; Beliefs About Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ); Medicines Adherence Reporting Scale (MARS); demographic details. Patients were divided into those categorised as adherent (MARS score a parts per thousand yen 23) and those categorised as non-adherent (MARS score < 23). Necessity beliefs scores from BMQ and the frequency of statements generated from the repertory grid portion of the questionnaire were compared between these two groups. Results Forty-three patients were interviewed with a mean age (+/- SD) of 64 (+/- 17) years and thirty-six (83.7 %) were male. Thirty-seven (86.0 %) patients were categorised as adherent; the remaining six (14.0 %) as non-adherent. The 43 patients generated a total of 262 statements about their medicines. The three most common themes identified were Related to fluid (36.6 %), Helps the heart (31.7 %) and Related to weight (13.7 %). There was a significantly higher median necessity score in the adherent group compared to the non adherent group (22.0 vs. 19.5, p = 0.0272). Patients with a strong necessity score also had significantly higher self reported adherence compared to patients with a strong concerns score (21.5 vs. 18.0, p = 0.006). Conclusion This study suggests that patients with heart failure possessing a strong belief in the necessity of their treatment regimen are more likely to demonstrate better adherence