For the delivery of effective patient-centred care services, pharmacists must redefine their relationship with patients. Enhanced patient engagement, communication and consultation skills are all central.

Good provider-patient relationships enable patients to ask questions, reach agreement about the problem and the need for follow up, and can facilitate decision sharing with other providers.

To grow ‘social authority’ as a healthcare professional, it is important to be able to use effective communication and consultation skills to probe patients’ attitudes towards medicine use, subjective perceptions of health or illness, and fears and concerns about therapy, and so on.

Pharmacists must take the initiative to engage more patients in professional discussion, rather than speaking only with those who ask for advice.

The ability of the pharmacist and other staff to enhance their consultation skills is central to a patient-centred service and collaborative approach. Anyone involved in giving advice to patients and customers must be able to communicate effectively, gain trust and engage in a two-way discussion about the patient’s condition and treatments. Research suggests that this approach will make patients more likely to be adherent to and satisfied with their medication regime.

Pharmacists are also likely to enjoy greater job satisfaction and experience a sense of professional autonomy by utilising key professional skills working this way. A patient- centred service approach can also enhance customer loyalty and differentiate a pharmacy from its competitors.

A strong set of consultation skills will enable you and your team to encourage patients to consider outcomes, ask questions and clarify preferences. Better consultations focus less on a single problem and solution, and are more interactive in nature. Sharing expertise between the health professional and the patient also allows for more informed decisions to be made.

Back in 2014, the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education and Health Education England joined forces to launch an initiative to help pharmacists and pharmacy technicians enhance their communication and consultation skills. Consultation Skills for Pharmacy Practice is a set of practice standards highlighting the skills, behaviours, knowledge and attitudes that pharmacy professionals should be able to demonstrate when communicating and consulting with patients.
The consultation standards are structured around a number of areas:

• The management of patient - centred consultations
• Context-specific skills
• Delivering a comprehensive approach to patient care
• Understanding the health needs of your local population
• Essential features that relate to you as a pharmacy professional.

The guidance emphasises the fact that excellent organisational and management skills are central to successful consultations (see table, left). It encourages pharmacists to adopt a ‘health coach’ approach to consultations and to support patients so they ‘own’ their health goals. This has been shown to enhance the likelihood of patient behavioural change.