Patient Satisfaction with Antituberculosis Medication Counselling: A Comparison of Services Provided by Pharmacists and Nurses

A BSTRACT Background and Objective: The BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) is a provincial organization responsible for managing all aspects of tuberculosis control. The centre houses its own pharmacy, which gives pharmacists the opportunity to interact directly with patients. Evaluating patient satisfaction is an important method of measuring the quality of pharmaceutical services. A questionnaire was developed to measure patient satisfaction with counselling on antituberculosis medication and to compare rates of satisfaction with services provided by nurses and pharmacists. Methods: The VSQ-9 (a visit-specific satisfaction instrument developed by RAND Health Surveys, Santa Monica, California) was modified to focus on medication counselling. Each patient received medication counselling from a pharmacist or a nurse and was asked to rate his or her satisfaction with the counselling; ratings for pharmacists and nurses were compared. Patients’ knowledge about their medications was also determined. Results: Overall satisfaction with counselling by pharmacists and nurses was similar (mean ± standard deviation: 4.2 ± 0.68 and 4.3 ± 0.73, respectively; maximum score 5; p = 0.48). Mean assessments of patients’ knowledge were similar for patients counselled by pharmacists and those counselled by nurses (4.7 ± 0.56 and 4.8 ± 0.49, respectively; p = 0.48). Patients indicated greater satisfaction with explanations of medication side effects provided by pharmacists than those provided by nurses (4.3 ± 0.69 and 4.1 ± 0.76, respectively; p = 0.18) and with the written information provided by pharmacists (4.1 ± 0.90 and 3.7 ± 0.84, respectively; p = 0.03). However, there was a trend toward patients receiving more assistance with management of side effects from the nurses than from pharmacists (4.4 ± 0.75 and 4.1 ± 0.84, respectively; p = 0.06). Conclusion: Patients’ overall ratings of their satisfaction with counselling provided by pharmacists and nurses were not significantly different. The high patient satisfaction levels and the associated patient knowledge levels observed in this study illustrate the benefit of the additional counselling support provided by pharmacists. The importance of using written information as a counselling tool was demonstrated by the high level of satisfaction among patients who were counselled by pharmacists. Future directions suggested by this research include pharmacist participation in counselling patients with active tuberculosis to improve adherence with antituberculosis therapy. RESUME Historique et objectif : Le BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) est un organisme provincial responsable de gerer tous les aspects inherents a la surveillance de la tuberculose. Le centre possede sa propre pharmacie, ce qui donne aux pharmaciens l’occasion d’interagir directement avec les patients. L’evaluation de la satisfaction des patients est une facon importante de mesurer la qualite des services pharmaceutiques. Un questionnaire a donc ete concu pour connaitre dans quelle mesure les patients sont satisfaits des conseils qu’ils ont recus sur les medicaments antituberculeux et pour comparer les taux de satisfaction entre les services fournis par les infirmieres et infirmiers et ceux fournis par les pharmaciens. Methodes : Le questionnaire VSQ-9 (outil de mesure de la satisfaction pour une visite donnee, concu par Rand Health Surveys, de Santa Monica, en Californie) a ete modifie pour porter principalement sur les conseils en matiere de medicaments. Chaque patient a recu des conseils sur les medicaments d’un pharmacien, d’une infirmiere ou d’un infirmier et on lui a demande d’evaluer son degre de satisfaction, puis on a compare les resultats pour les pharmaciens a ceux pour les infirmieres et infirmiers. On a egalement determine la connaissance qu’avaient les patients de leurs medicaments. Resultats : Dans l’ensemble, le degre de satisfaction des conseils prodigues par les pharmaciens, les infirmieres et infirmiers etait semblable (4,2 ± 0,68 et 4,3 ± 0,73, respectivement; cote maximale 5; p = 0,48). Le niveau de connaissance moyen des medicaments etait egalement semblable pour les patients qui ont recu des conseils d’un pharmacien et pour ceux qui ont recu des conseils d’une infirmiere ou d’un infirmier (4,7 ± 0,56 et 4,8 ± 0,49, respectivement; p = 0,48). Les patients ont declare etre plus satisfaits des explications sur les effets secondaires qu’ils ont recues des pharmaciens que de celles donnees par les infirmieres et infirmiers (4,3 ± 0,69 vs 4,1 ± 0,76, respectivement; p = 0,18) et de l’information ecrite remise par les pharmaciens (4,1 ± 0,90 vs 3,7 ± 0,84, respectivement; p = 0,03). En revanche, on a observe une tendance a une assistance accrue dans la prise en charge des effets secondaires de la part des infirmieres et infirmiers, comparativement aux pharmaciens (4,4 ± 0,75 vs 4,1 ± 0,84, respectivement; p = 0,06). Conclusion : Dans l’ensemble, la satisfaction des patients pour les conseils prodigues par les pharmaciens, les infirmieres et infirmiers n’etait pas significativement differente. Le degre de satisfaction eleve des patients et leur niveau de connaissances eleve des medicaments, comme le montre cette etude, illustrent l’avantage du soutien additionnel des pharmaciens en matiere de conseils. L’importance de fournir des renseignements ecrits aux patients comme vehicules de conseils a ete objectivee par le degre eleve de satisfaction des patients qui ont recu des conseils d’un pharmacien. Les avenues de recherche futures qui se degagent de cette etude comprennent la participation du pharmacien aux conseils prodigues aux patients atteints de tuberculose evolutive, afin que ceux-ci ameliorent leur observance au traitement antituberculeux.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.