Make older patients comfortable If you have the space available, try and provide at least one seat in the pharmacy for elderly patients to sit on. Sometimes they will simply need to sit and rest after perhaps walking to the pharmacy or, on occasion, may feel unwell. also ensure that toilet facilities are available for their use.


Take the time to establish rapport Make the effort to know the names of your elderly patients and address them when they come into the pharmacy. Remember that you may be the only person that that patient speaks to during the day.


With new patients, try asking a few questions to show that you are interested in getting to know them, such as, ‘Have you just moved into the area?’ or ‘Do you have family here?’


Regular patients will appreciate it if you remember some detail of a previous conversation with them.


Speak to them face to face Often, older patients have vision and hearing loss, and reading your lips may be crucial for them to receive the information correctly, so make sure you are standing directly in front of them. Research has shown that there is better patient compliance with treatment recommendations when the healthcare provider is face to face with the patient while offering information about a specific illness.


Maintain eye contact eye contact is one of the most direct and powerful forms of non- verbal communication. By maintaining eye contact, you’re not only telling the patient that you are interested in them and that they can trust you, it also makes the patient feel more comfortable and may enable them to ‘open up’ about a health issue, providing you with additional information.


Use active listening skills The most common complaint that patients often have about healthcare providers is that they don’t listen, so really make the effort to listen to what older patients are telling you. While the patient is speaking to you, use frequent, brief responses, such as ‘Okay’, ‘yes, I see’ and ‘uh-huh’. This creates empathy and makes the


patient feel that you understand their concerns. various studies have shown that clinical empathy can be learned and practised and that it actually adds less than a minute to the consultation with the patient.


Avoid medical jargon Don’t ever presume that patients understand medical terminology or, indeed, that they know much about their health issues.


It can be a good first step to introduce necessary information by first asking patients what they know about their condition. Lack of knowledge about a disease or condition can often cause extra stress and worry for patients, so explain clearly and simply how their condition will affect them and what their medication is designed to do. Check often to make sure that the patient understands what you are saying.


again, use short, simple words and sentences and avoid medical jargon or technical terms that may be difficult for a layperson to comprehend.


To build on the information you provide for the patient, it may be a good idea to supplement this with leaflets or printed out information that they can take home with them to read in their own time. They can then revert to you for clarification or explanation at a later date.


Write down take-away points It can often be difficult for elderly patients to remember everything that you have explained about their condition, so it may be a good idea, if leaflets etc are not available, to write down a few notes that they can take home and read at their leisure. This can be particularly beneficial when it comes to issues such as how and when they take their medication. Make sure that the language you use is simple and clear and is unambiguous. For example, instead of writing ‘increase fluids’, you could write ‘drink at least half a litre of water every two hours’.


By following these simple steps, lines of communication between yourself and your patient will become clearly defined and will bring rewards in terms of patient satisfaction, understanding, and adherence to treatment.


pHaRMaCy IN FOCuS - 45


Dealing with hearing and visual difficulties It goes without saying that elderly people are often troubled by hearing loss and visual disorders, so it’s important to ensure that your pharmacy is equipped to deal with difficulties that elderly patients face.


Hearing difficulties It is estimated that about one quarter of people between the ages of 65 and 75, and half of those over the age of 75 have disabling hearing loss. Here are a few tips to make it easier to communicate with a person who has lost some hearing: • If the patient seems to be having difficulty hearing you, ask if they have access to a hearing aid.


• If you have a consultation room, ask the patient if they would like you to look into their auditory canal to see if there is any excess earwax present.


•Make sure that, even if hearing difficulties are present, you continue to speak slowly and clearly in a normal tone. Don’t raise your voice as it distorts various language sounds and can actually give the impression that you are angry.


• Face the patient at eye level to ensure that they can lip-read or pick up visual clues.


• Don’t put your hands in front of your face while you’re talking as this will hinder the patient’s ability to lip-read.


• If there is background noise, such as printers operating or telephones ringing, ask the patient to move to a quieter area of the pharmacy.


• If necessary, write down what you’ve told the patient so that they can take it with them.


Dealing with visual difficulties visual disorders obviously become more common as people get older. Here are a few tips as to how you can help patients manage the difficulties caused by visual deficits: •Make sure there is adequate lighting in the pharmacy. In particular, ensure that there is sufficient light on your face.


• If you are trying to show a patient a particular medication etc, check if they have brought their glasses with them.


• If you do make notes for them on medication or other treatment, make sure you’re your handwritten instructions are clear and can be easily read and understood.


• If you are providing the patient with printed materials, make sure that the font is large enough for them to read. even with visual difficulties, most people will be able to read print in size 14pt.


• If your patient has trouble reading for any reason, then you could consider recording instructions for them, or you could provide pictures or diagrams.


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