They must have great skill at using card catalogs, requiring broad knowledge of subject
The profession of pharmacy is at an interesting juncture in its evolution. The concept
of clinical pharmacy has come of age, and pharmacists in both institutional and
community settings are being urged to accept a more clinical role. However, clinical
activities-e.g. taking medication histories, monitoring therapy, and counselling and
educating patients-call for more pharmacist-patient interation and significant
human-relation skills. I would like to reflect, therefore, for a moment, on the nature of
the pharmacist-patient relationship, and attempt to identify some of those factors that
allow it to flourish or which stifle its growth.
Let me begin by saying that I am not certain I can define adequately just what a good
patient-practitioner relationship is. We know such things exist, just as we know love
exists. Yet, could we find many people who would agree on love’s definition? At times it
seems as though the analytical process itself tends to ‘explain away’ rather than clarify
such abstract and subjective phenomena. I feel, then, like St Augustine must have felt
when asked to define time, “If no one asks me I know what it is. If I wish to explain to
him who asks me, 1 do not know.” (1).
In its most elemental form, I consider the patient-practitioner relationship to be a
human bond that develops out of what is done for the patient and the manner in which it
is done. The professional relationship, consisting primarily of feelings, might be considered
a medium in which health care takes place. Because feelings play such a powerful
part in health care, it is necessary that the clinician approach the patient with a broader
perspective than that of a scientist (2). To relate effectively to patients, the pharmacist
needs, at the very minimum, to (a) cultivate the quality of compassion, (b) deal with the
personal and emotional aspects of illness, and (c) be an effective communicator.