Pharmaceutical education in patient counseling: 20 h spread over 6 years?

Objective: To share our experiences with an educational program to increase pharmacy students' patient counseling competency. Methods: A description is given of the various steps taken to develop an educational program about patient counseling: 1. look at the basic assumptions one has to deal with; 2. define the outcome of the educational program; 3. translate competency into measurable behavior, skills and knowledge; and 4. design an educational program including assessments. Results: The Health Belief Model has been chosen as the theoretical model to make students understand patients' drug use behavior. A stepwise development of students' communication skills is combined with assessments in which relatively high norms are applied. Actors act as patients in standardized role plays. In total the basic education consists of 20 h of training. Conclusion: With a rather small educational investment, 50% of our students achieve the required level of patient counseling. The remaining students succeed to pass the assessments, after having received additional education. Practice implications: Pharmacy students differ in their needs for educational support in developing their patient counseling competency. These differences are to be taken into account in educational programs addressed to student's patient counseling competency. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.