Validation of a reorganized training program using a cognitive behavioral therapy approach to enable community pharmacists to provide empathic patient counseling

Abstract

To enable community pharmacists to provide empathic patient counseling, we developed and validated a training program based on the cognitive behavioral therapy approach (CBT-A) in our previous study. The major focus points of the re-structured training program were “inclusion of basic communication skills”, “exemplifying correspondence involving CBT-A using pre-recorded video(VTR)”, and “approach methods for cases where counter-evidence is unavailable”. The training program lasted for 4 h per day, for a total of 8 h. We also performed role-play scenarios on information gathering and medication guidance for simulated patients before and after training, and evaluated patient satisfaction with counseling, patient counseling alliance scores, and the degrees of the psychological distance between patients and pharmacists. Participants had high satisfaction with the discussion and role-play aspects of the training, as in our previous study. Participants also showed high satisfaction with “exemplifying correspondence involving CBT-A using VTR”. Counseling time was significantly longer when using CBT-A compared to ordinary information gathering and medication guidance, but patient satisfaction and patient counseling alliance scores were both higher, and the psychological distance between patient and pharmacist was lower. Accordingly, if patients cannot solve their own problems, even when pharmacists provide polite responses and expertise, patients can be guided in their problem solving using CBT-A. It suggested that using CBT-A could solve the problem of patients with anxiety due to problems that cannot be solved only via drug-centered approach.