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Patient Counselling in the Secondary Care or Safer Medication Handling...
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Patient Counselling in the Secondary Care or Safer Medication Handling by Health Care Workers

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Care Sciences & Services".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 17654

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Piotr Merks

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Medicine, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, 01-815 Warszawa, Poland
Interests: clinical pharmacy; pharmaceutical development; drug safety; drug information; hospital pharmacy; pharmacy education; pharmacy; pharmaceutical care; pharmacy practice; pharmaceutical services; practice research; pharmacy interventions; services designing; ward interventions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

For drug therapy to be optimal, the right patient should receive the right dose of the right drug, in the right way, at the right time. Unfortunately, these conditions are often not met in real-life situations, leading to a high number of medication errors. These errors can be clinically inconsequential or be seriously harmful to patients resulting in hospitalization, life-threatening situations, disability, or even death. Nevertheless, they also represent an economic burden, a source of trauma for the staff and weaken the patient-healthcare provider relationship. Despite this, they are still widespread, especially during prescription and administration. They are mainly due to deficiencies in training, overwork of the healthcare workers, lack of communication, policies inadequate to the actual practice, lack of consistency in procedures or the absence of pharmaceutical follow-up.

In recent years, medication error management has undergone a positive evolution from a blame-based approach to a systems approach that seeks to identify and address the underlying causes of medication error. Thus, the focus is now on the provision of protocols, tools and resources designed to help decrease medication administration errors such as bar-coding systems, weight-based dosing, double- or triple-checking systems, increased pharmacist involvement, avoiding abbreviations, etc. One of the key points identified to reduce the risk of medication errors is to provide access to critical characteristics of drug during administration, however, the time constraints faced by healthcare professionals require these reminder systems to be concise.

Dr. Piotr Merks
Guest Editor

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • patient safety
  • secondary care
  • medication handling
  • clinical interventions
  • clinical pharmacy

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 334 KiB  
Article
Implementation of the Patient Counselling Service at the Cancer Hospital in Radom, Poland
by Katarzyna Grzyb, Martyna Meresińska, Urszula Religioni, Grzegorz Juszczyk, Jakub Płaczek, Agnieszka Neumann-Podczaska, Filip M. Szymański, Beata Chełstowska, Katarzyna Wieczorowska-Tobis, Szczepan Cofta, Sławomir Tobis, Rafał Staszewski, Regis Vaillancourt, Rafał Majewski, Justyna Hernik, Katarina Fehir Sola, Eliza Blicharska, Justyna Kaźmierczak, Ewa Rutkowska, Elżbieta Prygiel, Monika Skierska, Monika Nawara, Izabela Korbiewska, Jerzy Krysiński and Piotr Merksadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13642; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013642 - 21 Oct 2022
Viewed by 2458
Abstract
Background: Non-adherence occurs in various groups of patients, including those with chronic diseases. One strategy to increase adherence among oncological patients is to individualise treatment and expand pharmaceutical care. Pharmaceutical labels that remind patients how they should take their medications are of great [...] Read more.
Background: Non-adherence occurs in various groups of patients, including those with chronic diseases. One strategy to increase adherence among oncological patients is to individualise treatment and expand pharmaceutical care. Pharmaceutical labels that remind patients how they should take their medications are of great importance in this respect. Objective: The main objective of this study was to evaluate medication adherence in oncological patients, and to gather their opinions on the individual medication labelling system as an element of effective treatment. Methods: The study was conducted in 2021 among 82 patients of the oncological department of the Centre of Oncology in Radom. The research tool was a questionnaire consisting of personal data and two parts relating to the patient’s disease and the medication labelling system. Results: Nearly half of the respondents reported that they forget to take medications and how they should take them. These problems increased with the age of the patient and the number of administered medications. Of the respondents, 89% stated that the labels with dosing information are helpful. Over 67% agreed that these labels should be affixed to all medications. Nearly 90% of the respondents believed the labels should be available in all pharmacies. Conclusions: Non-adherence is a common phenomenon among oncological patients. Pharmacists providing a labelling service for medicinal products can play a significant role in reducing this phenomenon. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Patient Counselling in the Secondary Care or Safer Medication Handling by Health Care Workers)
7 pages, 306 KiB  
Article
Health Security: Definition Problems
by Anna Augustynowicz, Janusz Opolski and Michał Waszkiewicz
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(16), 10009; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191610009 - 13 Aug 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2606
Abstract
The link between security and health is not a discovery. Despite the widespread recognition of the social importance of health security, there is no single common definition of this concept. The study’s objective was to search, analyse and evaluate possible original propositions to [...] Read more.
The link between security and health is not a discovery. Despite the widespread recognition of the social importance of health security, there is no single common definition of this concept. The study’s objective was to search, analyse and evaluate possible original propositions to define the concept of “health security” in Polish professional literature published from 10 January 2017 to 31 March 2022. The research method was a scoping review performed in five stages according to H. Arksey and L. O’Malley. Ultimately, the study criteria were met by four studies. The proposed definition of health security in these papers failed to solve this problem and raised further questions and doubts. It is urgent to start a discourse on the meaning of the concept of “health security” with the broadest possible participation of representatives of various scientific disciplines, but taking into account the knowledge and practice of public health. It seems that it will be impossible to avoid the following questions: what is health security nowadays? What is health security as a personal issue? What are the necessary steps to achieve the consensus? Is it worthwhile to consider it on the international level? Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Patient Counselling in the Secondary Care or Safer Medication Handling by Health Care Workers)
12 pages, 485 KiB  
Article
Profiles of Health-Related Patient Activation and Their Determinants: The Results of a Cluster Analysis of Older Adults—Conclusions for Patient Counselling
by Dorota Włodarczyk and Joanna Chylińska
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(4), 2487; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042487 - 21 Feb 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2370
Abstract
Health-related proactivity in older adults may significantly increase medication handling, adherence and patient safety. Deficiencies in training in critical characteristics and diversity of older patients may lead to medical errors in diagnosis and drug administration. This study investigated the profiles of health proactivity [...] Read more.
Health-related proactivity in older adults may significantly increase medication handling, adherence and patient safety. Deficiencies in training in critical characteristics and diversity of older patients may lead to medical errors in diagnosis and drug administration. This study investigated the profiles of health proactivity in older adults and the factors differentiating them, like sociodemographic factors, health status, visit characteristics, and patients’ visit-related expectations, actual experiences, and satisfaction with the visit. Before and after visits, 3391 patients aged 65–95 filled in two sets of questionnaires, that allowed to measure aforementioned factors. Three distinct proactivity profiles emerged from a cluster analysis: high (43%), medium (25%), and low proactivity (32%). Highly proactive patients had the highest expectations, but their visits provided better opportunities to meet them than in other groups. Higher proactivity was related to a longer attendance time, frequent contact with and easier access to the doctor, or a longer time spent with a patient. The findings highlight the need to detect and respond to patients’ expectations regarding psychosocial aspects of care, as well as to improve organizational aspects of care, in order to enhance health proactivity in older adults. The resulting good practice recommendations may significantly improve healthcare workers’ effectiveness in both primary and secondary care. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Patient Counselling in the Secondary Care or Safer Medication Handling by Health Care Workers)
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Review

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8 pages, 283 KiB  
Review
Resilient Health and the Healthcare System. A Few Introductory Remarks in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic
by Anna Augustynowicz, Janusz Opolski and Michał Waszkiewicz
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(6), 3603; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063603 - 18 Mar 2022
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3244
Abstract
People across the globe are facing increasingly complex public health emergencies that are responsible for the loss of life, economic and social problems with unprecedented damage and costs. For some sociologists, our society is even “a risk society” and our time is highly [...] Read more.
People across the globe are facing increasingly complex public health emergencies that are responsible for the loss of life, economic and social problems with unprecedented damage and costs. For some sociologists, our society is even “a risk society” and our time is highly violative. Emergencies of different origin: stemming from natural environmental disasters, such as floods, hurricanes, intense drought, technical accidents, social unrest and last but not least—outbreaks of infectious diseases. This decade started with one of the most significant pandemics in the history of man-kind—COVID-19. Hence, the problems of resilient health and healthcare systems have become urgent. Especially since SARS-CoV-2 may cause long-term health threats and recurrent crises. It is very important to have a common language. So far, definitions and concepts of health and healthcare resilience differ substantially and are seldom clearly defined. The aim of this paper is to describe how health and healthcare system resilience is defined to either uncover, recall, or in combination, its concept and prepare an introductory conceptual review as a preliminary step for further studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Patient Counselling in the Secondary Care or Safer Medication Handling by Health Care Workers)
6 pages, 269 KiB  
Review
The Quality and Reliability of Information in the Summaries of Product Characteristics
by Ewelina Drelich, Urszula Religioni, Kevin Chung, Justyna Kaźmierczak, Eliza Blicharska, Agnieszka Neumann-Podczaska, Jerzy Krysiński and Piotr Merks
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(4), 2185; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042185 - 15 Feb 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3252
Abstract
The Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC) is an obligatory document concerning a medicine required (among other things) for the authorization of a medicinal product. The purpose of the SmPC is to provide product information to healthcare professionals. A necessary condition for this is [...] Read more.
The Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC) is an obligatory document concerning a medicine required (among other things) for the authorization of a medicinal product. The purpose of the SmPC is to provide product information to healthcare professionals. A necessary condition for this is to ensure that the SmPC is clear and precise. However, neither European nor national legislation obliges marketing authorization holders to review the SmPC in terms of its readability and understandability prior to the registration of a medicine. To date, research on SmPCs has focused on accuracy and completeness; however, the literature lacks information on the extent to which SmPCs meet the needs of healthcare professionals concerning the readability of the information they contain. The main objective of this article is to point out the lack of precision in the legal provisions for the preparation of SmPCs concerning the comprehensibility of the provisions. The article points to the lack of testing of the SmPC in terms of accessibility and transparency for healthcare professionals, highlighting that the document does not meet the needs of healthcare professionals in providing adequate information about medicines. It shows that the current rules and guidelines for the preparation of the registration dossier for a medicinal product are not entirely precise and contain numerous shortcomings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Patient Counselling in the Secondary Care or Safer Medication Handling by Health Care Workers)

Other

Jump to: Research, Review

8 pages, 321 KiB  
Brief Report
Deploying and Maintaining Standards of New Pharmacy Services Provision in Poland-Introducing the National Pharmacist Competencies Assessment Tool: Pre-Registration Exam–Results of the Pilot Project
by Piotr Merks, Urszula Religioni, Aleksandra Howell, Marvin Munzu, Edwin Panford-Quainoo, Agnieszka Neumann-Podczaska, Radosław Jaskólski, Beata Kaczmarek, Justyna Kaźmierczak, Eliza Blicharska, Paweł Olczyk, Agnieszka Barańska, Magdalena Waszyk-Nowaczyk and Jerzy Krysiński
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(13), 7809; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19137809 - 25 Jun 2022
Viewed by 2047
Abstract
Despite the functioning of the Bologna Declaration, the knowledge and skills of graduates educated in different countries may differ significantly. Therefore, this article aims to present the differences in results of the final exam in pharmacy among Polish pharmacy students. This exam was [...] Read more.
Despite the functioning of the Bologna Declaration, the knowledge and skills of graduates educated in different countries may differ significantly. Therefore, this article aims to present the differences in results of the final exam in pharmacy among Polish pharmacy students. This exam was modeled on the British national exam supervised by the General Pharmaceutical Council. The exam was conducted in three cities in Poland, among a total of 175 final-year students (a full sample of those eligible was 451 with 276 refusals (38.58% response rate)). Taking the exam was voluntary and anonymous. The results indicate that none of the Polish students achieved the 70% mark required to pass the Great Britain exam. Significant differences in test results were noticed between cities. Students achieved the best average exam result in Bydgoszcz (46.35%), then in Warsaw (38.81%) and Łódź (38.35%). The pharmaceutical education system in Poland requires complete changes that will prepare future pharmacists for clinical work. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Patient Counselling in the Secondary Care or Safer Medication Handling by Health Care Workers)
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