• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.280-291
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• 2011

Vaccines are products for immunization which can provoke antibodies by eliciting immune reponses without causing disease and have played an important role in preventing fatal and contagious diseases as well as H1N1 influenza. They are classified by two following categories; lived attenuated vaccine and killed vaccine and currently commonly using vaccines are BCG, diphtheria, tetanus, mumps, measles, rubella, polio, Haemophilus influenza type b, hepatitis B, influenza etc. All vaccines must be used correctly to reach optimal therapeutic goals and also informed well to patients to decrease potential problems. In order to do, pharmacists must have good knowledge of vaccines. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the necessity of vaccine education for pharmacists and develop a vaccine leaflet for patient counseling. We have performed a survey with questionnaire for a total of 176 pharmacists and nurses(hospital pharmacists, n=65; community pharmacists, n=50; hospital nurses, n=61) from January 27th to March 12th, 2010. The questionnaire includes items about vaccine education and counseling and 12 quizzes to evaluate responders' knowledge of vaccines. We used the SPSS(Version 12. for windows) program to analyze the data. In results, 94.9% of all responders said they had not been educated on vaccines. And only 1.1% of all responders said they know about vaccines enough to counsel patients. Pharmacists who have an experience recommending vaccines to other people are 21.7%. On the other hand, nurses who have an experience recommending vaccines to other people are 55.7%(p=0.000). The mean number of correct answers at the 12 quizzes are followings; hospital pharmacist, 8.1; community pharmacist, 6.1, hospital nurses, 6.2(p=0.000). A vaccine leaflet for patient counseling is developed with several references. In conclusion, due to no opportunity of vaccine education, pharmacists have no confidence to counsel patients and lack of knowledge of vaccine. But importance of vaccine's role is increasing, pharmacists should counsel patients in vaccination. So they need vaccine education and a vaccine leaflet will be helpful for their counseling.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to evaluate barriers to pharmacists' routine work in community setting. A survey was given to 281 pharmacists who enrolled in 16-week clinical pharmacy educating program in continuous education center for advanced pharmacy at Seoul National University. Three main questions that pharmacists were asked to answer were: (1) difficulties on dispensing prescription, (2) difficulties on communicating with doctors, (3) most difficult disease on patients counseling. The response rates for the survey were more than 60 % for each three questions (62.63 %, 63.7 %, and 64.41 %, respectively). The top three barriers to dispensing prescription were lack of professional knowledge about medications, prescription error and its solving ability and patient counseling. The top three barriers to communicating with doctors were lacking of opportunity to discuss about patients' medication due to unavailability of doctors, doctors' attitude using authoritative manner, and a pharmacist's lack of knowledge. The top 4 most difficult diseases on patients counseling were cardiovascular disorders, dermatologic disorders, endocrinologic disorders, and psychiatric disorders.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.131-145
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• 2009

Background: Medication counseling is important to improve qualify of pharmaceutical care, but there are lack of studies to investigate satisfied counseling practice in community pharmacies. Purpose: This study was to investigate current medication counseling provided by community pharmacists. Method: Questionnaires to assess medication counseling practices were mailed to nationwide 1,269 community pharmacists who were Sookmyung Women's University alumni. Result: One hundred sixty five pharmacists were responded to the questionnaires (response rate 13.63%). 16.8% of them all respondents had counseling room in their pharmacies. 75% and 29.9% of respondents provided patient counseling always for new and refilled prescriptions, respectively. Counseling was provided primarily by verbal, but especially for drug name, usage and storage, it was provided in written concurrently. 31.1% of respondents was satisfied with counseling practices by themselves, and a major barrier of unsatisfied counseling was lack of time in 64.6% of respondents. Majorities of respondents (66.3% and 76.3%) spent 1-3 minutes and <1 minute, for new prescription and refilled prescription, respectively. Approximate 99% of respondents presented necessity of standardized patient counseling information for drugs and 97.6% responded that quality of patient counseling would be improved by using software containing counseling information. Old respondent group had higher accumulative patient counseling practice scores and pharmacy owner group took much time for counseling, resulting in higher scores too. Conclusion: This study showed that qualified patient counseling practice has not been reached in community pharmacies. Much more discussion to seek ways to improve the quality would be necessary.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.95-106
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• 2002

This study was done to investigate the perception and need of the nutrition counseling of the people living in Daejon. Results were as follows: Nutrition knowledge score increased with education level. It showed tendency that women's scores were higher than men's. Only 15.5% of the participants were experienced in nutrition counseling mostly with medical doctor or nurse in the general hospital. Their satisfaction level was above average, which means positive reaction on nutrition counseling. In the case of the people who paid nutrition counseling fee, they thought that fee level was reasonable. Participants whose education level was higher thought less frequently that the nutrition counseling fee charged currently in the general hospital was expensive. The prevalent contents they want in the nutrition counseling included the prevention and the treatment of the specific disease and food safety (pesticides and food-born illness). As means of nutrition counseling they preferred internet (or PC) and interview. The higher the education status and the less the age, the higher preference, there was for internet or PC. As a source of nutrition knowledge, participants gave high credit on the professional books, academic journals, and advices from dietitian, nutritionist, medical doctor and pharmacist; in the other hand, they gave low credit on the newspaper, magazine, TV or radio, and advices from family or relatives, and friends. They thought most of the adult-onset disease (especially obesity, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes) were closely related to diet. However, percentage of the participants who thought that diet and kidney disease were related was relatively low.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.212-222
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• 2024

Objectives: Epilepsy is a chronic disease that requires long-term treatment and intervention from health workers. Medication adherence is a factor that influences the success of therapy for patients with epilepsy. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the role of pharmacists in improving the clinical outcomes of epilepsy patients, focusing on medication adherence. Methods: A scoping literature search was conducted through the ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Google Scholar databases. The literature search included all original articles published in English until August 2023 for which the full text was available. This scoping review was carried out by a team consisting of pharmacists and neurologists following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Extension for Scoping Reviews and the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines, including 5 steps: identifying research questions, finding relevant articles, selecting articles, presenting data, and compiling the results. Results: The literature search yielded 10 studies that discussed pharmacist interventions for patients with epilepsy. Five articles described educational interventions involving drug-related counseling with pharmacists. Two articles focused on similar pharmacist interventions through patient education, both verbal and written. Three articles discussed an epilepsy review service, a multidisciplinary intervention program involving pharmacists and other health workers, and a mixed intervention combining education and training with therapy-based behavioral interventions. Conclusions: Pharmacist interventions have been shown to be effective in improving medication adherence in patients with epilepsy. Furthermore, these interventions play a crucial role in improving other therapeutic outcomes, including patients' knowledge of self-management, perceptions of illness, the efficacy of antiepileptic drugs in controlling seizures, and overall quality of life.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.119-145
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• 2023

The Pharmaceutical Affairs Act stipulates medication counseling as an obligatory requirement in the case of preparation of medicine. In fact, there are many cases where pharmacists only tell patients the dose and time and do not properly guide them on taking medications. However, in light of the current situation where non-face-to-face treatment is being attempted, there is a high possibility of drug-taking accidents due to insufficient medication guidance. In addition, as an aging society progresses, the need for explanations on pharmaceuticals is increasing. If a pharmacist causes damage to a patient by failing to give appropriate medication guidance, the patient can claim compensation for damages. In addition, if a drug accident occurs due to a conflict between the pharmacist's duty to guide medication and the doctor's duty to explain, a joint tort is established between the pharmacist and the doctor. Nevertheless, there are cases in which only doctors are judged to bear the tort liability. However, the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act includes providing information for the selection of over-the-counter drugs in the medication guidance as part of the medication guidance obligation. Therefore, in order to reconsider the importance of the medication-taking guidance duty, it is necessary to define the medicationaking information provision method and the medication-taking guidance duty as separate concepts. In addition, it is necessary to amend related regulations centered on patients so that medication guidance, such as side effects of medicines and interactions with concomitant medications, can be made in detail.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.245-253
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• 2016

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate payer-driven medication adherence intervention program from the patient's and counselor's perspectives. Methods: Target patients for intervention were selected by retrospective adherence measures based on national health insurance claims data for hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia. As a serial intervention for higher risk groups of medication non-adherence, initial direct mailing, the first direct telephone call and the second direct call or a home visit were followed. Interview approach to qualitative inquiry was used to evaluate intervention results. Results: Participants including 4 patients received telephone calls, and 4 National Health Insurance Service staff and 4 pharmacists participated as counselors were interviewed regarding their impression of the intervention program. Three major themes arose: overall perception; necessities; and suggestions for success, of the intervention. Despite short period of intervention, educational intervention by telephone counseling involving pharmacists shows potential to improve self-management of chronic disease, and pharmacist-involvement. But more sophisticated selection of target patients requiring the intervention and complementation of electronic database system would be necessary. In addition, personal disposition of counselor was revealed to be an important factor for achieving successful outcome of intervention. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the individualized counseling intervention would be an efficient option for improved medication adherence. Further researches should include longer periods of interventions, a quantitative analysis using adherence measures based on claims data and consideration of clinical benefits associated with the intervention.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.500-509
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• 2011

This study was to identify factors influencing drug compliance based on the subjects' interview regarding community pharmacy utilization for 2 weeks, in 2005 KNHANES. Good compliance was regarded as important factors in improving the effectiveness and minimizing adverse drug reaction, resulting in reducing the medical costs. 83% of total 11,208 pharmacy visits in 7,066 subjects showed good compliance. Good satisfaction for pharmacist's medication counseling (OR=2.23, 95% CI 1.92-2.58), higher out-of-pocket money (OR=1.32, 95% CI 1.14-1.54), and users of prescription drugs than non-prescription (OR=2.21, 95% CI 1.91-2.57) drugs were significant factors for better compliance. Disease of nervous system and mental and behavioral disorders showed lower drug compliance.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.108-117
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• 2024

Background: This study aimed to explore the current activities of pharmacists in local pharmacies for preventing narcotics addiction, identify areas for improvement, and support initiatives to enhance and expand the activities of "narcotics addiction prevention counseling pharmacies" (hereinafter referred to as "Majung Pharmacies"). Methods: Surveys were conducted targeting local community pharmacists participating in the Majung Pharmacy activities in Daegu. Results: Out of 42 pharmacists who registered in the Majung Pharmacy movement in 2021, 41 responded (response rate of 98%). After excluding three participants who met the exclusion criteria, data from 38 participants were analyzed. The participating pharmacists were generally well aware of the conditions for pharmacists to serve as "accessible experts" in the forefront of drug addiction prevention. It was observed that the activities of Majung Pharmacies, particularly among highly engaged pharmacists, led to positive effects such as an increased focus on medication counseling for psychotropic drugs, thereby enhancing their professionalism. However, a significant number of participants also expressed negative opinions. Factors such as enthusiasm for professional activities and perceptions of the pharmacist's social role were important in shaping perceptions of Majung Pharmacy activities, whether positively or negatively. Additionally, this study underlined that pharmacists in practice are highly aware of the seriousness of issues arising from the use of narcotics by prescriptions. Conclusion: Suggestions were outlined for both short-term and long-term strategies aimed at ensuring the stable growth and expansion of Majung Pharmacy initiatives.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.62-70
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• 2024

Background: Drug-related problems have the potential to threaten patient health, and pharmacists are in a position to prevent such problems through prescription reviews and patient counseling, actively engaging in pharmaceutical care activities. This study aims to categorize and analyze the intervention activities of pharmacists in community pharmacies concerning drug-related problems, following international criteria. Methods: Over a six-month period, prescription interventions completed in a community pharmacy in Seoul were selected as the research subjects. The causes of interventions were classified according to the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe (PCNE) drug-related problems (DRPs) classification system and the types and frequencies of DRPs were identified. Results: Among a total of 49,334 prescriptions, 527 interventions were completed, constituting approximately 1.07% of the daily average filled prescriptions. Individuals over 60 years of age represented more than 50%. The primary cause of DRPs was prescribing and drug selection issues, comprising 256 cases (48.58%), with specific subcategories including 109 cases of drug selection, 79 cases of treatment duration errors, 47 cases of dose selection, and 21 cases of inappropriate dosage form selection. Patient-related issues accounted for 204 cases (38.71%). Conclusion: The study demonstrated that the pharmacists' intervention in community pharmacies contributes to the safe use of medication by patients.