Health communication and promotion

How to navigate and ensure effective patient communication about medicines shortages

Best practice principles on gathering information to inform communications, information sharing with patients and working across boundaries to better support affected patients during medicines shortages.…

What my deaf daughter taught me about PPE and communicating with the hard of hearing in the pharmacy

Facial coverings are helping us to limit the spread of COVID-19, but for people who rely on lip reading, communication just got harder. Consultant pharmacist Karen Miller, whose daughter is deaf, says we could all rethink how we interact with our patients and each other.…

Pharmaceutical considerations for patients with stomas

Pharmacists should be aware of the requirements of their patients who may have a temporary or permanent stoma.…

WhatsApp groups improve communication within pharmacy teams, finds study

Using the social messaging platform WhatsApp improves communication between junior and senior pharmacists when providing out-of-hours care, study results show.…

Be more proactive to convince medics, pharmacists urged

Pharmacists need to communicate more positively and proactively, as half of their recommendations are ignored, says a prominent Australian academic.…

Getting started in public engagement: how to deliver effective talks and presentations

There are many benefits to public engagement, for the pharmacist delivering the activity as well as for the audience. This article covers the practical aspects that should be considered before getting started.…

Media training and media-facing roles in pharmacy

Pharmacy is too often left out of the media conversation on key healthcare issues, so it is important to strengthen our presence across all sectors, through both mainstream and social media. Gareth Malson explores how media training benefits both pharmacists and pharmacy.…

Update on the FIP pictogram project to improve health literacy

I would like to provide readers with an update of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) pictogram project. FIP attempts to bring a high level of recognition to health literacy. The Military and Emergency Pharmacy Section (MEPS) of FIP undertook a major project in 2004 to develop cl…

UK regulator appeals to patients with animation about reporting drug side effects

A short animation about the value of reporting drug side effects is being used as part of a social media campaign by the UK’s drug safety watchdog.…

Australian and Portuguese pharmacy initiatives win international awards

A national programme in Australia that aims to increase the profile of community pharmacists and a health promotion campaign run by pharmacists in Portugal have won international recognition.…