Student Pharmacists ’ Perceptions of Barriers to Medication Adherence Counseling

Purpose: To identify the barriers perceived by student pharmacists to counseling on medication adherence in a supermarket community pharmacy chain. Methods: Online surveys were made available to 65 student pharmacists. Subjects completed the survey anonymously and indicated their opinions and perceptions on topics related to medication adherence through the use of a 5-point Likert-type scale. Results: Of the surveyed student pharmacists, 26 completed the survey (40%). All participants (100%) agreed that they have knowledge on the importance of medication adherence. Student pharmacists stated that they did not have the time to cover adherence in a counseling session (72.7%) nor did they have time to perform follow-up phone calls with the patient (54.5%). The majority of student pharmacists (81.8%) were comfortable bringing up the topic of adherence with the patient but thought that they did not have access to resources on adherence to provide to the patient (59%). Conclusions: Surveyed students indicated they were constrained for time to counsel patients on adherence and to perform continued follow-up with patients afterward. Factors cited as barriers to counseling patients on medication adherence include time, lack of specific training in adherence management, lack of resources to provide to the patient, and patient disinterest in the subject