Optimising patient self-medication through the community pharmacist

Abstract

A poster presentation about optimising patient self-medication through the community pharmacist. Introduction: Self-care with ‘Over-the-Counter’ (OTC) medicines is a widespread practice. Patients consider OTC medicines to be safe and frequently ignore patient information leaflets. This incurs certain risks on patients’ health. Facilitated self-medication addresses this issue, whereby the pharmacist is directly involved in providing advice on self-medication products. Aim: To optimise patient safety and pharmacotherapy related to self-medication through the community pharmacist’s intervention. The objectives were to investigate the nature and frequency of drug-related problems (DRPs) occurring in self-medication and to document the interventions carried out by the pharmacist in relation to the DRPs.