Refining the Practice of Prescribing: Teaching Physician Learners How to Talk to Patients About a New Prescription

Clinician counseling about medication can improve patient understanding and adherence. This study developed a teaching session for physician learners about medication prescribing and communication, with evaluation at the physician and patient levels.

We analyzed whether patients would perceive and report more comprehensive clinician presentation of medication information when receiving prescriptions from their physician in the intervention clinic.

We conducted a single site, prospective intervention study that included lectures, role play, an objective standardized clinical examination (OSCE), and reminders displayed in patient care areas. For physician-level assessment, pretests and posttests included a written case presentation and a OSCE. For patient-level assessment, we used a cross-sectional observational design that included study of patient recall information, and assessment of patient satisfaction before and after intervention.

Twenty-seven family medicine residents and sports medicine fellows participated in the teaching session, focused on presenting patients the reasons, risks, and regimen of prescribed medication. In written testing, learners presented significantly more comprehensive information in posttests. In the OSCE (n  =  14), all learners presented risks and regimen information. However, patient-level assessment showed no significant difference between before and after intervention. Notably, the covariates patient activation and satisfaction with communication both had a significant association with patient recall information.

Our intervention improved learner presentation of medication information. However, patient recall of the information conveyed did not change. Although physician training did not have a positive effect on patient recall, patient activation emerged as a critical influence of patients' perceptions of medication discussions.