High Workload, Short Consultation Time, and Impact on Communication
Time pressures are, perhaps not surprisingly, reported as a significant factor in HCWs’ ability to effectively communicate prescription instructions to the patient and impact prescription adherence.Outside of the intervention arm of the trial, HCWs report long queues of patients needing consultation and constant pressure to get through the line of patients during the day. With too little time for doctors to adequately consult patients, communication of prescription instructions takes a second priority, can be done poorly, or is passed on as the pharmacist's role. While this division of responsibilities may seem practical to free up the HCW’s time, it has drawbacks. To date, communication from pharmacists is limited to the basic prescription information (and would therefore need to be complemented with persuasive messages). Compounded with issues of the unavailability of prescribed medicines at health center pharmacies, either because this is not a criterion for prescribing practices or because of stockouts as described above, this would result in many patients missing out on reliable and persuasive messaging.