DISPENSING 1

CELSO G. LACSON JR.

Lecturer

UNIVERSITY OF SAN AGUSTIN

COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND ALLIED MEDICAL PROFESSIONS
MODULE 1
Dispensing refers to the sum of
processes performed by a pharmacist from
reading, validating, and interpreting prescriptions;
preparing; packaging; labeling; record keeping;
dose calculations; and counseling or giving
information, in relation to the sale or transfer of
pharmaceutical products, with or without a
prescription or medication order;

- Section 5 (l), RA 10918 (Philippine Pharmacy

Act)
Pharmaceutical productsrefer to drugs,
medicines, biologicals, pharmaceutical and
biopharmaceutical products/specialties, veterinary
products, veterinary biologies and veterinary
medicinal products;

- Section 5 (jj), RA 10918 (Philippine Pharmacy Act)

PRINCIPLES OF GOOD
CUTOMER SERVICE
1. ACCURACY
• Your service should, obviously, be correct. A study
shows that customers regard accuracy as the
minimum. It won't raise customer satisfaction, but
inaccuracy definitely causes dissatisfaction.

• According to one study, a patient has a 1 in 30

chance of a new prescription being incorrectly filled.
Of course, many of the errors were not clinically
significant. It might be argued that any error has a
potential to be significant, so pharmacists should be
concerned about all errors.
2. SPEED
• According to a Warwick University study ,
responsiveness has the highest impact on both
customer satisfaction (fast response) and
dissatisfaction (slow response).

• .
3. CLARITY
• Clarity is about how processable your communication is.
When accuracy is the what, clarity is the how.

• As much as we think we know the patient’s problem

because we’ve heard the same story from other
customers, we still need to listen. This situation might be
different. Don’t just assume you know right away what
the issue is…even if you actually do.
 4. TRANSPARENCY
To improve the customer experience,
you must start with the employees
and the overall company culture.
Employees across multiple industries
say transparency is one of the most
important things about a
workplace—instead of feeling like
just a cog in the machine,
transparency helps employees see
their place and helps them feel
valued at work.
5. ACCESSIBILITY
• If your customer has a problem, how easy is it for
him or her to get in touch?

• For a long time, the entire customer service theory

focused on delighting the customer — on exceeding
expectations. Research, however, showed that it
pays off more to focus on reducing customer effort
instead.
6. EMPOWERMENT
• Companies like Disney and FedEx are known for
their strong customer service. They understand that
to give outstanding customer service, employees
must be empowered.

• Empowering employees means giving them or

someone who manages them the authority to do
whatever it takes to satisfy the customer. Often you
have to trust your employees to make the right
decision without waiting for management to give
approval.
7. FRIENDLINESS
• That brings us to the human side of the
equation. All service is based on human-to-
human communication, even the self-help kind.

• The complexity and nuances of the human

interaction can have a great positive or negative
impact on the experience.
8. EFFICIENCY
• What exactly does it mean to work efficiently? In
an ideal world, efficient work means achieving
maximum productivity with minimum wasted
effort.

• If your support agents have the right tools, they

are more likely to be efficient, and in turn your
customer service is bound to improve—along
with your company’s bottom line.
 INTERPERSONAL
COMMUNICATION
INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICAT ION
• Process by which people exchange information,
feelings, and meanings thru verbal and
nonverbal messages.
• Tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, and
body language.
• Applies to all relationships, personal, business,
and professional.
• People have been using interpersonal
communication since the time of their existence.

• It is the tool we use to make and develop

relationships with other people.
IMPORTANCE:
1. Leads to personal effectiveness.
2. Networks people.
3. Influences motivation for enhanced
performance.
4. Builds better understanding between person
of authority and his subordinates.
5. Creates better interpersonal relations.
6. Increases listening ability.
KEY ELEMENTS
10 WAYS TO IMPROVE
INTERPERSONAL
COMMUNICATION
SKILLS
1. Be open to and ask for feedback.
2. Never talk over people.
3. Don’t finish other people’s sentences.
4. Paraphrase. When someone asks you to do something,
repeat back to that person what they asked you to do in
your own language.
5. Listen actively.
6. Maintain eye contact.
7. Be aware of your body posture.
8. Avoid unnecessary conversation fillers, like “ums,” “uhs”
and “likes.” They distract the listener from hearing your
message.

9. Be respectful of other people’s thoughts and opinions.

10. Practice.
 PRINCIPLES OF
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
• Inter-cultural communication principles guide the
process of exchanging meaningful unambiguous
information across cultural boundaries, in a way
that preserves mutual respect and minimizes
antagonism.
1. Respect, openness, curiosity
• be willing to take a risk and to move beyond
one’s comfort zone. Be willing to be wrong, or at
least to have one’s perspective altered or
widened
2. You are not the centre of
everyone’s universe.
• realise that one’s own culture is specific, and
study how it has affected one’s own world view –
also how odd or foreign it may seem to others,
and how it may impact upon them
3. Culture, power, status
• Understand that cultures are often in a
relationship of status, power and domination /
subordination – that those who feel dominated
often feel ignored and marginalised, and those
who dominate often do not recognise their
privilege or power. When these power or status
relationships change, there is often upheaval,
fear, anger, and anxiety.
4. Learn from the other.
• With this understanding, be willing to learn
as much as possible about others’ culture,
as far as possible without judgment, but
with respectful curiosity. This will often
throw a new light on one’s own culture.
5. Develop core skills.
• Intercultural communication requires self-
mastery, as we develop our willingness
and ability to observe, listen, evaluate,
analyse, interpret, and relate with less
judgment and more openness.
6. Reap the inner dividends.
• This process will enrich you personally and
professionally, as you gain in flexibility,
adaptability, empathy, and the ability to really
‘get’ what others experience and perceive,
whether or not you ‘agree’ with them.
7. Be aware of differences in
meaning in both verbal and
nonverbal communication.
8. Be aware of cultural rules
governing behaviors, customs,
and communication.
 PRINCIPLES OF HANDLING
DIFFERENT TYPES OF PAT IENTS
 1. GERIATRIC PATIENTS
1. Get their attention.
2. Reduce background noise.
3. Speak clearly.
4. Speak loudly. Speak a little more loudly than normal, but
don’t shout.
5. Repeat yourself.
6. Have good lighting.
2. PEDIATRIC PATIENTS
1. Communicate on their level.
2. Engage the parents.
3. Build trust.
3. PERSONS WITH DISABILITY
1. If you offer assistance, wait until the offer is accepted.
2. Speak directly to the disabled person, not through a third
party.
3. Always offer to shake hands.
4. Identify yourself and others to a visually impaired person.
5. Treat adults like adults. Don't use a person's first name until
someone asks you to. Don't pat. Don't patronize.
6. Don't shout.
7. Don't touch, lean on, or move a wheelchair without
permission. Treat the chair as part of the person occupying it.
8. When conversing with a person with a speech impediment,
listen carefully and never pretend to understand.
 4. MENTALLY ILL PATIENTS
1. Introduce yourself calmly and clearly.
2. Explain why you are there.
3. Be polite and non-threatening but also be honest and direct.
4. Listen to what they are saying in a non-judgmental way.
5. Avoid confrontation.
6. Ask them what they see as the main problem.
7. Do not attempt physical contact, except to prevent serious
assault or suicide attempts.
8. Encourage them to talk to a mental healthcare professional.
9. Follow up difficult experiences with counselling for yourself.
 5. SUICIDAL PATIENTS
1. The first step is to find out whether the person is in danger of acting on suicidal
feelings. Be sensitive, but ask direct questions, such as:
• a.How are you coping with what's been happening in your life?
• b. Do you ever feel like just giving up?
• c. Are you thinking about dying?
2. Look for warning signs.
3. Don't leave the person alone.
4. Call 911 or your local emergency number right away. Or, if you think you can do
so safely, take the person to the nearest hospital emergency room yourself.
5. Try to find out if he or she is under the influence of alcohol or drugs or may have
taken an overdose.
6. Tell a family member or friend right away what's going on.
7. Get help from a trained professional as quickly as possible.
6. TERMINALLY ILL PATIENTS
1. Ask permission. Patients can tell me whether they're
ready to receive certain information.
2. Establish a comfortable setting. No one can talk when
they are in pain or uncomfortable.
3. Make sure the right players are in the room. Some
patients can't make a decision without their partner, a
parent, or a child present.
4. If patients don't want information, find out who they want
us to communicate with. Establish a surrogate decision-
maker.