Exploring the perceptions of undergraduate pharmacy students’ communication skills to facilitate better professional decision-making in the UK

Background: Pharmacy professionals have an important role in delivering patient-centred care, with effective communication skills forming the foundation of interactions with patients. This study aimed to explore how pharmacy students perceived their own communication skills; along with the communication skills education and training experiences in their undergraduate pharmacy degree in the UK.

Methods: A 22-item questionnaire was designed and piloted before being distributed online. Snowball sampling was employed to recruit participants undertaking an undergraduate pharmacy degree. Quantitative statistical and qualitative thematic analysis was conducted.

Results: A range of pharmacy schools were represented in the data set (n = 10) with 217 responses collected. Participants rated their communication skills highly (53.03%, n = 114), but stated they still required improvement (79.72%, n = 173). A proportion of participants stated that they could appropriately make professional decisions (52.08%, n = 100) and that their communication skills had facilitated their professional decision-making skills (57.89%, n = 110). Effective teaching methods reported included role play with peers (80%, n = 156) and small-group teaching sessions (64.10%, n = 125). Participants felt that interprofessional education and simulated patients could help improve their communication skills further. Conclusions: Communication education is a crucial element in developing future healthcare professionals. Thus, investment in resources is required to facilitate communication skills in the earlier stages of the undergraduate pharmacy degree.