Pharmacist and child communication: A phenomenological multidisciplinary study from the perspectives of undergraduate students in pharmacy and child development

BACKGROUND: The present study is an interdisciplinary study about pharmacist-child communication exploring the perceptions and observations of students studying in two different but intersecting fields, which are pharmacy and child development. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study is to illustrate the perceptions and observations of undergraduate pharmacy and child development students about pharmacist-child communication. METHOD: The study is a phenomenological study and the phenomenon analyzed is “pharmacist-child communication”. Research study group was selected via criterion sampling method. The sample group consisted of 40 undergraduate pharmacy and child development students. “Demographic Information Form” was used as the data collection tool and “Focus Group Interview Guide” was prepared for focus group interview meetings. Ten open-ended questions aligned with the research objective were asked to the students in the focus group interview. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive analysis method and the experiences of these two different groups of students were explored. RESULTS: At the end of the study, two main themes and five sub-themes were obtained. These themes and the sub-themes are as follows: adherence to drug therapy (Sub-themes: communication strategies relevant to the cognitive development at various ages of the child, rewarding children and reinforcement of good behavior, role of the parent in pharmacist-child communication) and physical characteristics of the pharmacy/pharmacist (Sub-themes: physical characteristics of the pharmacy, physical caharacteristics of the pharmacist). CONCLUSIONS: Each theme was illustrated in the study with comments of the students. The results showed that the observation and perceptions of the students studying in two different fields agreed with each other and those of other researchers. It is proposed that projects and practices can be developed by these two different disciplines, pharmacy and child development are two intersecting fields. As they complement each other, they could strengthen the pharmacist-child communication and as a result support the child's adherence to therapy.