Development and evaluation of a medication counseling workshop for physicians: can we improve on ‘take two pills and call me in the morning’?

BACKGROUND: Physicians often do not provide adequate medication counseling. PURPOSE: To develop and evaluate an educational program to improve physicians’ assessment of adherence and their medication counseling skills, with attention to health literacy. METHODS: We compared internal medicine residents’ confidence and counseling behaviors, measured by self-report at baseline and one month after participation in a two-hour interactive workshop. RESULTS: Fifty-four residents participated; 35 (65%) completed the follow-up survey. One month after training, residents reported improved confidence in assessing and counseling patients (p<0.001), including those with low health literacy (p<0.001). Residents also reported more frequent use of desirable behaviors, such as assessing patients’ medication understanding and adherence barriers (p<0.05 for each), addressing costs when prescribing (p<0.01), suggesting adherence aids (p<0.01), and confirming patient understanding with teach-back (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: A medication counseling workshop significantly improved residents’ self-reported confidence and behaviors regarding medication counseling one month later.