Reasons to Development of Assistant Pharmacists’ Competences for Quality Patient Consulting in Polypharmacy Cases

Over fifteen years, polypharmacy has increased by 4.9% across all age groups. Consequently, the responsibility of professionals foradvising patients in such cases has increased as well.The research aims at studyingpatients' habits when purchasing and using medicinal productsto enhance the theoretical and practical training of assistant pharmacists at the RSU Red Cross Medical College.The research is based on the patient questionnaires and further analysis of results withinafocus group. 404 respondents were interviewedbetween December 2017 and November 2019. Under the conventionsofsocial studies, this ensured a3%margin of error at a confidence level of 5%.Accordingto the results of the questionnaire, 44% of the surveyed women and 66% of men were rarely or very rarely interested in the possible side effects of a new medicinal products, foodsupplement or herbal product. Patients could obtain such information by reading the package leaflet, however, 24% of women and 40% of men read it very rarely or rarely. 30% of respondents usedfour or more prescription and over-the-countermedicalsubstances on a daily basis.Theinformation-gaining habits of the populationregarding side effects and interactions of medicinal products, food supplements and herbal remediessuggest patients mustreceive oralandmore detailed information from a pharmacist.Based on the obtained results, thefocus group outlined opportunities for raisingpharmacy students' competences