The role of pharmacy staff is extensive, and providing self care advice, raising awareness and helping customers manage serious conditions such as cancer is becoming increasingly important

Improvements in cancer diagnosis and treatment are very welcome news. Just recently, Public Health England presented research that showed fewer people are being diagnosed with cancer following emergency presentation at hospital, while there has been an increase in cancer diagnoses through urgent GP referral.

Despite these advancements, there are currently more than 2.5 million people living with or beyond cancer in the UK. That’s 400,000 more than five years ago and it’s expected to rise to a staggering four million by 2030 if current trends persist.

With over 200 different types of cancer and increasing numbers of cases, there’s a long way to go before it can be beaten, but with the help of national campaigns and fundraisers such as October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning and Go Sober for October, we can get closer to that goal. This year marked 25 years of the Macmillan Coffee Morning. Since 1991, a total of £138 million has been raised to provide medical, emotional, practical and financial support, as well as campaigns for better cancer care and ensuring no one faces cancer alone.

But it’s not just national campaigns that can help. Pharmacy teams can play an important role in the journey of customers who are affected by cancer. Access to information and advice is essential for patients and their families, so knowing how best to talk to these customers will make a big difference to the service that your pharmacy provides.

Cancer is a complex disease and customers may experience physical, psychological or even social issues alongside their condition. For example, a customer who has had a cancer diagnosis might:

• Be worrying about their upcoming treatment and what impact it might have on their body
• Be having treatment and experiencing side effects such as pain, inflammation or sensitivity to light
• Have completed their treatment but be worrying about the cancer coming back. There may also be customers who have noticed changes in their body, such as a lump in their breast or changes in their skin or moles, and be worrying about what they might mean.

Engaging in conversations

By recognising that cancer is more than an illness that is either cured or not, you can go a long way in helping your customers with their questions and concerns. Of course, you won’t be able to answer all of their queries, but the key to providing a good service is to engage in good conversations. To help support effective dialogue, Macmillan Cancer Support has come up with the following approach:

• Listen – give your customer space to talk. This not only relates to making sure the physical space is appropriate (being quiet and private), but also allowing them time to open up and talk about what really matters to them
• Support – acknowledge the issues that your customer is bringing up. Even if you can’t do anything about them, providing a listening ear will help your customer feel respected and listened to
• Explore – use questions to help your customer identify what steps they have already taken in addressing their issues and discuss what help your pharmacy can provide and what other services are available
• Empower – acknowledge and respect that your customer is at the centre of your service. Cancer can easily lead people to lose sight of just how capable they really are. By providing information and advice that is personalised to your customer’s needs, and that enables them to take control, you will help remind them that they are the expert on themselves.

Effective questions

You can use different types of question to gain necessary information about a customer’s situation. There are various ways of doing this:

Questions to elaborate – these help encourage a person to clarify what they are saying:

• “Would you like to say more about…?”
• “Can you give me an example of…?”

Questions to specify – useful for getting to the facts of the situation:

• “What exactly do you mean by…?”
• “Can you recall what you did when…?”

Questions to find out about feelings:

• “Can you describe your feelings when…?”
• “How you do feel now…?”

Questions to draw on skills and resources: 

• “What do you normally do when…?”
• “Who have you found has been understanding when…?”

Expert advice

Above all, when giving advice, always be sure that this is based on the training you have received and not on your own personal opinions. And when providing customers with information, make sure that it is relevant and suitable to their needs, is accurate and sourced from reputable providers, and that it is communicated to them in a sensitive and appropriate manner.

 

There are currently more than 2.5 million people living with or beyond cancer in the UK – 400,000 more than five years ago