Explore

When a patient has agreed to receive more information, offer them an opportunity to ask questions. You could say:

• "Before I share the information with you, is there anything you’d like to ask me about the medicine?"

or

• “I’ve got some information here about using/taking this medicine, but to make sure I give you the information that’s most useful to you, please tell me what you already know about it.” 

This stage utilises communication skills – particularly around listening – to understand the person’s perspective on their new medicine. These skills include using mirroring, paraphrasing, non-verbal communication, summarising and teach-back as part of the conversation.

It is important to understand what people expect from their medicines so that you can tailor your information to this. 

Use questions such as:

• "What are you hoping this medicine will do for you?"

This focusses on patient-orientated outcomes (e.g. walk the dog without being breathless) rather than clinician-orientated outcomes (e.g. improve peak flow).