Patient-Centered Communication and Counseling to Ensure Patient Safety Through Correct Use of Medicines: Experiences and Challenges

In this chapter we discuss experiences and challenges regarding patient safety and correct use of medicines. Patient-centered communication and counseling are essential in order to achieve this. Incorrect use of medicines endangers patient safety, and can lead to medication-related problems, which again may have serious consequences for both the patient and society. Some of the most prominent pharmaceutical factors compromising patient safety are: communication challenges, language barriers, variety in health literacy, and self-care without guidance from a healthcare provider. The common theme for most barriers connected to incorrect use of medicines seems to be communication. It is therefore essential for healthcare providers to have good communication skills and be able to provide patient-centered communication and counseling of high quality. This may be the path towards optimizing use of medicines and ensuring patient safety. To improve patient-centered communication and counseling, teaching communication, as well as training courses, should be included in the curricula for healthcare providers, in addition to postgraduate training.