Joint Online Seminar by Department of English and Communication and International Research Centre for the Advancement of Health Communication
Dr Bernadette Chevalier
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Alberta, Canada
Summary
All health professionals including pharmacists need effective communication skills to provide high quality patient care. Poor communication exchanges have been associated with lower patient satisfaction, treatment nonadherence and negative clinical outcomes. This presentation aims to demonstrate how theory-based research can be translated into communication skills lectures for health professional learners. Using the pharmacy context, this workshop is based on health communication research that invoked Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT). CAT-based communication training will be demonstrated using an introductory communication lecture provided to both University of Queensland final year pharmacy students, and to internationally trained pharmacist in a bridging program at the University of Alberta. This CAT-based communication training can be transferable to other health professional learners conducting consultative patient interactions.
About the Speaker
Dr Bernadette Chevalier received her Ph.D. from the School of Pharmacy at The University of Queensland where she also holds an Honorary Fellow position. Her Ph.D. research investigated the effectiveness of hospital pharmacist communication with patients during medication counselling. Currently, Bernadette is a Lecturer/Course Coordinator in the Certificate to Canadian Pharmacy Practice (CCPP) program in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Alberta, Canada. CCPP is a 10-month bridging program for internationally trained pharmacists and a requirement for the Canadian and Alberta licensing process. Her courses fall within the Behaviour- Administrative – Social – Evidence Based (BASE) stream, and include a range of topics from pharmacist-patient communication, interprofessional collaboration and communication to leadership and professionalism. Her other research interests include healthcare communication with patients as well as between other health professionals, pharmacy and interprofessional practice research, pharmacy education, and medication adherence.