Pharmacist-patient communication in Indonesia: The Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS) in a socio- hierarchical context

Background: Patient-centred communication skills are required for good counselling practice of a pharmacist. Little is known about the communication skill of pharmacists in the Indonesian setting, where socio-hierarchical gaps between health care provider - patient exist. Objective: To assess the communication between pharmacist and patient in an outpatient clinical counselling setting in Indonesia. Method: Data were analysed from 54 outpatient clinical counselling sessions conducted by pharmacists with their patients at a private hospital. Utterances in each session were coded and analysed using the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). The differences between the pharmacists’ and patients’ types of communication were analysed using Mann-Whitney tests. Results: According to RIAS, ‘biomedical communication’ was dominated by the pharmacists and ‘socio-emotional communication’ was dominated by the patients. Statistical analysis showed there was a significant difference between the ‘biomedical’ and ‘socio-emotional communication’ between the patients and pharmacists ( p <0.001). Conclusion:  Pharmacist-patient communication in this study was directed mostly towards a pharmacist-centred communication. Further investigation is needed to explain the reasons behind this phenomenon and to identify whether the same result also occurred in different settings.