Pharmacist health coaching for poorly controlled hypertension yielded positive qualitative themes including better understanding, realistic beliefs, and improved management of hypertension.
Does pharmacist-led health coaching improve patient experiences, beliefs, and self-management in poorly controlled hypertension?
Pharmacist-led health coaching for poorly controlled hypertension is positively experienced by patients and promotes better understanding and management of their condition, though it requires logistical planning for community pharmacy implementation.
OBJECTIVE: An exploratory qualitative study was conducted to explore how stakeholders - participants and coaches experienced, and made sense of, being involved in coaching for people with poorly controlled hypertension. METHODS: Two pharmacists provided monthly health coaching sessions to twenty participants for three-months. Qualitative semi-structured interviews of participants were carried out by pharmacist coaches at baseline, one month, and at three months post-study completion. The pharmacist health coaches were also interviewed. Participant and pharmacist audio-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically. RESULTS: Twenty participants with poorly controlled hypertension received health coaching. Analysis of the transcripts from participant interviews indicated the emergence of three main themes "beliefs about and management of hypertension", "reflection on health goals" and "understanding of and experiences from health coaching". Only one theme emerged from the pharmacist interviews: "logistics of health coaching in pharmacy". CONCLUSION: Analysis of interviews showed that participants experienced a variety of positive health changes. Changes included a better understanding of health coaching, more realistic beliefs about hypertension, and improved management of hypertension and health goals. Participants were also positive about their experiences of coaching. Interviews with the pharmacists revealed factors such as planning, teamwork, and time management which are related to the implementation and provision of health coaching in community pharmacy practice which could be overcome through consideration and planning.
Singh et al. (Fri,) conducted a other in Poorly controlled hypertension (n=20). Pharmacist health coaching was evaluated on Stakeholder experiences and sense-making of being involved in coaching. Pharmacist health coaching for poorly controlled hypertension yielded positive qualitative themes including better understanding, realistic beliefs, and improved management of hypertension.