Wwham - notes relating to the second semester\'s pharmacy practice skills content on PDF

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notes relating to the second semester's pharmacy practice skills content on the WWHAM guide of introduction for patient consultations....

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WWHAM • WWHAM (Or “2-WHAM”) – Mnemonic used to support pharmacists and their staff – Open a conversation and gather information to help in diagnosing a patient's presenting complaint

Who is the medicine for? • Is this the patient we are talking to, or a carer / representative? • Special care with certain groups of patients What are the symptoms? • What symptoms does the patient have? – Open and closed questioning – Look out for ‘red flags’ – NB Special care for certain medicines: • Recent POM to P switches • Request by same patient for same product in short period of time • Medicines that may be abused such as kaolin and morphine, laxatives, analgesics • Other medicines that need pharmacist supervision for supply How long have the symptoms been present? • Patients should be referred to a GP if they have had symptoms for more than a certain length of time – This will vary depending on the symptoms / suspected condition • Some symptoms should be referred to hospital or GP immediately, such as: – Shortness of breath – Blood in urine, sputum etc. – Chest pain – Blackouts Action already taken • What has the patient tried already for their condition? Medicines already being taken for other reasons • Need to review what the patient is taking routinely – Could be prescribed or otherwise (including herbal remedies) – Could this medicine be causing the problem? – Will there be any interactions if you recommend something? – Does the patient have any problems taking

their current medicines? How to end the consultation • In Stage 1, students are not expected to make a diagnosis or to recommend an over the counter (OTC) medicine at the end of the WWHAM consultation • At Stage 1, you need to end the consultation by summarising the information that you have obtained...