Counselling patients and interactions with our pets

1. 
   

   Recently I was interviewed by one of the professional pharmacy magazines  and started thinking about how I communicate with the puppies and older dogs.
   We have been breeding Aussiedoodles for a little over 3 years now.. I am certainly not a trainer yet or at least not the kind of trainer I hope to become.I hope to someday be an expert service dog trainer B"H Everyone asks me about training and of course I give a lot of basic information that I know and refer to some wonderful web sites and You tube videos, especially George Zak. Since my interview, I have thought a lot about how I train. And I realized that I use the tools that I used in the pharmacy. I evolved as a pharmacist and am now evolving as a dog breeder and realize now how much of what I used in my professional practice I now transfer to my pups. And how much more of it I can use..So here goes....

   Look into your dogs eyes, do not let your pup intimidate you. He is most comfortable and secure if you set boundaries for him. All he wants to do is please you but he needs to know how so COMMUNICATE.....COMMUNICATE...COMMUNICATE. With your smiles and positive reinforcement, your touch, learn how to massage him to relax him or her. Make sure he understands you.Since he does not understand your language, you need to develop your own personal language with your pet. Frustration in your voice? He does not understand that and it confuses him. Positive reinforcement and love and treats. We have an Aussiedoodle we brought back that was in a kennel for 6 months, without human companionship. He gets on fine with dogs but won't  go near a human. It is now 3 months since he's lived with us and he comes to me jumps on my lap, sits and licks my face. He still won't go near anyone else!
   
    This was a dog who I really had to learn to communicate with and he needed to feel loved and trusted. He has a long way to go and so do I! I teach the pups how to take food from my mouth and hands. Yup that's right. Gullie will now take a chip out of my mouth. It's a wonderful experience evolving into communicating with puppies and dogs but I am constantly reevaluating myself.... And I hope growing. I see meany changes in Gulliver, he jumps on my lap now he is not hiding in corners. He steps up when I hand feed all the dogs and waits patiently for his food. He used to hide under the bed in my study and I would shove a bowl of food under the bed. Slowly, slowly he started to come out and I sang to him or played music.
2. I am sharing excerpts from my interview as this interview has caused me to look at myself, and my relationships to my animals. I realize that I am an effective human communicator and now will be fine tuning my communication skills with my animals by utilizing similar methods I learned communicating with my patients.
   
   quote from interview
   

   You mentioned that, early in your careers, people thought the "young man sweeping the floor" was the pharmacist, rather than you. How did you help yourself get past patients' preconceived notions so early in your career? How often did you have to "prove" you were the expert to patients? How did you keep preserving?  In the 70s when I first graduated I found patients were not taking their medication properly and began spending more and more time talking with patients learning to discern who needed the extra help. Working high volume, I was always putting myself "out there" getting to know my patients. Pharmacists are the last heath care professional to see the patient. I began to realize patients were given the information, they just were not GETTING IT

   
   

   How often did you end up straightening out patients' insurance problems? Why did you take on this duty? Everyone that I could. Many taking hours and days . I remember staying till 9 pm, we closed at 7 to make sure a child had the preop antibiotic he needed that his parents could not afford to pay for. I  loved being  a part of the Target team. We were expected to counsel 100% And follow up with phone calls to patients taking antibiotics. I went back to get my pharmd as part of Nova Southeastern's  satellite program and was unable to finish the program but took all the courses I felt would benefit me in my practice  and did my statistical  research on how counseling patients taking antibiotics affected their compliance. It was a natural follow thru that I could combine with my counseling  at work daily. AND MY RESULTS WERE STUNNING; THE PATIENTS WHO REFUSED COUNSELLNG DID NOT TAKE THE FULL COURSE OF THERAPY. I MEASURED COMPLIANCE BY THE NUMBER OF PILLS LEFT IN THEIR CONTAINER

3. I learned over time how to communicate with patients. How to get their attention. and how to counsel quickly and effectively I used the Indian River method. Constantly asking the patient questions. Maintaining eye contact and smiling. I was not there to intimidate them. I was there to make sure they understood what I needed to tell them. Gone were my big glasses and tough demeanor. Twenty years later I was their friend, speaking on their level knowing they were sometimes scared, not feeling well and they often were in a hurry to leave. But I also know that over half of them never read their prescription bottle so I loved the show and tell method. I opened the bottle and sometimes made them hold it. All I wanted to do was make my patients proactive in their own care. 
4. No one  explained to them how to apply an ointment or use an eye drop. Patients would run out of eye drops and inhalers too quickly. So we put in a drop together. I would use a dummy inhaler on myself and then they would use their MDI<metered dose inhaler> for the first time in front of me. And as my patients became more proactive in their own care, my job became easier. Or deal with a panicked mother who was 1000 miles away from her daughter who needed  a Plan B one step.I didn't consider these things duties. It is how I define myself as a pharmacist.
   
5. What are some of the most memorable times you ran back to the pharmacy after hours to help out a patient?    I used to take my dog  Barkley with me and put him in a shopping cart and wheel him down the aisle which everyone loved. Most of the time it was a real emergency; A patients brother died suddenly and needed his prescriptions before he got on a plane.
6.  What made t worth returning to work? I define myself as a mother, wife and pharmacist. That is who I am and I love being in the pharmacy. When I got in the car and turned on the ignition the first thing I thought about was the most special "good deed" I did that day. I drove home many times exhausted, with a smile on my face. Every time I connected with a patient or caregiver, every smile that changed their experience in their pharmacy and every time I helped make them better patients; proactive in their own care and knowing they had the support of my pharmacy team...That is why I went back to work. I missed taking care of my patients. I missed the joy I felt in my work
   
7.  What sort of advice would you give other practitioners regarding this?  We are the last health care professional that a patient sees. Patients are often sick, scared, irritated, rushed and  do not understand  how to take their medication and how to be proactive in their own care. Today the most important thing we can do in this changing healthcare delivery system is make patients proactive in their own health care. We have to challenge that patient and establish open communication lines. The way we speak, hold our bodies and use our eyes plays an important part in being able to deliver the information so that the patient understands it and accepts his or her responsibility for his\her own quality of health care. Our professional relationships with Physician  offices needs to be handled in a similar manner. We are all tired, irritated and overworked. A smile and warmth in our voice is so appreciated. After all aren't we all here for one reason: to take care of our patients giving them the highest quality of health care that we can!