A Survey of Interpersonal Skills Teaching in Pharmacy Schools in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Increasing recognition is being given to interpersonal communication as a fundamentally important aspect of professional pharmacy practice. However, it is not yet clear to what extent communication skills training (CST) has been incorporated into the undergraduate curriculum. Accordingly, an investigation was carried out to determine the status of CST in the undergraduate curriculum in Schools of Pharmacy in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Questionnaires were mailed to all such schools and a 100 per cent response rate was obtained. Fifteen out of the eighteen schools indicated a communication focus within the curriculum. However, detailed analysis of the responses revealed wide disparity between different schools in terms of commitment to th is area of study. The findings are discussed in the context of pharmacy education and training.