What are the symptoms?
What are the symptoms?
By asking the customer about their symptoms you can often recognise the condition and recommend a suitable treatment. Asking customers about their symptoms will also enable you to differentiate between minor symptoms and signs of more serious health conditions. There are a number of serious conditions which display similar symptoms to less serious ones, such as meningitis which in the initial stages, displays headache and flu like symptoms but can be very serious especially if treatment is delayed by inappropriate use of OTC medicines.
It is important to refer a customer if you are concerned and they are displaying warniing or red flag symptoms. Devon Community Pharmacy has created a useful guide to these symptoms. Red Flag These symptoms can vary from condition to condition and each Counter Excellence module will highlight the key red flag symptoms.
Some of the most common red flag symptoms that you should be alert for in every consultation are:
- Severe pain.
- Pain that has started suddenly.
- Constant and/or gradually worsening pain.
- Recurring symptoms that have not improved after treatment.
- Shortness of breath.
- Dizziness.
- Bleeding.
- Confusion.
- Loss of appetite.
- Lumps or bumps.
- Unintentional and unexplained weight loss.
- Unusual sweating (particularly at night).
- Unexplained fever.
- Blood in sputum, vomit, urine or faeces.
The red flag symptom list is not exhaustive and your pharmacist may have additional red flag symptoms that they would like you to look out for and circumstances in which they would like customers to be referred to them. There are some key conditions with specific red flag symptoms identified on the Treat Yourself Better website that you may wish to refer to.
Remember that if you are unsure or concerned about any symptoms a customer describes, ask your pharmacist.