Which of the following are included in the items a pharmacist must cover when counseling a patient?

The inclusion of proper drug administration techniques as an essential component of patient counseling highlights the pharmacist’s role in ensuring safe and effective medication use. Counseling on proper administration techniques encompasses educating the patient about how and when to take their medication, which routes of administration are appropriate, and any specific instructions needed to optimize therapeutic outcomes. This knowledge helps prevent medication errors and enhances patient adherence to their prescribed regimen.

When patients understand the correct way to take their medications, including dosage times and techniques, they are more likely to follow instructions accurately, resulting in better health outcomes. This aspect of counseling is vital for complex medications, those that require specific timing, or drugs with special instructions, such as those that must be taken with food or at certain intervals.

While other options could relate to patient care, they do not encapsulate the critical nature of administration techniques. Storing information, previous medications, and the physical characteristics of a medication like color and shape may be relevant in certain contexts but do not have the same significance in enhancing the patient's understanding and ensuring proper use of their medications as the proper drug administration techniques do.