The impact of continuing professional development versus traditional continuing pharmacy education on pharmacy practice.
BACKGROUND
The Institute of Medicine states that the new vision for continuing education (CE) for health-care professionals will be based on continuing professional development (CPD); however, information on the utility of CPD is lacking.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the effect of CPD, compared with that of traditional continuing pharmacy education (CPE), on perceptions of factors related to pharmacy practice.


METHODS
This 10-month, nonblinded, randomized controlled study recruited licensed pharmacists employed at a health maintenance organization (HMO). After completing a basic CPD course, participants were randomized to the intervention or control group. The control group was instructed to continue with traditional CPE. The intervention group participants completed 3 CPD workshops and were instructed to utilize the CPD approach for their learning needs. At baseline and follow-up, all participants completed a study questionnaire on perceptions of their pharmacy practices. The outcome measures were comparisons on follow-up and changes from baseline to follow-up in responses to the study questionnaire.


RESULTS
One hundred pharmacists were enrolled. The intervention (n = 44, 7 lost to follow-up) and control (n = 47, 2 lost to follow-up) groups were similar at baseline. At follow-up, a higher percentage of intervention participants reported that they had better interactions with other health-care providers (always/frequently 32% vs 6%, respectively) and initiated practice/work changes (always/frequently 21% vs 0%, respectively) (both p < 0.01) as a result of their education activities. Compared with control participants at follow-up, intervention participants reported that their education activities improved patient care changes (46% vs 23%), professional knowledge (34% vs 6%), skills (48% vs 17%), and attitudes/values (43% to 11%) (all p < 0.05). However, intervention participants reported more often that time was a barrier to completing education activities (75% vs 32%, p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Pharmacists who participated in CPD reported more often that their perceptions of various aspects of their pharmacy practice improved as a result of their education activities compared with pharmacists who participated in traditional CPE.
McConnell
Karen J
KJ
Pharmacy Department, Kaiser Permanente of Colorado, Aurora, USA. Karen.McConnell@kp.org
Newlon
Carey L
CL
Delate
Thomas
T
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004513:Education, Pharmacy, Continuing / Q000379:methods*; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations; D006801:Humans; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000523:psychology; D011361:Professional Competence; D011364:Professional Practice; D013192:Staff Development / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires