title: The sustainability of improvements from continuing professional development in pharmacy practice and learning behaviors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the long-term sustainability of continuing professional development (CPD) training in pharmacy practice and learning behaviors.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a 3-year posttrial survey of pharmacists who had participated in an unblinded randomized controlled trial of CPD. The online survey assessed participants' perceptions of pharmacy practice, learning behaviors, and sustainability of CPD. Differences between groups on the posttrial survey responses and changes from the trial's follow-up survey to the posttrial survey responses within the intervention group were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 91 pharmacists who completed the original trial, 72 (79%) participated in the sustainability survey. Compared to control participants, a higher percentage of intervention participants reported in the sustainability survey that they had utilized the CPD concept (45.7% vs 8.1%) and identified personal learning objectives (68.6% vs 43.2%) during the previous year. Compared to their follow-up survey responses, lower percentages of intervention participants reported identifying personal learning objectives (94.3% vs 68.6%), documenting their learning plan (82.9% vs 22.9%) and participating in learning by doing (42.9% vs 14.3%) in the sustainability survey. In the intervention group, many of the improvements to pharmacy practice items were sustained over the 3-year period but were not significantly different from the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Sustainability of a CPD intervention over a 3-year varied. While CPD-trained pharmacists reported utilizing CPD concepts at a higher rate than control pharmacists, their CPD learning behaviors diminished over time.
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente, Denver, Colorado ; University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Aurora, Colorado.
authors.forename: Karen J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: McConnell
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Aurora, Colorado ; Kaiser Permanente, Aurora, Colorado.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Delate
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente, Aurora, Colorado.
authors.forename: Carey L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Newlon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004513:Education, Pharmacy, Continuing / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000523:psychology*; D013192:Staff Development / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Continuing pharmacy education; continuing professional development; education outcomes; learning behaviors; pharmacy practice; sustainability