There is a section of pharmacists still not participating in CPD. Primary care pharmacists reported most motivation and scored highest in attitude score. Community pharmacists appear to be the sector requiring most support to increase not only their motivation to CPD but also their confidence and ability in participation.

Objective. To evaluate virtual patient (VP) programs for injecting equipment provision (IEP) and opiate substitution therapy (OST) services with respect to confidence and knowledge among preregistration pharmacist trainees. Methods. Preregistration trainee pharmacists pilot-tested the VP programs and were invited to complete pre/post and 6-month assessments of knowledge and perceived confidence. Results. One hundred six trainees participated and completed the pre/postassessments. Forty-six (43.4%) participants repeated the assessments at six months. Scores in perceived confidence increased in all domains at both time points postprogram. Knowledge scores were greater posteducation than preeducation. Knowledge scores were also greater six months after education than preeducation. Knowledge scores at six months were lower than posteducation for both programs. Conclusion. Virtual patients programs increased preregistration pharmacists' knowledge and confidence with regard to IEP and OST immediately after use and at six months postprogram. There was a loss of clinical knowledge over time but confidence change was sustained.

Using principal component analysis has identified four factors associated with Scottish pharmacists' views and attitudes to CPD. This may provide an approach to facilitate comparison of CPD views and attitudes with intra and inter professional groupings. Further study may allow identification of good practice and solutions to common CPD issues.

The pilot study presented here is part of a larger project identifying and investigating the factors influencing errors in prescribing and dispensing drugs known to be of high risk: prednisolone, warfarin, lisinopril, morphine, carbamazepine, digoxin and methotrexate. This work has highlighted the central role that general practice (GP) receptionists have in the prescribing process and the importance of their perspectives in understanding how medication errors occur in general practice. Receptionists within Greater Glasgow were purposively sampled from a survey of personal experience of errors involving the drugs of interest. Five one-to-one in-depth interviews and one group interview with receptionists were conducted, exploring the perceptions of receptionists about the factors that influence errors. Four themes emerged from the interviews, related to receptionists' perceptions of factors influencing errors: trust in the GP to check prescriptions; the receptionists' role of communicating with patients; workload; and the hospital-surgery link. This research illustrates the important contribution that receptionists can make to understanding how errors occur in general practice. Receptionists have responsibilities for the continuation of care by communicating with patients, doctors and external care providers and they perceive that problems in communication with these parties can develop into medicine-related errors. These findings may inform educational outcomes for receptionists including involvement in the practice's protected learning time and interpersonal skills development, as well as improved communication skills in other health professionals.