Mandatory continuing education for pharmacists in a developing country: assessment of a three-year cycle

Abstract

Background:In Lebanon, mandatory continuing education (CE) for pharmacists was implemented in January 2014.Objective:The objectives of this study are to assess 1) the overall adherence to the mandatory CE program, 2) pharmacists’ preferences related to CE, and 3) barriers to adherence to CE.Methods:By the end of October 2017, an evaluation of pharmacists’ participation in the mandatory CE program was conducted using electronic reports available in the Learning Management System (LMS). Descriptive results were presented as frequencies and percentages. In addition, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among pharmacists to better understand their preferences and barriers to their participation to the CE program. Finally, a focus group was organized with pharmacists who did not start their CE.Results:Out of all registered pharmacists in Lebanon, 68.30% started their CE and 25.6% already achieved their required credits. Among pharmacists enrolled in the CE system, the majority (69%) used the online courses at least once. Moreover, CE enrolment was similar among old and young pharmacists except for those newly registered. The majority of pharmacists preferred clinical and pharmacological topics, followed by preventive medicine and transferable skills. Barriers to engaging in CE were mainly work and family obligations, lack of interest, lack of time, and difficulties in commuting and technology use.Conclusion:Although results of the present study are similar to those in developing countries, the resistance to change is higher. The Lebanese Pharmacists Association [Ordre des Pharmaciens du Liban] should develop strategies to motivate and enroll more pharmacists in the CE system, based on the barriers and preferences cited in the results, while continuing to offer high quality and cost-favorable CE programs to Lebanese pharmacists.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Lebanese Community Pharmacists toward Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

“…An online software was used to randomly select the community pharmacies sample using the list of pharmacies provided by the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists (OPL). Similar methodology was used in previous papers [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35].…”

Survey on satisfaction and needs of pharmacists in prescription-checking training: a cross-sectional study

“…The survey in the present study revealed that the pharmacists had less exposure to clinical basic knowledge and frontier knowledge of disease treatment in their continuing education and daily work, which they generally considered lack of knowledge. Therefore, medication for common clinical diseases [16], frontier knowledge of pharmacy as well as key points in prescription-checking were typically demanded, followed by regulations, query tools and other aspects, while the demand for basic pharmacy knowledge was lowest. Furthermore, supplementary knowledge of tools, such as pharmacy consultation, communication skills [16], drug incompatibility, clinical test and popular science of pharmacy were needed.…”

“…Therefore, medication for common clinical diseases [16], frontier knowledge of pharmacy as well as key points in prescription-checking were typically demanded, followed by regulations, query tools and other aspects, while the demand for basic pharmacy knowledge was lowest. Furthermore, supplementary knowledge of tools, such as pharmacy consultation, communication skills [16], drug incompatibility, clinical test and popular science of pharmacy were needed. Prescription-checking is an important part of the pharmacists' services.…”

“…Nonetheless, online courses are constantly evolving, with advantages of freedom of study, anonymity, ease of use, etc., [34] but overlook the function of interaction [34], which can be considered as a complementary approach to gaining knowledge [35]. Pharmacists in some countries prefer learning online by themselves [16]. (2) In terms of frequency of training and duration of each training, pharmacists with different educational backgrounds expressed different needs.…”

“…Pharmacists in China must complete continuing education [16], but the traditional continuing education is not very helpful, which is similar to the situation in Lebanon [17]. In addition, practical experience is based on supplying medicine, which lacks knowledge and experience of medication, such as medicine review, pharmaceutical monitoring and rational drug use [18].…”