E-CE Helps Pharmacists Maintain Professional Portfolio, Tailor Educational Needs

Web-based questionnaires, which can be easily documented and tracked, constitute a feasible method of measuring the success of continuing education for pharmacists and helping them update their educational portfolios, according to the results of a study published in the June 18, 2012, edition of the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education.

The researchers sent 67 e-mails to the 6500 members of the Canadian Pharmacists Association during the study period including links to selected content from an online drug and therapeutic resource providing drug and therapeutic information for Canadian health care providers. Participants were then prompted to complete pop-up questionnaires covering the material. Questionnaires were submitted 4140 times, with 2775 responses coming from community pharmacists, 657 responses from hospital pharmacists, and 690 responses from pharmacy students.

The results found that 50.4% of respondents reported practice improvement after reading the excerpts, 57% reported learning from the materials, 57.4% reported that they were motivated to learn more after reading the materials, 75.7% found the information relevant to patient treatment, and 62.4% reported using the information in practice.

The study’s findings may help in the design of future continuing education programs and may suggest new ways for tracking continuing education requirements, particularly for pharmacists who find compiling physical learning portfolios too time-consuming.