Abstract

COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS’ PRACTICE AND PERCEPTION TOWARD CONTINUOUS MEDICAL EDUCATION: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Halah Mohamed and Tarig Osman*

ABSTRACT

Background: Continuing education (CE) is a part of the continuous improvement standard and a universal tool that enable healthcare professionals to follow lifelong learning which involves structured learning activities like conferences, workshops. Objectives: Assessment of community pharmacists’ attitude and practice toward continuous medical education program in Khartoum Locality. Design, Setting and Method: A prospective cross-sectional study was carried out during the period from 1st to 30th of May 2018, using a stratified random sample of Sudanese community pharmacies in Khartoum locality. A predesigned pretested self-administration questionnaire was distributed to 236 community pharmacies in Khartoum locality. Descriptive statistics were carried out to present the results for all study variables using SPSS. Results: A total of 210 (89%) participants completed the questionnaires, (76,134 respectively) were from central and peripheral pharmacies. The majority of participants were females (69%). Years of practice experience of participants fell in a group (3-5) years. (36.20%) Was involved in CMEP event in the last month, (71.10%) of them participate in a range of (1-3) CMEP related events and (54%) attended CMEP in the type of lectures. Workshops and with small group discussions were most preferred format for CMEP (58%). (52%) Preferred clinical skills and related topics to be necessarily covered in CME programs. Participants noted that barriers to attending CME programs were mainly lack of time (51%), excessive workload (43%) and high cost (43%). The primary motivating factor for participation in CMEP was to improve their knowledge (63%). (67.1%) of participants preferred CMEP to be mandatory. Conclusions: This study concluded that participation of community pharmacists in CMEP is very low, especially who working in central pharmacies. Workshops with small group discussions were the most preferred format. Pharmacists want to attend programs covering clinical skills and related topics. Participants suggested lack of time as a significant barrier. The primary motivating factor was to improve their knowledge. More than half of participants preferred CMEP to be mandatory. These findings help providers of CME programs to focus more on the pharmacists’ needs for successful CME programs.

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