Development of protocols for continuing professional development in pharmacy

Abstract

It has been established that Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is a process which most professionals need to follow to update skills required within the procession they represent. Pharmacists are no exception and the aim of this study was to develop and evaluate CPD record sheets for use by local community pharmacists. These sheets were finalised after a total of 101 cases were managed in a community pharmacy with the help of protocols on allergic skin, nose and eye disease which had been designed in a previous local study. Such protocols outline plans for management of allergic disease symptoms however they were considered to be too long for practical use by pharmacists. Hence before using them to manage cases tor this study the protocols were abridged and later evaluated through a panel of experts consisting of medical and non-medical professionals. Fieldwork entailed documentation of pharmacist intervention when responding to 101 cases of allergic skin, nose and eye conditions identifying compliance with protocols and areas requiring corrective actions. After the first 26 cases were collected, draft CPD record sheets were designed using detailed documentation regarding management of such cases. Such sheets were later used to document the management of the remaining 75 cases collected. Hence the practicality of the sheets was tested and necessary amendments were applied after all cases were collected. Pharmacist intervention was graded according to a pre-established scoring system and guides obtained were also recorded on the CPD record sheets. Difficulties encountered by the pharmacist were outlined on the CPD record sheets together with the respective CPD plan/s chosen. Out of a total of 101 cases collected difficulties were encountered in 37 occasions. Cases with difficulties included 18 skin cases, 12 nose cases and 7 eye cases. Neither of the actions planned by the pharmacist took more than a month to be performed and some actions were performed either on the same day the difficulty was encountered or the day after. Most actions were performed within a week of the difficulty encountered. All planned actions performed were completed within the established time schedule except one. Also all the actions chosen satisfied the difficulty encountered except two and in both these cases the pharmacist felt that further research would in fact solve the deficiency encountered. This was also recorded on the CPO record sheet. The most popular CPD action plan chosen was research involving related articles on published or online pharmaceutical/medical profession related publications. At the end of the study, an exercise was performed to determine whether CPO actions had any effect on similar cases which presented at the pharmacy after the CPD action was carried out. Analysis of a number of nose and skin cases was carried out since the number of eye cases was too small to offer enough data. Although, a number of similar cases could be identified for nose and skin protocols. no definite results on the impact of CPO actions regarding patient satisfaction could be drawn up since the number of cases collected was still too small for such an analysis. However, as regards confidence in the treatment of cases, it was noticed that the investigator was in fact much more at ease when treating similar cases to those which required a CPO action before. Also the pharmacist took less time to treat such eases and could answer questions poised by patients more fluently. When the need to discuss such cases with professionals of the expert panel arose, the pharmacist would contribute more and understand better the experience and personal opinion offered by the professional.