Patterns of Pharmacist Continuing Education and Concordance With Practice Areas in an Academic Medical Center

摘要

Background: In the absence of recertification tests, pharmacist employers must ensure the competency of their staff for the purpose of patient safety and external accreditation. Objective: An audit was conducted to determine whether pharmacists accrue professional education credit in a manner supportive of sustained proficiency in their area of practice. Methods: Continuing pharmacy education (CPE) records of pharmacists practicing in an academic medical center during a single year were collected. Three researchers independently evaluated the content of each CPE course based on the course title and assigned a practice relevance score (PRS) ranging from 0 {no relation) to 2 (directly related to area of practice). The mean PRS of all CPE courses for each pharmacist was analyzed to evaluate trends.Results: A total of 71 pharmacists accrued 1,279 hours of CPE during the study period; 63.6% of CPE was directly related to their area of practice, 24.9% was indirectly related, and 11.5% had no apparent relation. Residents had the highest PRS (1.88 ± 0.1), followed by clinical pharmacy specialists (1.68 ± 0.2), "other" pharmacists (1.34 ± 0.5), and clinical staff pharmacists (1.20 ± 0.5). Live CPE received significantly higher PRS than online CPE (1.74 ± 0.5 vs 1.31 ± 1.1; P < .01), and CPE that was taken at the end of the pharmacy licensure cycle was significantly less relevant (1.08 vs 1.60; P < .01). Conclusions: The evaluation of CPE patterns by employers can serve as a useful tool for identifying areas for improving staff development, particularly within the context of continuing professional development.