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

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. METH...

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Autores principales: Sacre, Hala, Tawil, Samah, Hallit, Souheil, Sili, Georges, Salameh., Pascale
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Centro de Investigaciones y Publicaciones Farmaceuticas 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6763306/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31592035
http://dx.doi.org/10.18549/PharmPract.2019.3.1545
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author Sacre, Hala
Tawil, Samah
Hallit, Souheil
Sili, Georges
Salameh., Pascale
author_facet Sacre, Hala
Tawil, Samah
Hallit, Souheil
Sili, Georges
Salameh., Pascale
author_sort Sacre, Hala
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-67633062019-10-07 Mandatory continuing education for pharmacists in a developing country: assessment of a three-year cycle Sacre, Hala Tawil, Samah Hallit, Souheil Sili, Georges Salameh., Pascale Pharm Pract (Granada) Original Research 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. Centro de Investigaciones y Publicaciones Farmaceuticas 2019 2019-08-24 /pmc/articles/PMC6763306/ /pubmed/31592035 http://dx.doi.org/10.18549/PharmPract.2019.3.1545 Text en Copyright: © Pharmacy Practice http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Sacre, Hala
Tawil, Samah
Hallit, Souheil
Sili, Georges
Salameh., Pascale
Mandatory continuing education for pharmacists in a developing country: assessment of a three-year cycle
title Mandatory continuing education for pharmacists in a developing country: assessment of a three-year cycle
title_full Mandatory continuing education for pharmacists in a developing country: assessment of a three-year cycle
title_fullStr Mandatory continuing education for pharmacists in a developing country: assessment of a three-year cycle
title_full_unstemmed Mandatory continuing education for pharmacists in a developing country: assessment of a three-year cycle
title_short Mandatory continuing education for pharmacists in a developing country: assessment of a three-year cycle
title_sort mandatory continuing education for pharmacists in a developing country: assessment of a three-year cycle
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6763306/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31592035
http://dx.doi.org/10.18549/PharmPract.2019.3.1545
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