Clinical training program for staff pharmacists

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Education
• Clinical Pharmacy Practice
• Pharmacokinetics and Infectious Diseases

Background:

• Staff pharmacists require specialized training in clinical areas like pharmacokinetics and infectious diseases.
• Decentralized unit dose drug distribution systems necessitate advanced pharmacy skills.
• Existing training programs may not adequately cover these critical clinical domains.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a clinical training program for staff pharmacists.
• To enhance expertise in pharmacokinetics and infectious diseases within a decentralized pharmacy setting.
• To assess the program's impact on pharmacist knowledge and performance.

Main Methods:

• A training program involving lectures, readings, and practical assignments was designed.
• Five staff pharmacists received the training; three served as a control group.
• Post-training assessments were compared to pre-training scores and control group performance.

Main Results:

• Trained pharmacists showed significant improvement in posttest scores compared to pretest scores.
• Trained pharmacists outperformed the control group in post-training assessments.
• The program was successfully implemented at the Seattle VA Medical Center pharmacy.

Conclusions:

• The developed clinical training program is effective in enhancing pharmacist knowledge.
• This program provides a successful model for training staff pharmacists in pharmacokinetics and infectious diseases.
• The training approach can be adapted for other clinical areas of interest in pharmacy.