Survey of pharmacy preceptors' use of hand-held electronic devices

To describe pharmacy preceptors' use of personal digital assistants (PDAs)/hand-held electronic devices and drug information (DI) software for these devices and to determine whether preceptors believed that training students to use DI software for these devices was important.

We initially pilot tested the survey to 10 Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS)-Boston pharmacy practice faculty representing different practice areas. The questionnaire was modified based on faculty feedback. The final survey was prepared using eListen software and e-mailed in early January 2007 to 356 preceptors with an accompanying letter explaining the project. Preceptors were requested to reply by the end of January. Responses and free-text comments were recorded and descriptive statistics compiled.

152 preceptors responded (43% response rate). An equal number reported currently using a PDA in practice compared with those not using one. Of those not using a PDA, 71% reported having other DI databases at their site. Preceptors believed that the PDA was most useful for general DI, scheduling and planning, and performing calculations. Free-text comments suggested that students need to be able to evaluate DI software and not rely on it as the sole DI resource. The majority (96%) of preceptors believed that students should be trained on DI software.

Hand-held electronic devices were used by preceptors for a variety of reasons, and the majority of preceptors believed that training students on the use and evaluation of DI software was important.