The use of public health e-learning resources by pharmacists in Wales: a quantitative evaluation

The aim of this study was to examine how communicable disease e-learning resources were utilised by pharmacy professionals and to identify whether uptake of the resources was influenced by disease outbreaks.

Retrospective analysis of routine data regarding the number of individuals completing e-learning resources and statutory notifications of communicable disease.

A high proportion of pharmacy professionals in Wales (38.8%, n = 915/2357) accessed the resources; around one in six completed multiple resources (n = 156). The most commonly accessed were those where there had been a disease outbreak during the study period. There was a strong positive correlation between e-learning uptake and number of disease cases; this was observed both for measles and scarlet fever.

Communicable disease e-learning appears to be an acceptable method for providing communicable disease information to pharmacy professionals. Study findings suggest that e-learning uptake is positively influenced by disease outbreaks this reflects well both on pharmacy professionals and on the e-learning resources themselves.