Impact of a training program on pharmacists' with pediatric pharmacy concepts and basic pediatric knowledge

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Hospital Pharmacy

Abstract

Objective: To determine the impact of a training program on pharmacists' comfort with pediatric pharmacy concepts and basic pediatric knowledge. Methods: All pharmacists at our institution were invited to participate in the study. Consenting participants completed a baseline survey of 15 questions on basic knowledge in 5 pediatric topic areas (pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, weight-based dosing, anticoagulation, renal dosing, and common antibiotics) as well as 8 statements rating self-reported comfort with pediatric pharmacy. Following the pretraining survey, a training program combining self-study of handouts on the 5 topics with optional attendance at live education sessions was completed. Participants then completed a posttraining survey of the 5 topics including repeat comfort assessment. The primary outcome was change in self-assigned scores on the comfort-based assessment before and after training. Results: Fifty-two pharmacists consented to participate. Participants reported significant improvement in 6 of 8 comfort questions after training (p < .001). Those without prior pediatric experience had lower comfort ratings at baseline and showed significant improvement after training for 5 of the 8 questions (p < .001). Significant improvement in the proportion of correct answers on the knowledge assessment occurred after training, regardless of prior experience (61% vs 89%, p < .001). Conclusions: Self-study training with optional live education resulted in significant improvement in most self-reported comfort scores for pharmacists, particularly those without recent pediatric pharmacy experience. Pharmacists, regardless of experience, improved basic pediatric knowledge scores after training.

First Page

823

Last Page

829

DOI

10.1310/hpj5110-823

Publication Date

11-1-2016

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