A pilot project to assess community pharmacists’ knowledge and caring behaviors for recurrent headache sufferers after a migraine-focused educational intervention

Objectives: (1) Compare pharmacists’ self-assessed knowledge of migraine before and after an educational intervention; (2) Compare pharmacists’ self-reported care behaviors following an educational intervention with a control group of pharmacists; (3) Identify interactions between the educational intervention results and individual independent variables. Design: Quasi-experimental, parallel design. Setting: Twenty community pharmacies in northeastern Oklahoma from March to May 2010. Participants: 49 pharmacists at one of twenty community pharmacies, with active and in-good-standing Oklahoma pharmacy licenses. Intervention: Two-hour educational session on migraine identification and current treatment. Main outcome measures: Compare pharmacists’ self-assessed knowledge of migraine before and after an educational intervention and compare self-reported care behaviors of these same pharmacists with a control group of pharmacists. Results: Pharmacists’ self-assessed knowledge mean scores were significantly higher post-intervention compared to pre-intervention (p<0.0001). Self-assessed knowledge was higher in the intervention group post-questionnaire scores compared to the control group of pharmacists (p=0.004). Intervention group pharmacists were more confident in their ability to maintain knowledge of migraine (p=0.04). No difference was seen regarding difficulty in providing care for a migraineur (p=0.16) or in how the pharmacists perceived employer culture (p=0.79). No significant interactions were found between the educational intervention and demographic variables collected. Conclusion: Attending an educational program on migraine improved pharmacists’ knowledge and confidence when providing care to migraineurs

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND ASSESSMENT A Required Course in the Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of Clinical Pharmacy Services

Objective. To develop, implement, and assess a required pharmacy practice course to prepare pharmacy students to develop, implement, and evaluate clinical pharmacy services using a business plan model. Design. Course content centered around the process of business planning and pharmacoeconomic evaluations. Selected business planning topics included literature evaluation, mission statement development, market evaluation, policy and procedure development, and marketing strategy. Selected pharmacoeconomic topics included cost-minimization analysis, cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Assessment methods included objective examinations, student participation, performance on a group project, and peer evaluation. Assessment. One hundred fifty-three students were enrolled in the course. The mean scores on the objective examinations (100 points per examination) ranged from 82 to 85 points, with 25%-35% of students in the class scoring over 90, and 40%-50% of students scoring from 80 to 89. The mean scores on the group project (200 points) and classroom participation (50 points) were 183.5 and 46.1, respectively. The mean score on the peer evaluation was 30.8, with scores ranging from 27.5 to 31.7. Conclusion. The course provided pharmacy students with the framework necessary to develop and implement evidence-based disease management programs and to assure efficient, cost-effective utilization of pertinent resources in the provision of patient care