Abstract
Abstract
Pharmacists are one of the largest and most accessible community healthcare professions and can engage up to four times more with patients than general practitioners. They are ideally placed to provide first line primary care advice to patients and the general population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a nutrition training intervention pilot for pre-registration pharmacists. A 21 item questionnaire with demographic, knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) type questions was administered to participants immediately before and after a nutrition training session. Questions related to the topics covered in the two day training session and included lectures, small group practical workshops and case studies. A Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test compared KAP scores. Ten pre-registration pharmacists attended the course and obtained a significantly improved KAP score after the training [P=0.008; median (25th, 75th percentiles); before: 29.5 (28, 32); after: 34.0 (32, 34)]. All participants rated the session in terms of content and delivery as excellent (n=7) or good (n=3) with reasons such as 'very informative' and 'practical' provided. The pilot session suggests that there is scope for improving pre-registration pharmacists' nutrition KAP in practice and larger scale delivery of this intervention is warranted with potential for positive patient outcomes.
Pharmacists are one of the largest and most accessible community healthcare professions and can engage up to four times more with patients than general practitioners. They are ideally placed to provide first line primary care advice to patients and the general population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a nutrition training intervention pilot for pre-registration pharmacists. A 21 item questionnaire with demographic, knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) type questions was administered to participants immediately before and after a nutrition training session. Questions related to the topics covered in the two day training session and included lectures, small group practical workshops and case studies. A Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test compared KAP scores. Ten pre-registration pharmacists attended the course and obtained a significantly improved KAP score after the training [P=0.008; median (25th, 75th percentiles); before: 29.5 (28, 32); after: 34.0 (32, 34)]. All participants rated the session in terms of content and delivery as excellent (n=7) or good (n=3) with reasons such as 'very informative' and 'practical' provided. The pilot session suggests that there is scope for improving pre-registration pharmacists' nutrition KAP in practice and larger scale delivery of this intervention is warranted with potential for positive patient outcomes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 1 Apr 2015 |
