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Pilot Evaluation of a Nutrition Training Intervention for Pre‐Registration Pharmacists in Northern Ireland
Author(s) -
Douglas Pauline,
McGuffin Lynn,
Laur Celia,
Burnett Kathryn,
Ray Sumantra,
McCarthy Helen
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.907.3
Subject(s) - medicine , session (web analytics) , intervention (counseling) , family medicine , test (biology) , scope of practice , population , primary care , health care , physical therapy , nursing , environmental health , paleontology , world wide web , computer science , economics , biology , economic growth
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 (25 th , 75 th 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.