Novel educational training program for community pharmacists

There is little evidence that workshops alone have a lasting impact on the day-to-day practice of participants. The current paper examined a strategy to increase generalization and maintenance of skills in the natural environ ment using pseudo-patients and immediate performance feedback to reinforce skills acquisition. A random half of pharmacies (N=30) took part in worksho p training aimed at optimizing consumers' use of nonprescription analgesic products. Pharmacies in the training group also received performance feedba ck on their adherence to the recommended protocol. Feedback occurred immedi ately after a pseudo-patient visit in which confederates posed as purchaser s of analgesics, and combined positive and corrective elements. Trained pha rmacists were significantly more accurate at identifying people who misused the medication (P<0.001). The trained pharmacists were more likely than co ntrols to use open-ended questions (P<0.001), assess readiness to change pr oblematic use (P <0.001), and to deliver a brief intervention that was tail ored to the person's commitment to alter his/her usage (P <0.001). Particip ants responded to the feedback positively. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that when workshop is combined with on-site performance feedbac k, it enhances practitioners' adherence to protocols in the natural setting .