Teaching and learning at the leading edge: Leading edge practitioners in community pharmacy

The UK pharmacy profession has undergone considerable change as a result of changes within the NHS. As a regulated profession it has an annual continu ing education/continuing professional development requirement for all membe rs. This article focuses on individuals in community (largely retail) pharm acy who were identified Dy hey stakeholders as demonstrating more effective practice than others. These we term 'leading edge practitioners' (LEPs). F rom a sample of those identified as LEPs and a corresponding (control) grou p not so identified from one health authority we explore differences betwee n the two groups with respect to approaches to learning and teaching Data c ollection consisted of three critical incidents per respondent, a questionn aire and a psychometric test (KAI). Half of the statistically significant q uestions identifying LEPs were learning and teaching related. Just under ha lf of the respondents told of critical incidents concerning learning or tea ching and the style of some LEPs' narratives was distinct, providing eviden ce of different emotional learning from that of control group respondents. The study provides empirical evidence for the levels of organizational teac hing identified by French and Bazalgette.