Impact of Three Continuing Education Meetings for Community Pharmacists on Weight Management

Overview

This study is a three-arm randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effects of 1-day continuing educational meetings for community pharmacists with three distinct educational methods: 1) Didactic lecture 2) Didactic lecture plus case discussion in a large group 3) Didactic lecture plus small group education with simulated patient Knowledge and attitude of the participants would be measured as the study outcome in three periods: pre-education, post-education and 1 month after the meetings.

The study is designed as an Instructor blinded-Randomized Controlled Trial. An educational need assessment is undergone prior to educational content preparation by interviewing 5 community pharmacists. After educational content preparation by instructors, the outcome assessment tool (knowledge, attitude questionnaire) would be designed by a distinct investigator. Closed and Open-ended questions are included to investigate different levels of Bloom's taxonomy. The questionnaire would be validated by specialists other than the instructors and it will piloted to investigate the reliability( Cronbach's Alfa \> 0.7). Community pharmacists of Tehran,Capital city of Iran, would be invited to participate in the study. The participants would be randomly assigned to 3 groups by random number table. Each group receives the same education content with a different method: 1. Didactic lecture 2. Didactic lecture plus case discussion in a large group 3. Didactic lecture plus small group education with simulated patient(SP). Interviewing with SP is conducted by small group facilitators with Brain Storming Technic. Each participant receives a compact disk which includes the educational material and he/she would be able to contact the instructors by phone or e-mail during the follow-up period. (Reinforcement Phase)

Conditions

Interventions

Eligibility

Locations (1)

Outcomes