Introduction With the explosion of the internet has come the emergence of businesses providing on-line pharmaceutical services. In a recent survey of pharmacists, while 60 per cent of the respondents felt that the development of on-line pharmacy services was "unstoppable", few liked the concept or expressed any desire to get involved.¹ The reasons given for these responses included a fear that it would remove business from existing pharmacies and the perception that it would damage the professional image of pharmacy. This would suggest that although many of the respondents in this survey acknowledge the impact and are threatened by this new technology they have no intention of changing their practice.
This paper uses a case study approach to examine the effect of increased familiarity with the use of the internet through participation in an educational module, "Pharmacy and the internet", on the attitudes of pharmacists to on-line pharmaceutical services. Its primary objectives are to determine the effect of the module on the attitude of participants to the provision of these services by others and their willingness to change their own practice to incorporate new technologies and become involved in the provision of such services. This module forms the pilot of an internet-based continuing professional development programme, "Enhancing pharmacy practice', being developed by the virtual school of pharmacy practice,² within the pharmacy school at the University of Nottingham.

Method Six UK-based participants, all practising pharmacists, were included in the study. Data was collected over a six-week period from the logs of on-line discussion groups, personal reflective statements and from the reflective writing in assessment portfolios. All other internet-based communication during the programme, including e-mails and postings to a bulletin board, were also included in the study. Time-on-task logs which provided an indication of the time spent on-line, interacting with the course material and generated by the software used for the delivery of the programme were also collected.
Interpretational analysis of all the data was conducted by the investigators who were also the facilitators of the module. In the role of module facilitators they spent an extended period of time on-line assuming an interactive role with the participants. The comments, writing, communications and time-on-task logs of each participant were individually analysed and any emerging changes in attitude specifically noted. Using reflective analysis, data collected from the logs of on-line discussion groups throughout the study period were also evaluated to determine the overall feeling and attitude of the group.

Focal points

• An evaluative case study examined the effects of familiarity with the internet acquired during an internet-based continuing professional development module - pharmacy and the internet - on the attitudes of six participating pharmacists to on-line pharmaceutical services
• Data was collected from the logs of on-line discussions, personal reflective statements, reflective writing in assessment portfolios, internet-based communications and time-on-task logs and evaluated using interpretational analysis
• Analysis of initial on-line discussions suggested a general negativity of the participants to on-line pharmaceutical services
• Although this is still research in progress ,as the module has progressed and participants have spent an increasing amount of time on the internet, there appears to be a growing acceptance of on-line pharmaceutical services and some participants have started to explore ways in which they may use the internet to enhance their present practice
• Initial results emerging from this study suggest that increased familiarity with the internet assists pharmacists in overcoming a reluctance in using it to enhance their practice and to become involved in the provision of on-line pharmaceutical services