The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 268 No 7191 465-468
6 April 2002

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  Childhood vaccination
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Letters to the Editor

CPD

Fit the courses to the horses

From Mr P. Jenkins, FRPharmS

The reason for the unedifying argument over continuing professional development in the letters column is the way the subject is being handled. I cannot believe any pharmacist is against CPD per se but rather against what appears to be the heavy-handed way it is being rolled out.

Just as our various jobs are different, so our needs for further training differ; it is, after all, personal development. A busy community pharmacist dealing with patients needs to be expert in advising them and satisfying their queries in an easily understandable manner.

The need is for information in a form that can be passed on to the less informed. This is not superficial knowledge, for if it is to be properly understood it will have a profound effect on patient compliance. The pharmacist can dig deeper into any drug or condition but it is the patient communication that is of greatest use to them in doing their job.

They also need up-to-the-minute information on fads, scares and medicines making the headlines. The internet is an excellent source for this knowledge and so are the health columns of newspapers. Before anyone gets patronising about these, let them try to better an article produced by an established, well-connected, medical print journalist the morning after a story breaks. It gives the information needed in a manner that can be passed on.

A pharmaceutical adviser, whose job it is to discuss with and lead other professionals — not just pharmacists — needs a much greater depth and width of training and knowledge of drugs. They have the time for study since it is part of their job. They can assimilate detailed knowledge, since this is their chosen field, ploughed every day. I would suggest neither of these two groups could fill the other’s role.

There is a third group of pharmacists: those who attend all possible events on almost any subject. Not everyone has that luxury of time and they must not be held up as best practice.

The real resistance to continuing professional development is to the manner of its imposition. Working in community pharmacy is becoming harder, and this is seen as a further burden. Perhaps it is just the way the subject is being rolled out from Lambeth that is causing the upset. Perhaps the need is to fit the courses to the horses more sensitively.

Peter Jenkins
Abercynon, South Wales

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