Society tests evening and weekend opening for CPD Online helpdesk
For the next three months the Royal Pharmaceutical Society is to open its continuing professional development helpdesk outside office hours. The extension is as part of a pilot to see if it helps pharmacists make more effective use of the online CPD resources (available at www.uptodate.org.uk).
In addition to its existing weekday hours of 9.30am to 4.30pm, the helpdesk
will open from 8pm to 9pm on weekday evenings and from 10am to 2pm on
Saturdays and Sundays. The helpdesk telephone number will remain the
same (01225 383663) but callers during the extended hours will be given
a freephone number to call for assistance.
The Society’s CPD manager, Fred Ayling, says: “We became
aware that many pharmacists record their CPD in the evenings and at weekends
and find it frustrating that they sometimes cannot get hold of a helpdesk
operative out of hours.
“
If they have a technical problem with CPD Online or CPD Desktop, they
can always e-mail the details of their difficulty, but they would have
to wait until the helpdesk was next open before they received a response.
With the trial of this extended service, it means that they can speak
to someone who can help for 13 extra hours a week.”
At the end of the trial the Society will evaluate whether it has provided
a useful service to pharmacists and has offered value for money. If it
is deemed successful, the extended hours will continue.
The helpdesk is operated by employees of Commercial and Academic Services
Ltd (CoAcS), which developed the Society’s online CPD resources.
Based at the University of Bath, CoAcS provides specialist software and
services to the pharmaceutical industry and health services.
The Society says that more than 16,000 pharmacists have already used
its online resources to update their CPD records electronically and many
more have used the website to access the information it carries.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal