Online training clinical pharmaceutical apprenticeship course for reducing medication errors of community pharmacists

Abstract

Background & Objective: Medication errors are among the most serious problems affecting health systems worldwide. Pharmacists have an essential role in detecting and reducing these errors. So they should have the vital competencies. Materials & Methods: An online course was created and uploaded to the Syrian Virtual University platform. After participants electronic registered, the course was presented in 3 modules, each lasting 7 days, making the total course was 21 days long. Subsequently, a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design was conducted on 11 students. Data for both tests and questionnaire at the end of the course were collected using Google Forms™ links to evaluate students' responses and learning. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: Before the intervention, the mean and standard deviations of 11 participants' results were 55.27 ± 15.61, compared to 81.36 ± 14.63 after the intervention. There is a significant difference between the average grades before and after implementing the course (p = 0.003). There were no statistically significant differences between the average grades of students after taking the online course and their academic year (p = 0.273) or gender (p = 0.059). The overall evaluation of the course was positive. Conclusion: The course has been efficient and positively received by students with its significant impact on developing students’ competencies that will allow them to work professionally after graduation and reduce medication errors.

Keywords

• competency development
• e-learning
• medication errors
• pharmaceutical education