Trends and considerations for interprofessional continuing education activities for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians

Abstract

Introduction: Despite an increased focus on the importance and value of interprofessional education (IP), there is limited literature on the extent to which IP plays a role in continuing education (CE) for pharmacy learners. Objectives: This study sought to describe interprofessional continuing education (IPCE) activities available to pharmacy learners from 2019 to 2023 and discuss considerations for the development of IPCE activities for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Methods: This was a descriptive study using retrospective analysis of data collected from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Provider Web Tool and the Joint Accreditation Program and Activity Reporting system (JA-PARS), the repositories for all continuing pharmacy education (CPE) activities and continuing education activities offered by ACPE-accredited CE providers and Jointly Accredited CE providers, respectively. All activities available from 2019 to 2023 were collected for analysis, with descriptive statistics calculated for activities in each year including the total number of CE providers, number of activities, number of activities per ACPE topic designator, target audience, and activity type. All analyses were conducted in R Statistical software (2021). Results: The year with the largest number of CE providers awarding IPCE credit was 2023, with a total of 105 CE providers. A total of 35 427 activities awarding IPCE credit were available to pharmacy learners from 2019 to 2023, with the largest number of activities available in 2023 (n = 12 184; 34.6% of total activities). Most activities available during the time period were designed for pharmacists (n = 28 115; 79.4% of total activities) and were knowledge-based (n = 32 627; 92.1% of total activities). The topic designator with the largest number of activities available during the time period was 01: Disease State Management/Drug Therapy (n = 16 806; 47.4% of total activities). Conclusions: While the number of IPCE activities has increased since 2019, additional focus on designing interprofessional education which includes pharmacy technicians, developing activities designed to help learners apply knowledge to practice, and designing activities around competencies reflective of team-based care is necessary.