Strengthening pharmaceutical care education in Ethiopia through instructional collaboration

Abstract

Objective. To describe the development, implementation, and initial outcomes of a pharmaceutical care training-of-trainers course developed to assist Ethiopian pharmacy faculty members and graduate students in the development of curriculum and provision of pharmaceutical care services of relevance to this low-income country. Design. In this collaboration, US and Ethiopian faculty members worked together in a week-long seminar and in hospital ward rounds to develop and offer a course to facilitate faculty members, curricular, and service development in pharmaceutical care in Ethiopia. Assessment. Assessments were conducted during the seminar, immediately post-seminar, at 3 months post-seminar, and at 1 year post-seminar. An examination was administered at the conclusion of the course to assess immediate learning outcomes for the graduate students. Post-course assessments of short-term (3-month) and longer-term (12-month) impact were conducted to identify pharmaceutical care services that had been implemented to assess knowledge and skill gained during the seminar. Correspondence between seminar participants and the US faculty members as well as graduate student thesis projects provided further evidence of changes at 3 and 12 months post-course. Conclusion. Pharmaceutical care training was developed for Ethiopian faculty members through a seminar and hospital ward rounds. Enhancements have been added to curricula for bachelor in pharmacy students and select pharmaceutical care services have been implemented through master's thesis projects.