March 1, 2004

“Learning the best medicine” for Irish pharmacists

The Irish Centre for Continuing Pharmaceutical Education (ICCPE) has launched its education and training programme for spring, providing continuing education that is open, live and electronic. As well as an impressive schedule of Live Learning courses at venues throughout the country, the ICCPE has modified and improved both its Open Learning and E-Learning programmes of study.

This term, the Live Learning programme is provided under seven key headings which encompass the varied tasks and functions of the community pharmacist. These are Therapeutics, Health Promotion, Medicines Management, Communications, Professional Issues, Management Skills, and Service Development. Several new courses are on offer and others have been up-dated and reformulated.

A central feature of the spring programme is the Management and Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease Roadshow which will be presented at 26 venues across the country. The course will be delivered by the newly established ICCPE tutor network. The network comprises pharmacists from all over Ireland who have undertaken to provide training in their own localities. It is hoped that this network will facilitate greater participation in continuing pharmaceutical education at a local level and increase contact between pharmacists practicing in the same geographical region.

Three new courses will be offered under the heading of Therapeutics. Chronic Pain Management in Patients with Arthritis will be delivered by consultants from St. Vincent's Hospital and St. James' Hospital and by the chief pharmacist at St. James' Hospital. These speakers will provide their perspectives on treatments and will discuss polypharmacy, drug interactions, contraindications and drug therapy monitoring. Evaluating New Medicines – A User's Guide will outline measures to enable pharmacists to assess claims made for new medicines and whether a new drug treatment has a strong evidence base. OTC Medicines will provide participants with the tools to more effectively manage sales of non-prescription medicines. The Palliative Care course has been reformulated with a special emphasis on cancer and HIV and will be delivered by new tutors: palliative care consultants/pharmacists from hospices in Dublin and Limerick.

Working at the Community-Hospital Interface is a new course delivered under the heading of Medicines Management. This workshop, lead by tutors with community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy and primary care pharmacy experience, will identify ways in which medicines can be effectively managed on admission to and discharge from hospital care. Talk Shop and What Patients Want are two new courses designed to enhance communication between pharmacists and their peers and between pharmacists and the community. Talk Shop will deal with measures for establishing local healthcare and educational initiatives, while What Patients Want will aim to ensure that the aspiration of patient-centred care is put into practice in all areas of the pharmacy.

An Inspector Calls is a course aimed at demystifying the process of pharmacy inspection. It will seek to present the prospect of inspection as an opportunity to demonstrate excellence in practice and as a means of facilitating professional development. It will be delivered by Damhnait Gaughan, an Inspector with the Pharmaceutical Society. Continuous Professional Development will focus on the application of new skills and knowledge to daily pharmaceutical practice. Participants in this course will identify their individual training needs and will be encouraged to develop a personal action plan to address these needs.

As well as changes in the delivery of live training, the ICCPE has developed its Open Learning and E-Learning programmes. A number of previous Open Learning titles have been removed and the ICCPE will be introducing more up-to-date courses tailored specifically to the needs of Irish pharmacists and qualified assistants. The first Open Learning module written specifically for Irish pharmacy is Managing Diabetes in Pharmacy which will be available in May. New E-Learning titles (delivered on CD Rom) will include Smoking Cessation for Patients, an interactive counselling tool which will enable pharmacists to assist customers to quit smoking, and Evaluating Clinical Papers, a course designed to help pharmacists develop their evaluation skills.

A full list of course titles, dates, times and venues for live training courses is printed in the ICCPE Spring Programme 2004, alongside comprehensive details on self-study courses. All courses are open to pharmacists, qualified assistants and pre-registration students.

For further information, contact:
Julie Cronin,
e-mail:
mobile: 086 080 1447