Educational Outcomes in Vet 101; A Continuing Education Course for Practicing Pharmacists in Veterinary Therapeutics

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess the effectiveness of a continuing education (CE) course in veterinary therapeutics by measuring the cognitive knowledge of pharmacists as shown in their confidence level to: explain common animal disease states, summarize veterinary pharmacotherapy options, and explain important regulatory documents that influence the practice of veterinary pharmacy. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to assess the effectiveness of the CE curriculum. A one group pre-post quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the confidence level and application skills of the pharmacist-students. Reflective commentary was also collected. Cognitive post-course scores improved significantly over the pre-course scores on all 26 pre- and post-course survey questions. The Wilcoxon signed-ranks analysis for each question resulted in statistically significant levels thereby indicating that the increase in the cognitive measure was not due to error. The results show that an online continuing education course in veterinary therapeutics for practicing pharmacists can be used to increase the confidence level in the pharmacist’s cognitive knowledge and skills after completion of the curriculum. The online offering of this course appears to be an effective method to educate pharmacists on topics specific to veterinary pharmacy.