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Volume 17 (1)
Volume 17, Issue 1, Winter 1997
J Contin Educ Health Prof 1997; 17(1):56-61
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
In-House Training as Part of an Activity Campaign in Finnish Pharmacies
Eeva Savela, MSc
Erkki Kostiainen, MSc
Hannes Enlund, PhD
A b s t r a c t
The Association of Finnish Pharmacies (AFP) has organized national activity campaigns
in Finnish pharmacies for several years. Each year, a specific, timely topic from the
field of self-care has been chosen. These campaigns have served mainly as a way to boost the
public image of pharmacies but also as a means to activate, motivate, and educate pharmacy
personnel on a specific issue. One essential element of these campaigns has been to produce
educational material both for the public and for pharmacy personnel. In 1993, the theme of
the campaign was "Stomach Problems and Their Treatment". Evaluation of the campaign
included measurement of cognitive changes among pharmacists and their opinions of the campaign.
Knowledge levels were measured before, immediately after the campaign, and 6 months
later. Seventeen intervention pharmacies with 100 pharmacists and six reference pharmacies
with 30 pharmacists from different parts of Finland participated in the study. The results
showed a statistically significant increase in immediate postcampaign knowledge levels in the
intervention group, but likewise a significant decrease at 6 months, although levels still remained
significantly higher than before the campaign. In the reference group, no statistically significant
changes occurred. Most participants found the campaign useful for keeping up their
professional skills in an area regarded as both interesting and timely. In-house training was
regarded as a comfortable and important means of education. The participants who did not
receive or participate in any training regarded their abilities to inform customers as significantly
weaker than those who actively participated in the training. The study showed that a
national activity campaign can serve as an important motivating factor both to arrange and
participate in continuing education. It was also evident that knowing that they were part of
an evaluation study increased the positive effects among the participants.
Keywords: Activity Campaign; Continuing Education; In-House Training; Pharmacy
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