Patterns of Pharmacist Continuing Education and Concordance with Practice Areas in an Academic Medical Center

Background In the absence of recertification tests, pharmacist employers must ensure the competency of their staff for the purpose of patient safety and external accreditation. Objective An audit was conducted to determine whether pharmacists accrue professional education credit in a manner supportive of sustained proficiency in their area of practice. Methods Continuing pharmacy education (CPE) records of pharmacists practicing in an academic medical center during a single year were collected. Three researchers independently evaluated the content of each CPE course based on the course title and assigned a practice relevance score (PRS) ranging from 0 (no relation) to 2 (directly related to area of practice). The mean PRS of all CPE courses for each pharmacist was analyzed to evaluate trends. Results A total of 71 pharmacists accrued 1,279 hours of CPE during the study period; 63.6% of CPE was directly related to their area of practice, 24.9% was indirectly related, and 11.5% had no apparent relation. Residents had the highest PRS (1.88 ± 0.1), followed by clinical pharmacy specialists (1.68 ± 0.2), “other” pharmacists (1.34 ± 0.5), and clinical staff pharmacists (1.20 ± 0.5). Live CPE received significantly higher PRS than online CPE (1.74 ± 0.5 vs 1.31 ± 1.1; P < .01), and CPE that was taken at the end of the pharmacy licensure cycle was significantly less relevant (1.08 vs 1.60; P < .01). Conclusions The evaluation of CPE patterns by employers can serve as a useful tool for identifying areas for improving staff development, particularly within the context of continuing professional development.