Professional Development Education use by Pharmacists: Exploring Organizational Context in Knowledge Translation to Practice

Abstract

Pharmacists are required to engage in professional development activities to maintain their professional licenses. The greater purpose of professional development or continuing education (CE) is to maintain and enhance competency to improve patient care. The context in which knowledge gained through CE is most effectively utilized by pharmacists for patient care has not been extensively studied. This exploratory quantitative study examines Alberta pharmacists’ perceptions of their workplace context and the organizational factors they perceive influence utilization of knowledge gained through participation in CE in this setting. It explores the contextual workplace factors that hamper, enhance, or influence pharmacists’ perceived utilization in clinical practice of knowledge gained. This study determines the extent to which Alberta pharmacists perceive that their research-based learning, acquired through CE, is actually translated into clinical practice, known as knowledge translation (KT), and what aspects of their organizational workplace facilitate or hamper this process. Change theory, supported by a KT framework, forms the theoretical basis in which this study is embedded. The study gathered data from an online questionnaire of Alberta hospital and community pharmacists drawn from the Alberta College of Pharmacists, Alberta Health Services, and the Alberta Pharmacists’ Association. The study used the Alberta Context Tool to gather pharmacist’s perceptions. A factor analysis of the survey tool resulted in a 14 factor solution explaining 65.67% of the total variability. These results support the validity of the tool in the pharmacist population. There was a statistically significant difference between hospital and community pharmacists on all dimensions of the ACT except for space and time, indicating that their perceptions differ regarding organizational influences on knowledge translation in clinical care. Multiple regression examining the ACT dimensions and demographic covariates appeared to have some predictability on the informal and formal interactions dimensions of the ACT and type of pharmacy practice. Qualitative data indicated that pharmacists perceived that time and staffing were the most important factors influencing their use of CE in patient care but other factors not addressed in the survey were also perceived to be important.