(38) A Continuing Pharmacy Education (CPE) Program Assessing the Knowledge and Confidence Among Practicing Pharmacists

Objective : To quantify a potential knowledge gap related to CBD and CBD-containing products and implement a CPE program designed to increase pharmacists’ CBD knowledge and confidence in counseling.

Methods: A 1-hour CPE activity was offered as a home study activity from May 9, 2022, through September 30, 2022. Included subjects were practicing pharmacy preceptors in the state of AL who completed both the pre-survey and post-survey for inclusion in matched-pair analyses. The primary outcome measure was participant score improvement between the pre-survey and post-survey. Secondary measures involved pre-post comparisons on self-rated Likert scale questions (Scaled 1-5) concerning participant confidence in counseling abilities, answering questions, and ensuring patient safety regarding CBD.

Results: A total of 124 participants completed the course. After matched pairing, 64 and 56 individuals were included in the knowledge-based analyses and confidence ranking analyses, respectively. Participant scoring statistically improved on the knowledge-based questions between the pre-survey and post-survey (50.0% vs. 87.8%, p<.001). There was also a significant change in the confidence of participants from baseline on counseling a patient about prescription or over-the-counter CBD products, answering questions from other healthcare professionals about these products, and ensuring the safety of patients while using these products (Average Likert scale increases of 1.75, 1.73, 1.70, respectively; all p<.001).

Conclusions: Implementation of a CPE program improved AL practicing pharmacists’ competency on information about CBD, which lead to increased comfortability on counseling patients, answering questions, and ensuring patient safety.