Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Exploring the needs, barriers, and motivation of Jordanian pharmacists towards continuing education

Sumaya Abuloha, Rawia Sharaydih, Mayyada Wazaify

Department of Biopharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan;

For correspondence:- Mayyada Wazaify Email: m.wazaify@ju.edu.jo Tel:+96265300250

Accepted: 17 November 2019 Published: 31 December 2019

Citation: Abuloha S, Sharaydih R, Wazaify M. Exploring the needs, barriers, and motivation of Jordanian pharmacists towards continuing education. Trop J Pharm Res 2019; 18(12):2687-2693 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v18i12.29

© 2019 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the needs, barriers, and motivations of Jordanian pharmacists towards continuing education (CE) as awareness of these factors may help in building a structured national guidance for pharmacist license renewals in Jordan.

Methods: A 19-item questionnaire was used to investigate the following aspects of continuing education: barriers, motivating factors, preferences, past experiences, effectiveness, and future development. A Google form of the questionnaire was designed and delivered via social media and official communication groups for pharmacy practice institutions.

Results: A total of 449 Jordanian pharmacists responded, out of which 77.3 % were female and 64.6 % between 20 - 30 years old. Community pharmacies represented 44.3 % of the practice sites. The majority of pharmacists (63.5%) showed great interest in pursuing CE and > 80 % agreed that CE improved their knowledge and was reflected in their practice. The main barriers to CE activities were poor timing (51.9 %) and cost (51.2 %).

Conclusion: Jordanian pharmacists show high interest in CE programs. However, time constraint, cost, and work responsibilities are barriers to pursuing CE.

Keywords: Barriers, Continuing education, Motivation, Pharmacists, Professional development