Scottish pharmacists’ views and attitudes towards continuing professional development

Objectives To summarise Scottish pharmacists’ views and attitudes towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Setting Random sample of RPSGB registered Scottish pharmacists. Method A postal questionnaire of pharmacists’ CPD activity, views and attitudes was developed, piloted and sent to 2420 pharmacists. Questions were collated to produce total scores and to rate pharmacists’ motivation and attitudes to CPD separately. The number of CPD hours reported by sector and gender were compared (‘t’ test) and differences identified between hospital, community and primary care in relation to mean motivational attitudinal scores (Mann-Whitney test). Results Five hundred and forty three pharmacists completed the questionnaire (22.4% response rate). In this study 9.8% of the pharmacists reported spending no time on CPD. Comparisons of hours showed primary care pharmacists and hospital pharmacists reported similar times spent on CPD and significantly more time than community pharmacists (68 h and 66 h vs 45 h; P < 0.05). No statistically significant differences between genders were revealed. Internal reliability on motivation and attitude scores ranged from 0.74–0.83 (Cronbach’s alpha). Although scores were similar across sectors of practice in terms of motivation and attitudinal questions, statistical differences were consistent; showing higher scores for separate motivation and attitude among pharmacists in primary care than in hospital or community practice sectors (Mann Whitney test; P < 0.001). Community pharmacists had a statistically significantly lower attitude score than pharmacists in hospital or primary care sectors (Mann Whitney test; P < 0.001). Conclusion There is a section of pharmacists still not participating in CPD. Primary care pharmacists reported most motivation and scored highest in attitude score. Community pharmacists appear to be the sector requiring most support to increase not only their motivation to CPD but also their confidence and ability in participation.