Impact of PharmD training on pharmacy practice among graduates of non-traditional PharmD degree programme in Nigeria

Background: Current trends in pharmacy require that pharmacists acquire additional knowledge, skills, and the right orientation towards patient-centered care. The non-traditional PharmD training tagged 'Special PharmD (SPD) conversion programme' was designed to equip and train pharmacists with a Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm) degree in requisite competencies to deliver pharmaceutical care. Two sets of pharmacists were therefore trained at the University of Benin between 2018 and 2020. However, there has been no study to comprehensively explore the impact of the training on pharmacy practice among the participants.
Objective: To evaluate the impact of PharmD training on practice among the graduates of SPD.

Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-guided web-based survey was conducted among the SPD graduates. The questionnaire converted to Google Form was sent to eligible respondents via individual email contact and pharmacist-designated WhatsApp platforms. Data were summarized with descriptive statistics. Chi-square, Mann-Whitney-U, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to determine the differences in participants' responses at p < 0.05.

Results: Sixty (42.7%) respondents had 11-20 years of experience in practice. A total of 109 (76.8%) self- sponsored the training, and 127 (89.4%) found the SPD courses taught generally useful. The experience gained (115; 47.7%) and the skills acquired (81; 33.3%) were the vastly positive impression that the training left on participants. Communication skills (112; 78.9%), drug information (108; 76.1%) and pharmacotherapy (105; 73.9%) were courses rated as extremely relevant and applicable to practice. Team or collaborative care (99;
69.7%); communication skills (98; 69.0%) and self-confidence in handling clinical issues (97; 68.3%) were the competencies mostly improved by the training. Almost all (137; 96.5%) encouraged the schools of pharmacy to commence a PharmD conversion programme.

Conclusion: The impact of non-traditional PharmD training on pharmacy practice among the participants is vast. Improved team or collaborative care, communication skills, and self-confidence in handling clinical issues were identified as core additional skills gained from the training. The overwhelming majority encouraged the commencement of the PharmD conversion programme by all the schools of pharmacy. However, the observed weaknesses need to be closely addressed for improved output.