An innovative educational module for community pharmacists

Community pharmacists are integral members of the health care team who are ideally placed to offer and provide health education to patients in a timely and regular manner. Community pharmacists are highly skilled and knowledgeable health care professionals and, as with other members of the health care team, are assumed to have the skills to transfer their knowledge through effective education to the patient. However, knowledge associated with health and disease management is ever changing, and the need for pharmacists to effectively uptake knowledge and then transfer it to patients is one of the keys to effective disease management in the community setting. This article reports on an innovative approach to pharmacist education, utilizing the “Train the Trainer” educational model, targeting appropriate inhaler use by people with asthma in the community. We highlight the way in which an educational module based on theory can be effectively delivered to community pharmacists and feasibly implemented into practice. Following the implementation process, the innovative educational module resulted in improved clinical and humanistic health outcomes for people with asthma in the community.