University of Tasmania School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, Private Bag 26, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia..
School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.
Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2022 Nov;14(11):1420-1430. doi: 10.1016/j.cptl.2022.09.024. Epub 2022 Sep 20.
Although pharmacists are first and foremost medication specialists and suppliers, in Australia they are also ideally positioned within the healthcare setting to encourage and support positive lifestyle choices in the community. Little has been done to assess their nutrition knowledge in over 20 years. We aimed to explore pharmacists' nutrition knowledge and associated practice and to subsequently develop and evaluate a short course to fill identified gaps.
The General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire was revised for testing nutrition knowledge in the pharmacy setting. Once validated, the questionnaire was distributed to pharmacists using social/professional media advertising. A short course was then developed, and its effectiveness assessed on final-year pharmacy students.
Pharmacists' (N = 258) mean score was 89.9 out of 121 (SD = 10.6) with significant variation. Nutrition education provision in practice was provided inconsistently and was associated with how strongly participants rated their own knowledge. Most pharmacists (95.7%) agreed they are well-placed to assist in disease burden reduction through nutrition education; however, most (98.4%) felt their knowledge needed improvement. The short course was well received by participants, deemed to be appropriate in context, and resulted in a median improvement in matched scores of 14.7% (P < .001) with no significant decline in knowledge when reassessed three weeks later (P = .383).
Pharmacists' nutrition knowledge and practice was variable. Further education can improve knowledge without significant time outlay and is likely to improve associated counselling practices.
尽管药剂师首先是药物方面的专家和供应者，但在澳大利亚，他们在医疗环境中也非常适合在社区中鼓励和支持积极的生活方式选择。在过去的 20 多年里，几乎没有对药剂师的营养知识进行评估。我们旨在探讨药剂师的营养知识及其相关实践，并随后开发和评估一门短期课程以填补已确定的空白。
对一般营养知识问卷进行了修订，以测试药剂师在药房环境中的营养知识。一经验证，就通过社交/专业媒体广告向药剂师分发问卷。然后开发了一门短期课程，并对药学专业的最后一年学生进行了评估。
药剂师（N=258）的平均得分为 121 分中的 89.9 分（SD=10.6），差异显著。实践中提供的营养教育服务不一致，与参与者对自己知识的评价强度有关。大多数药剂师（95.7%）认为他们有能力通过营养教育来帮助减轻疾病负担；然而，大多数（98.4%）认为他们的知识需要提高。该短期课程受到参与者的好评，被认为是在背景下适当的，并导致匹配分数中位数提高了 14.7%（P<.001），三周后重新评估时知识没有显著下降（P=.383）。
药剂师的营养知识和实践参差不齐。进一步的教育可以提高知识，而不会花费大量时间，并且可能会改善相关的咨询实践。
