A Palliative Cancer Care Flexible Education Program for Australian Community Pharmacists

Objective. To implement and evaluate a flexible palliative care education program for Australian community pharmacists. Design. After identifying pharmacists' education needs, the program content and format were developed. This included identifying expert writers to create modules, assigning education and palliative care specialists to review content, and designing Web hosting of materials. The program was comprised of 11 modules and 79 activities. Assessment. An average of 28 responses was posted for each of the 20 noticeboard activities. Of the 60 pharmacists who began the program, 15 contributed to the discussion group, with an average of 3 posts each. Participants' responses to an online questionnaire indicated the program addressed their education needs and improved their knowledge and confidence in providing palliative cancer care. Conclusion. A program that pharmacists could access at a time and place convenient to them via the Internet was developed. Pharmacists indicated the program positively impacted their practice.