Hello rxBriefCase! As a big fan of continuing education (CE)
programs, I am grateful for this type of unique pharmacy experience. The importance of continuing education
is unquestionable; as healthcare
professionals we are accountable to provide competent care
to our patients throughout our careers.
To accomplish this, we
must maintain and continuously develop our knowledge, skills and attitudes in
the ever-changing healthcare system.1
Over the next 5 weeks, I will be reviewing a current CE program
available for pharmacists as well as producing an e-Newsletter for rxPassport
and a mini-module in medSchool
For You’s Pharmacy Corner. I hope they will be as enriching to read as they
will be to create!
It is pretty incredible to see all the various roles and
components that contribute to the launch of a CE program. Understanding the foundation upon
which continuing education is based really helps you appreciate the time and
effort that goes into building these modules. Learning
to write continuing education content while simultaneously being a user of
these programs enhances all aspects of the learning experience.
In fact, practicing these different tasks – such as writing
continuing education content and participating in continuing education - in a
random order has been shown to result in better retention of concepts than
practicing them in a blocked order: this is known as the contextual
interference (CI) effect.2 Where blocking involves
practicing one skill at a time, contextual interference mixes
practice on several related skills together.3 This
technique produces enhanced performance across disciplines, spanning from
athletic training to problem solving in academia.3,4
This approach to learning is increasingly applicable when noticing
features among a list of competing alternatives is part of the task; contextual
interference helps learners to more quickly estimate the impact of ideas on a
case, which I know will absolutely be an asset in pharmacy practice! 4, 5
Again, I am so fortunate for this rotation – good luck to all you
lifelong learners!!
1. Canadian Nurses
Association. Professional Development. (2016). at https://www.cna-aiic.ca/en/professional-development.
Accessed May 11, 2016.
2. Lin, C.-H. J., Wu, A.
D., Udompholkul, P. & Knowlton, B. J. Contextual interference effects in
sequence learning for young and older adults. Psychol.
Aging 25, 929–939 (2010).
3. Pan, S. The Interleaving
Effect: Mixing It Up Boosts Learning. Sci.
Am. (2015). at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-interleaving-effect-mixing-it-up-boosts-learning.
Accessed May 11, 2016.
4. Helsdingen, A. S., van
Gog, T. & Merrie, Vannboer, J. J. G. The effects of practice schedule and
critical thinking prompts on learning and transfer of a complex judgment task. J. Educ. Psychol. 103, 383–398 (2011).
5. Hatala, R. M., Brooks,
L. R. & Norman, G. R. Practice Makes Perfect: The Critical Role of Mixed
Practice in the Acquisition of ECG Interpretation Skills. Adv. Heal. Sci. Educ. 8, 17–26 (2003).
