A web-based training program to support chronic kidney disease screening by community pharmacists

Background: Community pharmacists’ role in screening of several chronic diseases has been widely explored. The global health burden of chronic kidney disease is high; however, the progression and adverse outcomes can be prevented or delayed by detecting and treating the disease in its initial stages 1–3. Therefore, a web-based training program was developed to enhance pharmacists’ knowledge and skills required to perform a chronic kidney disease screening service in a community setting.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a web-based training program on community pharmacists’ knowledge and skills associated with chronic kidney disease screening. As secondary aim, pharmacists’ satisfaction with the training program was assessed.

Setting: Community pharmacy practice.

Main outcome measure: Pharmacists’ knowledge and skills scores at pre and post-training, reliability of the Likert scale, and the proportion of responses to the individual nine items of the satisfaction survey.

Method: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a web-based training program on community pharmacists’ knowledge and skills associated with chronic kidney disease screening. As secondary aim, pharmacists’ satisfaction with the training program was assessed.

Results: Fifty pharmacists participated in the pre-questionnaire and 38 pharmacists completed the web-based training and post-questionnaire. Significant differences were observed in the knowledge scores (p < 0.001) and skills scores (p < 0.001) at pre- and post-training. Cronbach’s alpha for the nine-item satisfaction scale was 0.73 and the majority pharmacists (92.1–100 %) were satisfied with the various aspects of the training program.

Conclusion: The web-based training program positively enhanced pharmacists’ knowledge and skills associated with chronic kidney disease screening. These findings support further development and widespread implementation of the training program to facilitate health promotion and early identification of chronic kidney disease in a community setting.