Abstract

FACILITATORS IN ATTENDING LIFELONG LEARNING ACTIVITIES AMONG FILIPINO PHARMACISTS

*Roderick Salenga, MPH, RPh, Arianne Diane Aninon, RPh

ABSTRACT

Pharmacists need to keep up with the fast evolution of the profession. This study aims to determine the facilitators to attending the Continuing Professional Education seminars and the National Convention, both staged by the national organization of pharmacists in the country, the Philippine Pharmacists Association. Attendees of the CPE seminars in 2012 were given a Likert-scale questionnaire ranking the top facilitators to lifelong learning. After identifying confounders using odds ratio, logistic regression analysis was performed. Similar analysis was performed when respondents were stratified according to attendance and non-attendance to CPEs in 2011. The top facilitator to lifelong learning is a personal desire to learn. Controlling for confounders, opportunity to improve ability to serve the community and keeping up professional ethics, were the top facilitators for attending CPE and National Convention, respectively. The top ranked for respondents who attended and did not attend their local CPE in 2011, are keeping up professional ethics and personal desire to learn, respectively.Facilitators to lifelong learning activities are mostly internal motivators.

Keywords: Lifelong learning, continuing professional education, facilitators, pharmacist.