A Survey of the Literature Evaluation Skills of Health-System Pharmacists

Abstract

If pharmacists are to apply evolving medical information to patient care, they must have adequate literature evaluation skills. To assess pharmacists' literature evaluation skills, a survey that included a case study similar to an original research abstract and five multiple choice questions related to the case study were designed. Of the 2,500 surveys mailed to pharmacists, 545 usable responses were returned. The average score was 2.2 (SD = 1.1) out of 5. Overall, 42.6% of the multiple choice questions were answered incorrectly, and 13.0% were answered “I don't know.” Most pharmacists (93.4%) were able to identify the objective of the study and many recognized that the study had not enrolled enough subjects to obtain meaningful results (52.1%). Fewer pharmacists recognized that, according to the data given, none of the “study” medications normalized blood pressure (32.8%), that the confidence intervals reported were too wide to yield accurate estimates (25.7%), and that an incorrect statistical approach was used (18.3%).