Abstract
Several State Boards of Pharmacy have regulations mandating pharmacists to acquire continuing education for relicensure and consult with patients when dispensing prescription medicines. The impact of such regulations on pharmacy practice was assessed in this study. Prior to the study, the Kansas Board of Pharmacy had enacted such regulations, whereas Missouri had not. Baseline product knowledge on nitroglycerin patches was assessed in 313 pharmacists. Then a single-blind study design using pseudopatient and pseudophysician interviewers was conducted to compare verbally communicated product knowledge and communication style between 40 Missouri and 20 Kansas pharmacists that were randomly selected from the pharmacist pool. Results of the interviewer evaluations were compared to the baseline. Pearson's r was used to establish correlation among variables studied.
Results indicated no significant difference in the pharmacy practice between Kansas and Missouri pharmacists. Also, no significant correlation between written and verbal product knowledge, and no difference between communication styles were found.
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