Perceptions of a newsletter for community pharmacists

Abstract

Objectives: Keeping Abreast is a newsletter published to emphasise the importance of pharmacists keeping up to date with advances in medicine and providing patient advice. The objective of this study was to understand the importance of lifelong learning within the pharmacy profession and to recognise the role of newsletters as a means of keeping abreast with advances in medicine. Methods: The newsletter template was designed to consist of two articles and an advert. Five newsletter issues were published and distributed by post to pharmacists in 208 community pharmacies (n = 1040), along with a questionnaire for evaluation. Key findings: A total of 669 pharmacists returned the questionnaire, so the response rate was 64.32%, with 71% of respondents being female. Pharmacists agreed that the newsletter layout was attractive (97%, 652) and professional (97%, 649), and that the font was clear (95%, 639) and of an adequate size (97%, 647). The articles were found to be interesting (98%, 653), informative (97%, 649), useful (95%, 634) and well written (95%, 633). Pharmacists agreed that article length should not be longer (83%, 556) or shorter (84%, 559). The language for the newsletter articles was preferred to be English (99.8%, 668). Unprompted, 11 pharmacists wanted more articles in each issue and four requested more issues. Positive feedback was received about the conciseness of the articles presented. Two-way analysis of variance showed that pharmacists rated all newsletter aspects equally but discriminated between different issues. Conclusion: The results show that such a publication is welcome in community pharmacy and is an effective means of health communication.