New educational materials about atopic dermatitis for primary care: pharmacy staff’s perspectives

Abstract

The treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD) in primary healthcare is often suboptimal, partly due to patients with AD receiving conflicting information from different healthcare providers and limited counseling by pharmacy technicians about topical corticosteroids and emollients. Therefore, the National Constitutional Eczema Project (NCEP) developed new educational materials (e-learning and patient information booklet) to optimize the counseling of patients with AD.

The aim of this study was to explore the perspectives of community pharmacy staff on new educational materials developed by the NCEP for both primary healthcare providers and patients. Dutch community pharmacies were invited to participate in this study. A mixed-method approach was conducted. Participating pharmacy staff members were asked to follow the e-learning and complete a survey about their experiences with the e-learning, analyzed using descriptive statistics. Additionally, one pharmacy technician from each pharmacy was interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide based on the COM-B model and TDF-model. The verbatim transcripts were thematically analyzed.

Thirteen pharmacy staff members completed the survey about the e-learning. Both pharmacy technicians and pharmacists found the e-learning valuable. Some technicians found that the e-learning was a repetition of information they had already learned, but all technicians mentioned that their education about TCS and emollients had improved because of the e-learning. Eight pharmacy technicians were interviewed about their experiences with using the new patient information booklet to counsel patients with AD. Technicians find the patient information booklet useful in the community pharmacy setting, but very comprehensive. To optimally educate patients with AD in the community pharmacy, technicians need more types of information materials besides the information booklet.

Community pharmacy staff members find the e-learning and patient information booklet useful in the community pharmacy setting, but technicians need more different types of information materials to be able to cater more to the patients’ needs. Testing by other healthcare professionals is required to ensure the uniformity of the new materials.