Type and Extent of Opioid-Related Education Provided by U.S. College of Pharmacy Continuing Education Divisions

Abstract

Objective. 1) To quantify the number and type of new opioid-related continuing pharmacy education (CPE) activities offered by Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE)-accredited continuing education divisions (CEDs) at U.S. colleges of pharmacy from 2015-2018. 2) To describe the number of pharmacists who complete opioid-related CPE activities.

Methods. The data source was the ACPE database of CPE activities. Data was filtered to include college of pharmacy CPE providers. Six keywords (“opiates”, “opioids”, “pain”, “pain management”, “drug overdose”, and “opioid antagonist”) were queried for the years 2015-2018. Activity title, contact hours, activity type, activity format, and number of pharmacist participants were extracted. Descriptive statistics were used. A content analysis of activity titles was performed.

Results. Overall, college of pharmacy providers delivered 20.3% of ACPE-approved opioid-related CPE activities from 2015 – 2018. The number of new CPE activities increased from 249 to 297 to 349 in 2015, 2016, and 2017, respectively, and decreased to 342 in 2018 for a total of 1,237 unique opioid-related CPE activities. These activities reached 149,373 pharmacists and were most commonly affiliated with the keywords “opioids” (34.8%) and “pain management” (30.2%).

Conclusion. The opioid epidemic creates an opportunity for pharmacists to increase their roles in public health, but education is necessary to optimize these roles. Study findings indicate many pharmacists participate in opioid-related CPE provided by ACPE-accredited college of pharmacy CEDs. This number is likely to increase as a growing number of states are beginning to require opioid-related CPE for pharmacist license renewal.