CRN gives educational grant to Pharmacy Practice
WASHINGTON The CRN Foundation, an educational foundation formed by the Council for Responsible Nutrition, on Tuesday announced it has provided an educational grant to Pharmacy Practice, a sister publication of Drug Store News, to develop a continuing education module for pharmacists around the use of dietary supplements for the second year.
“Nearly 40% of consumers from the CRN Consumer Survey on Dietary Supplements cite pharmacists as a reliable source of information about supplements — second only to doctors,” stated Judy Blatman, SVP, communications, CRN. “And since nurse practitioners are often on the front lines of communication with patients and they focus on providing comprehensive, personalized health education, both nurse practitioners and pharmacists are excellent audiences to educate about the role that dietary supplements play in maintaining overall health and wellness.”
The grant will allow retail pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to receive CE credits from two different courses via on-line webinars. Drug Store News markets the program to pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy schools through a series of promotional emails, postcards and advertisements placed in the publication.
The first course — “Managing Joint and Bone Health and Dietary Supplements” — was held late last week with speaker Jason Theodosakis. The second course — “Women’s Health and Dietary Supplements” — will be held in November and will feature Tori Hudson as the educator.
The archived webinars will be accessible on www.cedrugstorenews.com for three years, CRN stated. Pharmacists who successfully complete each webinar will receive one contact hour of CE credit.
Similar to last year, the educational grant will also allow for continuing education programs to appear in print — however, the audience for this year’s print CE lessons will be nurse practitioners, Blatman noted. Two in-print CE lessons will run in Retail Clinician, a Drug Store News publication that reaches nurse practitioners practicing in a retail settting , with the first CE lesson being an adaptation of the 2008 in-print lesson to pharmacists, “The Regulation of Dietary Supplements,” by Annette Dickinson. This lesson ran in the August 2009 issue of Retail Clinician and will be available on-line for one year.
Hudson will also adapt her pharmacists’ webinar lesson on women’s health and dietary supplements to an in-print version for nurse practitioners. This lesson is set to run in the November 2009 issue of Retail Clinician and will also be available on-line for one year. Nurse practitioners who complete the print program will receive continuing education credit corresponding to each lesson.
“We are pleased to again have the opportunity to receive this educational grant from CRN and work with such a well-respected organization,” stated Crystal Lennartz, director, continuing education, Drug Store News. “Both pharmacists and nurse practitioners are eager for information on health and nutrition, including dietary supplements, so these programs are a great fit to keep these healthcare professionals well-informed and well-educated on the important role that dietary supplements play in overall health and wellness.”