Where do Canadian pharmacists get their professional insights?
Pharmacy attracts life-long learners for a reason. Not a day goes by without hundreds of new developments that can change how you practice.
But where are Canadian pharmacists finding and sharing this information? For decades, Pharmacy Practice + Business has been proud to be a foundational part of the information infrastructure for Canadian pharmacy professionals. But we’re a piece of an enormous puzzle.
So, Canadian pharmacists, where and how are your peers learning?
In early 2024, we conducted an audience survey to examine how pharmacists engage with medical media and other sources of information.
Webinars took the top spot with 60% of respondents noting that they've engaged with them in the past 12 months. Other popular source were provincial health communications (55%), websites (52%), regulatory body guidelines (52%) and e-newsletters (51%)
Virtual events were a fair bit more popular (43%) than in-person ones (36%). And as for other written material, print (43%) and digital magazines (37%) edged out scientific journals (34%) in popularity.
While there’s been an undeniable explosion of health information shared over social (and with it a deluge of mis- and disinformation), the pharmacists we surveyed use these tools more sparingly for medical info. LinkedIn (17%) and Facebook (15%) were the most popular, followed by YouTube (11%), Instagram (11%) and X (10%), while TikTok wasn’t at all popular (2%).
But, how often are pharmacists actively looking to refresh their knowledge?
Our survey found pharmacists use certain sources more frequently. Of those who peruse social media for professional insights, 75% said they access Facebook once weekly or more and 54% said the same for LinkedIn.
Following that, websites (54%) and e-newsletters (45%) were the next most likely resources for pharmacists to access at the level of frequency.
As for specific insights, Pharmacy Practice + Business readers said they want even more insights on new drugs (16%), pharmacy news (15%), the business side of running a pharmacy (9%) and more on clinical practice insights (9%).
Our survey drew respondents for 246 pharmacists, with 43% working in a chain/retail pharmacy, 32% in an independant pharmacy, and 15% in a hospital pharmacy.