Enhancing Anticoagulation Continuing Professional Development with Experiential Learning

Objective: This study aims to determine the value of including practical experiential learning in a continuing professional development (CPD) course primarily for pharmacists. The Management of Oral Anticoagulation Therapy (MOAT) course blends self-paced online learning with experiential training in an anticoagulation clinic under expert supervision. Methods: An email survey was sent to 186 graduates of MOAT in October 2017. Participants were asked to indicate their confidence in providing anticoagulation services on a seven-point Likert scale prior to taking MOAT, after completing the self-paced online module, and after the experiential component. They were also asked to identify the most important aspect of the course and describe their rationale for this selection. Results: 125 surveys were completed for a response rate of 71.4%. Most respondents were pharmacists who had not completed advanced clinical training or a prior course in anticoagulation therapy management. Participants reported a progressive increase in their confidence in providing anticoagulation services from baseline (mean score, 2.9), after completing the online component (mean score, 5), and after the experiential training (mean score, 6.2) (p < 0.001 for all comparisons). Ninety percent of participants indicated the experiential component was the most important aspect of MOAT, reporting this best prepared them to translate their learning to professional practice in anticoagulation. Conclusions: The experiential component of a blended-learning CPD course in anticoagulation management was a highly valued complement to online case-based learning.