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Table 2 Summary of training components for the pharmacists participating in hypertension training

From: Preparing pharmacists to deliver a targeted service in hypertension management: evaluation of an interprofessional training program

Training manual

Approximately 2 – 3 h of pre-reading (PRE-WORK)

 

Manual of compulsory pre-reading based on National Heart Foundation of Australia materials [19, 20], covering the principle concepts relating to:

• Hypertension (background overview): definition, blood pressure and health (complications), epidemiology, regulation of blood pressure (physiology)

• Management of hypertension: diagnosis and classification of hypertension, measuring blood pressure, steps to measure blood pressure accurately (including common errors in blood pressure measurement)

• Absolute cardiovascular risk: assessing absolute cardiovascular risk in hypertension management, Australian cardiovascular risk charts

• Treatment of hypertension: when to intervene in patients with confirmed hypertension

• Lifestyle modification: regular physical activity, smoking cessation, dietary modification, weight reduction, limiting alcohol

• Drug treatment: general principles, antihypertensive drug classes, selecting an antihypertensive agent, combination therapy, achieving target blood pressure, monitoring response to drug treatment

• Treatment considerations in patients with other cardiovascular conditions

• Hypertension in pregnancy

• Managing inadequate response to treatment

• Long-term management

Training workshop

Full day (including breaks)

 

Topic

Learning mode

Duration

Introduction

Brief lecture

15 min

Principles of BP measurement (blood pressure targets, approaches to measurement, salient points in measurement)

Brief lecture, practical workshop

30 min

Practical BP measurement (practical skills development in BP measurement using real patients and BP device; assessment of skills in BP measurement)

Practice workshop; competency assessment

90 min

Hypertension management (including optimizing antihypertensive therapy, co-morbidities and considerations for therapy, therapeutic recommendations in practice)

Lecture

45 min

Medication adherence assessment and intervention (barriers to therapy, how to assess and address adherence, Health Collaboration Model [15]), inter-professional collaboration)

Brief lecture

30 min

Case scenarios (four hypothetical practice cases which involved identifying individual patient treatment needs, optimal therapy and potential solutions (therapeutic recommendations), assessment of complex patients, supporting patients with multiple co-morbidities)

Workshop, group discussion

30 min

Case assessment (hypothetical cases scenarios to practice application of above content)

Written assessment

30 min

Process and documentation for the delivery of the intervention

Workshop

30 min

  1. BP Blood pressure