A year of educating pharmacists in sleep health
By Stacey Putland
13 September 2024
In September 2023, the Australasian Sleep Association won a two-year Commonwealth grant to increase the knowledge and skills of pharmacists in insomnia and sleep health management. In the first year of the program, we have provided education to over 1,500 pharmacists via face-to-face and online workshops, conferences presentations and journal articles. The education program is predicted to reach over 4,000 pharmacists by mid-2025.
In addition, we have conducted three research activities to inform the education program and have developed a Sleep Health Action Plan and new online resource hub for pharmacists and other primary care providers (www.sleepcentral.org.au).
The success of the grant program so far is due to our expert Steering Committee, diverse and passionate Stakeholder Group, committed ASA staff team and consortium partners the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, the Sleep Health Foundation and the University of Sydney. Thank you to all those who have and continue to be involved in the application, planning and delivery of these activities.
Australian Pharmacist Journal
Seven articles have been published (or are about to be published) in Australian Pharmacist. Over 1,000 pharmacists have already completed the continuing professional development questions associated with our first four articles, with the last three just published this month in a special “sleep focus” issue of the journal.
- Insomnia: a Home Medicines Review case study
- Comorbid insomnia and sleep apnoea (COMISA)
- Bedtime without benzodiazepines and ‘Zzz-drugs’
- Beyond sleep hygiene
- Fixing your Zzz in the pharmacy: use of non-prescription sleep aids (pending)
- Insomnia in aged care (pending)
- Emerging treatments in insomnia (pending).
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
The PSA has worked with us to deliver a range of in-person and virtual events. Six events have been completed (five workshops and one conference presentation), with around another 14 events still to come before the end of the program.
Pharmacy groups
We’ve been working with the large pharmacy groups to plan activities that will reach approximately 1500 pharmacists. We will conduct six face-to-face workshops at TerryWhite Chemmart pharmacist masterclasses and will co-create one on-demand online module for Chemist Warehouse pharmacists.
Research activities
A consumer survey of over 400 Australians with insomnia symptoms to understand their experiences, needs, expectations and preferences for pharmacy services in sleep health.
A simulated patient audit of 130 community pharmacies through Australia to understand how pharmacists currently respond to cases of chronic insomnia in practice. A big thank you to our NEST members who enthusiastically committed to be research assistants on this project, which included training on the simulated patient method, a semi-structured chronic insomnia patient script and traveling to various pharmacies across the country to anonymously act the scenario and capture the encounter.
A literature review was conducted by researchers at the The University of Sydney in association with the project to understand pharmacists’ current practice around insomnia management and their expressed information needs, and facilitators and barriers to sleep health care. The manuscript has been submitted to a research journal for review and publication.
We look forward to sharing the results in the final report next year.
Resource development
Sleep Central (www.sleepcentral.org.au) is a brand new online resource providing tailored sleep health education, information and resources for pharmacists and health care providers. The goal is to help improve sleep health, prevent sleep problems, and support the diagnosis and management of sleep disorders.
The Sleep Health Action Plan is a new tool designed to be completed collaboratively by primary care providers and their patients with sleep difficulties or sleep medication use. The Action Plan underwent several rounds of co-design and feedback with the Steering Committee and Stakeholder Group and has undergone two pilot testing phases with consumers and pharmacists. It will be available on Sleep Central for download and general use later this month.
Thank you to everyone who has supported the project and provided their considerable sleep and pharmacy expertise to our activities.
If you are interested in becoming involved or finding out more, please contact me ([email protected]).