Investigating inhaler device mastery in pharmacist trainees

Background: Inability of pharmacists to master and train patients on inhaler technique during medication dispensing can lead to poor outcomes. Availability of more intuitiveinhaler devices may aid the training process. Aim: To determine the intuitivenessof device mastery of Turbohaler (TH) vs Spiromax (SM) inhalers among pharmacist trainees. Methods: Randomised, cross-over trial comprising 3 visits over 8 weeks. Training process comprised 6 levels: 1 – intuitiveuse; 2 – patient information leaflet; 3 – instructional video; 4 – expert tuition; 5-6 – repeats of expert tuition. Device errors (expert consensus) were evaluated by inhaler assessors. Participants moved through each level until no errors observed (=device mastery). Proportion of participants making ≥1 device error for levels 1 through 3 and impact of order of device use were evaluated (McNemar9s test or Fisher9s exact test; p Results: A total of 213 pharmacist trainees completed visit 1. At level 1, 16% achieved device mastery on SM vs 0.5% on TH (p Conclusions: SM was more intuitiveto use than TH. Significantly more participants achieved device mastery with SM vs TH at levels 1 and 2. Instructional video did not result in device mastery by all participants.