Continuing Pharmacy Education

Raabe College is committed to assuring that all students receive the finest education possible and is now offering continuing education to pharmacy professionals through distance learning methods. Our faculty members are dedicated scholars with a desire to assist student learning. We welcome your inquiries regarding the profession and our academic program. To learn more, click on any of the listings below.

Online Courses:

NOTE: Registering for courses has changed. Once you login to pay for your course, you must remember to write down the enrollment key. You will need the enrollment key to access your course(s). If you already have an enrollment key, click here to access our new course management site.

The Ampul

Management of Bariatric Surgery Patients: Implications for Pharmacy Practice (Expires September 16, 2013)

Obesity is a growing epidemic in the United States and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Traditional treatments, including lifestyle changes and pharmacological treatments, are generally ineffective. Bariatric surgery offers an effective treatment for obesity in certain patients, producing significant, long-term weight loss and reduction in the complications associated with obesity, including improvements in concurrent disease states and life expectancy.  More...

General Continuing Education Programs

Emergency Contraception and the Use of Levonorgestrel (Expires August 4, 2015) NOTE:  This CE does NOT require an enrollment key and can be found by using this link.

Unintended pregnancies are a common occurrence in the United States.  According to the most recent data available, 3.2 million unintended pregnancies occurred in the U.S. during 2006, which is roughly half of all pregnancies.¹  Ongoing contraceptive methods are effective in significantly reducing unintended pregnancies.  However, there are an estimated 4.5 million women at risk for pregnancy that do not use a regular method of contraception.¹  The dispensing of emergency contraception can be used as an opportunity to introduce patients to other long-term contraceptive techniques while effectively preventing pregnancy when it was not their specific plan to have a child.  Table 1 highlights therapeutic options currently available in the United States for emergency contraception.  Levonorgestrel is one potential option for utilization as emergency contraception with documented efficacy and unique availability in pharmacies as a behind-the-counter product without a prescription for certain patient populations.  More...

Application of Pharmacogentics

This is the evaluation form for the CE article "Application of Pharmacogenetics" found on the Genelex website (http://youscript.com).  You may only receive credit once for this program. Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: An Overview for Pharmacists (Expires June 7, 2014)

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative muscular disease that predominately occurs in the adult population. The disease has also been known as motor neuron disease, Charcot’s disease, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.1 Prevalence of ALS is approximately 20% higher in men than it is in women. ALS is increasing in incidence at a rate that is faster than can be explained by the aging population. It is estimated that 5600 new cases of ALS are diagnosed each year in the United States, and that around 30,000 people may have the disease at any given time. ALS affects between 1.2 and 1.8 per 100,000 individuals. However, as this number takes into account the entire U.S. population, and ALS is a disease that most commonly presents later in a patient’s life; this number is heavily skewed when it comes to overall risk.  More...

Exercise Therapy in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: More Motivation, Less Medication (Expires June 7, 2014)

Physical activity plays a major role in prevention and control of insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, and type 2 diabetes, in combination with other lifestyle modifications. Exercise clearly has many health benefits, including lowering blood glucose and improving blood glucose management (meaning less insulin or other diabetic medications), lowering blood pressure and improving circulation, and lowering cholesterol. Furthermore, being active reduces risk for heart disease and stroke, relieves stress, and strengthens your heart, muscles, and bones.  More...

Over the Counter Medications Used for Cough and Cold Treatment in Children (Expires June 7, 2014)

Over the counter (OTC) medications have been marketed for use in children of all ages for years. These medications include analgesics, antihistamines, decongestants, cough suppressants, vitamins, topical treatments, and many more. In fact, there are over 800 OTCs just for the treatment of cough and cold. These medications are continually purchased; on average about 95 million packages of medication are sold each year to treat cough and cold in children.1 However, just because these medications are marketed for use in children, does not mean that they are safe or effective, and in actuality, many are not.  More...

Peripheral Artery Disease (Expires June 7, 2014)

Pharmacists play an important role in the care of patients with PAD. With early recognition of symptoms and major risk factors, pharmacists can advise patients to undergo screening for PAD. Early nonpharmacological and pharmacological therapy for risk factors and for symptom management, have been shown to decrease cardiovascular events, relieve claudication symptoms, prevent progression of PAD, and improve patient’s quality of life.  More...

Vitamin D: Benefits and Recent Changes in Dietary Recommendations (Expires June 7, 2014)

Research within the past decade has shown that the physiological roles of vitamin D go beyond calcium homeostasis, skeletal development and bone metabolism. The discovery of vitamin D receptors and 1α-hydroxylase on a variety of extraskeletal tissues has prompted research on the effects of vitamin D on multiple physiological systems and processes. Vitamin D deficiency is widely known to be directly associated with skeletal diseases such as osteoporosis and rickets.  More...

Roles for the Community Pharmacist in Promotion of Women’s Health (Expires June 7, 2014)

The pharmacist has long been recognized as a widely accessible and available health care professional for patients. Because of this, pharmacists located in the community pharmacy setting are often ideal candidates for providing educational information to patients. Many organizations, such as the American Public Health Association and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, have recently been focused on increasing the involvement of pharmacists in providing preventive care to patients. The provision of information regarding important women’s health issues is an area where pharmacists in the community pharmacy setting can have a strong impact on the primary prevention and early detection of disease. As discussed below, pharmacists can target women at increased risk for various diseases and take advantage of their accessibility to provide health education and screenings to this population. More...

Lipid Management (Expires March 12, 2013)

Ryan Wargo, PharmD, Pharmacy Practice Resident, discusses traditional cardiac risk factors, appropriate lipid management goals & the pathophysiology of cholesterol homeostasis.  More...

Ibogaine as an Alternative and Efficacious Treatment for Heroin Addiction (Expireds October 9, 2015)

Addiction is a growing problem in society as more people experiment with illicit drugs and fall into drug addiction as a consequence. Addicts tend to exhibit symptoms of drug tolerance with continued abuse and may develop substance dependence. As one continues to use a drug to achieve a “rush” or a “high”, some must use increasing amounts of a given drug to achieve the same high that was experienced previously, depending on the substance used. Many addicts continue to increase doses until drug-induced overdose or death occurs. Addicts are also fueled by the desire to avoid withdrawal symptoms, which may range from nausea and resting tremors to anxiety and insomnia1. If the search for drugs interferes with daily living, this is called substance dependence, as one plans time and resources around acquiring the next hit of drug.  More...

The Pharmacist’s Role in Heroin Addiction (Expires October 9, 2015)

Current categories for compounds of abuse in the United States include alcohol, tobacco, opioids, club drugs, cannabinoids, stimulants, dissociative drugs, hallucinogens, anabolic steroids, inhalants and prescription medications. Heroin, also known as smack, H, skag, or junk, falls into the category of opioids and is the most abused drug in this category.1 This is because it is rapid acting with a time to peak plasma absorption of 10 minutes after I.M. administration and it crosses the blood brain barrier faster than morphine, the drug heroin is manufactured from.2 Morphine is produced by the seed pods of the poppy plant and then sold in a pure form or sometimes mixed/“cut” with substances such as sugar, quinine, powdered milk or even some poisons to produce street heroin.1 More...

A Sugar Cubed Approach: An Update and Comparison of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), and American Geriatric Society (AGS) Diabetes Management Guidelines (Expires October 9, 2015)

The following is a comprehensive summary of the individual guidelines provided by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), the American Diabetes Association (ADA), and the American Geriatrics Society (AGS). The summary will focus on the ADA guidelines and highlight specific differences between the other organizations’ guidelines. In addition, recommendations will be made to help guide pharmacists to the most appropriate guidelines to use for a specific patient. Information designated by orange boxes denotes a difference in recommendations by the AACE. Information in blue boxes emphasizes a difference in recommendations by the AGS. More...

OTC Medication Abuse and the Community Pharmacist (Expires October 9, 2015)

Several over-the counter-medications are commonly used for unintended recreational purposes or as ingredients for illicit drugs. Over the years, many restrictions have been placed on the purchase of these medications, but there are always those who seek to find a way around these regulations. As a pharmacist, you are the medication gatekeeper of the community and the responsibility falls on you to prevent the abuse of medication in order to protect your patients. This lesson will be broken down by individual medications in order to go into more depth.  More...

Understanding MDMA (Expires October 9, 2015)

The substance 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine is commonly known as MDMA. MDMA has many names and can be referred to as: ecstasy, E, X, XTC, Rolls, Beans, Adam, or Molly. MDMA is popular with young people involved in the dance culture.1 MDMA tablets are commonly known to be impure and often mixed with other drugs of abuse. Although MDMA is not a prescription drug, it is important for pharmacists to be aware of this substance because it has many adverse effects that may require medical management.  More...

Abuse of Prescription Stimulant Drugs (Expires October 9, 2015)

Prescription stimulants such as dextroamphetamine/amphetamine combination (Adderall®), methylphenidate (Concerta®), and lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse®) are schedule II medications and are the most commonly prescribed drugs to children and adults for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD is one of the most common childhood disorders and can continue into adolescence and even into adulthood. The common symptoms include difficulty staying focused and paying attention, difficulty controlling behavior, and over activity. Symptoms usually improve as the patient grows older. It is estimated that about 8 percent of children 4-17 years old are diagnosed with ADHD. 1 These drugs are very effective in the treatment of ADHD but also have the potential for both abuse and addiction.  More...

Multiple Sclerosis: Disease and Treatment Modality Overview (Expires October 9, 2015)

It is estimated that about 400,000 people in the United States are living with MS.1 The disease most commonly effects people in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It appears as though incidence and prevalence increase the farther you get from the Equator. Women tend to be affected 1.5-2.5 times more than men. Peak onset in patients is usually between the ages of 25 and 35, with a sharp increase after adolescence and a shallow decline after the peak age. Genetics play a strong role in multiple sclerosis. It is estimated that one’s risk for MS is 30 times higher if you have a sibling with MS.2 Other environmental factors are thought to contribute include sunlight exposure, infections, vaccines, tobacco, nutrition, and xenobiotics, but no association has been confirmed.2,3  More...

PAW Review Evaluations

Overview of Stevens-Johsnon Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis

This is the evaluation form for the CE article "Overview of Stevens-Johsnon Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis" found in the Raabe College of Pharmacy PAW Review.  You may only receive credit once for this program.  Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.

Use of Pharmacogenomics in MTM Services

This is the evaluation form for the CE article "Use of Pharmacogenomics in MTM Services" found in the Raabe College of Pharmacy PAW Review.  You may only receive credit once for this program.  Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.

HIV Treatment Initiation Guideline Changes

This is the evaluation form for the CE article "Recent Advances Spark Significant Guideline Change: Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) at high CD4+ Counts in the Treatment Naïve Patient" found in the Raabe College of Pharmacy PAW Review.  You may only receive credit once for this program.  Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.

Pharmacogenetic Considerations with Clopidogrel Administration

This is the evaluation form for the CE article "Genetic Variations in Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and the Effects On Clopidogrel Metabolism" found in the Raabe College of Pharmacy PAW Review.  You may only receive credit once for this program.  Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.

Pediatric Poisoning

This is the evaluation form for the CE article "Pediatric Poisoning" found in the Raabe College of Pharmacy PAW Review.  You may only receive credit once for this program.  Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.

Prescription Drug Manufacturer Attempts to Prevent Abuse of Controlled Substances

This is the evaluation form for the CE article "Prescription Drug Manufacturer Attempts to Prevent Abuse of Controlled Substances" found in the Raabe College of Pharmacy PAW Review.  You may only receive credit once for this program.  Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.

Will New MRSA Guidelines Make a Difference in Clinical Outcomes?  A Comparison of Unites States and United Kingdom Guidelines and Outcomes

This is the evaluation form for the CE article "Will New MRSA Guidelines Make a Difference in Clinical Outcomes?  A Comparison of Unites States and United Kingdom Guidelines and Outcomes" found in the Raabe College of Pharmacy PAW Review.  You may only receive credit once for this program.  Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.

Healthy People 2020: A Pharmacist’s Role in Public Health

This is the evaluation form for the CE article " Healthy People 2020: A Pharmacist’s Role in Public Health" found in the Raabe College of Pharmacy PAW Review.  You may only receive credit once for this program.  Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.

The Emerging Role of Ticagrelor in Acute Coronary Syndromes

This is the evaluation form for the CE article "The Emerging Role of Ticagrelor in Acute Coronary Syndromes" found in the Raabe College of Pharmacy PAW Review.  You may only receive credit once for this program.  Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.

Fidaxomicin (Dificid®): New Antibiotic Approved for the Treatment of Clostridium Difficile Infections

This is the evaluation form for the CE article "Fidaxomicin (Dificid®): New Antibiotic Approved for the Treatment of Clostridium Difficile Infections" found in the Raabe College of Pharmacy PAW Review.  You may only receive credit once for this program.  Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.

Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs

This is the evaluation form for the CE article "Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs" found in the Raabe College of Pharmacy PAW Review.  You may only receive credit once for this program.  Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.

Impact of Community Pharmacists on Management of Cancer Chemotherapy and the Resulting Side Effects

This is the evaluation form for the CE article "Impact of Community Pharmacists on Management of Cancer Chemotherapy and the Resulting Side Effects" found in the Raabe College of Pharmacy PAW Review.  You may only receive credit once for this program.  Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.

Lysteda® for Heavy Menstrual Bleeding

This is the evaluation form for the CE article "Lysteda® for Heavy Menstrual Bleeding" found in the Raabe College of Pharmacy PAW Review.  You may only receive credit once for this program.  Make sure you click SUBMIT on the second page to ensure appropriate information gets transmitted.