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 intuitive inhaler devices may aid the training process. Aim: To determine the intuitiveness of 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 – intuitive use; 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 intuitive to 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.