Teaching and learning at the leading edge: Leading edge practitioners in community pharmacy

The UK pharmacy profession has undergone considerable change as a result of changes within the NHS. As a regulated profession it has an annual continuing education/continuing professional development requirement for all members. This article focuses on individuals in community (largely retail) pharmacy who were identified Dy hey stakeholders as demonstrating more effective practice than others. These we term 'leading edge practitioners' (LEPs). From a sample of those identified as LEPs and a corresponding (control) group not so identified from one health authority we explore differences between the two groups with respect to approaches to learning and teaching Data collection consisted of three critical incidents per respondent, a questionnaire and a psychometric test (KAI). Half of the statistically significant questions identifying LEPs were learning and teaching related. Just under half of the respondents told of critical incidents concerning learning or teaching and the style of some LEPs' narratives was distinct, providing evidence of different emotional learning from that of control group respondents. The study provides empirical evidence for the levels of organizational teaching identified by French and Bazalgette.