ASHP Advantage® recently received the award for “Excellence in Educational Design” from the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions for an interactive, web-based educational activity titled, “Navigating the Life Cycle of Viable and Surface Air Samples.” This was an ACPE-accredited CE activity for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians developed using an e-Learning instructional design authoring tool to enhance healthcare professionals’ knowledge and competence regarding United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Chapter <797> on compounded sterile preparations and environmental monitoring. This activity provides learners with a dynamic exploration of best practices for viable air and surface sampling, focusing on sampling planning, defined frequency, selecting sample locations, training and competency, collection techniques, incubation, interpretation, documentation, and annual review of an organization’s viable sampling plan/program. 

ASHP Advantage® is a brand of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists® (ASHP). ASHP Advantage provides a full range of healthcare education services and has extensive experience planning and conducting educational activities for pharmacists, physicians and other healthcare professionals. Created in 1995, ASHP Advantage has developed and implemented thousands of innovative, needs-based educational activities. "Navigating the Life Cycle of Viable Air and Surface Samples" is one component of a four-part continuing pharmacy education (CPE) activity series implemented by the ASHP Advantage team. This activity is provided by ASHP and is supported by an educational grant from Pfizer Inc. 

This activity was developed in response to significant 2023 regulatory updates to USP Chapter <797> and growing concerns over compliance gaps in environmental monitoring. This activity was designed by a thorough gap analysis and needs assessment, which included feedback from ASHP members, a literature review, testimonies from multiple subject matter experts and additional educational needs identified from previous education on similar topics. Subject matter experts reported pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and medication safety officers have many unanswered questions regarding environmental monitoring, including specific scenarios such as navigating excursions. These healthcare professionals also have confusion on how to interpret environmental monitoring reports, including what to look for in the report and how to make changes based on the results which prompted the development of this activity. Additionally, prior to the activity, 81% of learners involved in patient care identified a need to improve their knowledge of requirements to meet USP <797>. The course bridges critical knowledge and performance gaps through interactive engagement and multimodal reinforcement. Based on educational need, identified educational gaps, and innovative instructional design to engage leaners, ASHP applied for the Alliance Excellence in Educational Design award.

This activity exemplifies excellence in educational design through:

• Instructional Innovation: Incorporates scenario-based learning, multimedia elements, micro-assessments and real-world case applications to promote mastery-level comprehension and application to daily practice.
• Regulatory Relevance: Aligns directly with USP Chapter <797> and regulatory requirements.
• Outcomes-Driven Design: Anchored in Moore’s Outcome Levels with measurable post-activity performance changes.
• Subject Matter Experts: Involves pharmacists, microbiologists, educators, instructional designer, and accreditation specialists in design, development and validation.
• Accessibility: Closed captioning is available for those who may be deaf or hard of hearing.
• Availability: This learning activity is available free of charge for all learners.

Recognizing the importance of creating an exciting and impactful learning experience, the ASHP Advantage® team designed a highly interactive activity to captivate learners. By incorporating visual maps of the clean room where sterile compounding occurs and requiring learners to select locations to sample, having learners identify air and surface sampling collection steps in order, regularly assessing knowledge with immediate feedback, the team successfully transformed the content into an immersive, hands-on experience that kept learners actively engaged. Rationales were provided for each question as immediate feedback to help learners understand the correct responses. This activity is interactive and accessible to all, allowing healthcare systems to integrate this into their education for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and other members of their teams to provide access to resources for those who are challenged in environmental monitoring.

*Following this activity, 100% of learners agreed that the activity was free of bias, 88% of learners rated the faculty as effective, 87% were satisfied with the content of the activity, and 87% agreed that the objectives of the activity were met. Additionally, 87% of learners agreed that their needs were met and they were able to assess their learning. Seventy-seven percent of learners anticipated making at least one practice change. Some identified practice changes include discussing with colleagues how to address current challenges in viable air and surface monitoring, being able to audit procedures more effectively, review competencies on file for staff and consider internal air sampling. An astounding 97% of learners were confident in making changes to their practice. Additionally, the activity was designed with scalability in mind, allowing for seamless integration into future ASHP training programs. Building on the success of this activity, interactive web-based activities will also be incorporated into a future USP Chapter <797> program allowing participants to “choose their own adventure” based on their healthcare facility’s specific setup.

*Data collection results as of 12/1/2025