In a variety of settings, it may be possible to invite pharmacists and drug sellers to a large formal meeting during which drug prescribing practices and standard case management guidelines are discussed. These meetings could take place in such contexts as annual meetings of professional associations, university extension programmes, or organizational meetings of pharmacy chains. One way to make these large training sessions more effective would be to incorporate ample opportunities for active participation among those being trained and chances to practise new skills. Training of Opinion Leaders. This approach is based on the use of professionally influential colleagues to give advice to the target audience about their diarrhoea treatment practices.
Simple surveys can identify influential individuals in each local community.
These opinion leaders are then invited to attend training sessions, after which they act as informal educators of the target audience through ongoing contacts. This approach is similar to using trained educators to visit individual retail stores. All of these approaches will require printed materials plus one or more follow-up visits to reinforce positive changes in behaviour. These are problem-based recommendations for ORS or other therapies. They can be used in training sessions and left with drug sellers to remind them of the therapeutic recommendations to make for specific symptoms.