I strongly object to an annual requirement of 5 live contact hours of Continuing Education.  There is no justification for this requirement.  The quality of education obtained from a live event is not better than an online or written CE program.  And the unprecedented requirement for fully one third of the required hours to be live is unconscionable.  Pharmacists in a typical working environment do not have the leisure time to spend pursuing a live CE event, nor are many of these events available within the pharmacist's available time. 

I have participated in live webinar events, as required by the Maryland Board of Pharmacy, where I am also licensed, and I can honestly say that I learn more from the written CE lessons because I can go back and re-read, or spend as much time as needed to learn the material.

I cannot stress enough how inconvenient, unnecessary, and useless it is to have one third of the CE hours be required to be live.  If it were to be proposed that 1 or even 2 hours annually be at a live event, that would be more in line with other states' requirements, and less of a time burden to Virginia's already overburdened pharmacists.