INNOVATIONS in pharmacy (Iip - E-Journal)
Not a member yet
600 research outputs found
Sort by
Assessing the Effects of a Paired TBL Session and Patient Simulation on Pharmacy Student HIV Treatment Knowledge
Full text linkDescription of the Problem: Pharmacists can play a crucial role in monitoring, counseling, and providing adherence checks across practice pharmacy settings; but they may not gain experience in this area until after graduating from pharmacy school.
Statement of Innovation: Students participated in an intentionally aligned team-based learning session followed by completion of an HIV patient treatment worksheet and an HIV patient care simulation. This sequence was assessed using the HIV Treatment Knowledge Scale.
Description of the Innovation: Second-year pharmacy students (N=48, 98% response rate) participated in a baseline knowledge assessment before a four-hour HIV team-based learning (TBL) session, which included the use of an online HIV Patient Management Simulator. Students were administered the scale again post-session. Three days before the simulation, students had access to an HIV patient treatment worksheet that was required to be completed before the simulation. Ten days after the initial assessment, students participated in an HIV patient simulation where they proposed a new antiretroviral plan while also addressing monitoring, barriers, and maximizing adherence for the patient. Post-simulation, students were again administered the scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon and paired t-tests, as appropriate.
Critical Analysis: A total of 48 second-year pharmacy students participated. HIV knowledge increased significantly post-TBL (p < 0.001). Post-simulation, scores improved, but not significantly (p = 0.291). Knowledge on 15 of the 21 items on the HIV Treatment Knowledge Scale significantly improved from pre-TBL to post-simulation (p ≤ 0.025).
Next Steps: Future investigation should focus on the impact that HIV simulation training has on skills, abilities, confidence, and empathy
The Write Stuff: The Development of a Medical Writing Pharmacy Residency Elective
Full text linkThe Problem: Effective medical writing requires a mastery of many skills including those of data interpretation, literature evaluation, written communication, and leadership. A number of these skills are considered educational goals and objectives for residents by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, yet preceptors and residents oftentimes face challenges in gaining competency, confidence, and success in medical writing.
Innovation: A structured yet individualized plan for medical writing, including idea creation, peer reviewing, manuscript preparation, and team management for post-graduate year two pharmacy residents was implemented as an elective learning experience.
Results: Feedback from residents participating in the elective was positive. Each of the two residents who participated produced a manuscript that was subsequently published.
Conclusion: Though data is limited by number of residents that have completed this learning experience, this longitudinally designed elective has potential benefits and barriers to execution that should be considered, but may be an excellent opportunity to develop critical skills in scholarly endeavors for residents and preceptors alike
Decentralize-Change-Recentralize Model of Drug Information Networks in Health Centers: Decentralized Drug Information Services
Full text linkLarge health centers usually decentralize their services to small self-sufficient sub-centers of care delivery. These small centers are part of an extensive network of practitioners who are connected. The drug information services of independent clinical pharmacists in a health center could be fragmented. Drug information centers thus need to have a new definition of the mode of operation. While maintaining autonomy in information exchange, professionals are integrated to form a large community of practitioners. Technological advancements in communication and access to resources enable efficient collaborations to happen. Immersed in patient-centered collaborative practice environments, networks of professionals integrate drug information services. Drug information networks thus hold a similar philosophy of health centers to decentralize-change-centralize its services. Further research is required to measure the impact of this model of drug information services.
Article Type: Commentar
Impact of Live Training on Medication Errors in a Community-Based Pharmacy Setting
Full text linkObjective: To compare community-based pharmacy medication errors before and after a one-hour live interactive training session for both pharmacists and technicians.
Methods: A one group pre-post intervention design study was conducted in 20 community-based pharmacies in a district of a large national community pharmacy chain. A one-hour live, interactive session was developed based on incident reports and medication error trends including medication error definition, ways in which medication errors occur, strategies for mitigating errors, information about human error, and methods and habits to improve patient safety. At least 50% of full-time staff for each of the 20 pharmacies were required to attend a training session between December 1, 2017-January 15, 2018. Participants completed a demographics survey documenting gender, age, credentials, number of years of experience, and years of service with the company. Pharmacies were categorized as low, medium or high volume based on prescription count. Medication errors were compared six months pre- and post-live education session. Data were analyzed using SAS version 9.4.
Results: One hundred and thirty- five errors and 111 errors were reported pre-and post-live training (mean 6.85 and 5.55, p < 0.301), respectively. Nine pharmacies were low, eight medium, and three high volume with the mean number of medication errors reported pre- and post-live training; low 4.33 vs 4.11 p<0.478, medium 9.37 vs 6.87 p<0.443, and high 7.66 vs 6.33 p<0.593, respectively. Sixty pharmacy staff (34 pharmacists, 26 technicians) attended one of the live training sessions; 73% female; most frequently reported age range 35-50 years; 23 Doctor of Pharmacy, 11 Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, and 26 Certified Technician; and average number of years’ experience was 13.6 and average service with the company was 8.6 years.
Conclusions: A live training session for both pharmacists and technicians did not significantly decrease medication errors, but could be incorporated as an element of a medication safety program. It should be considered for implementation in other districts of this large national pharmacy chain as a part of an improved patient safety effort.
Article Type: Original Researc
Implementation of Flipgrid as a Self-Reflection Tool for Student Engagement– A Pilot Study
Full text linkBackground: Self-reflection is important for professional development, critical thinking, and engagement. However, self-reflection is not habitual or instinctive, and reflection assignments are often met with resistance from students. While written reflections are popular, other self-reflection mediums should be investigated.
Innovation: Flipgrid by Microsoft, an online video response tool, was used in an elective course for self-reflection and student engagement. To assess the impact of Flipgrid on the student experience in the course, two cohorts of students were evaluated. Overall 96% of respondents reported satisfaction with Flipgrid as an educational tool, however engagement was not significantly increased over the use of written reflection.
Implications: The results of this pilot study suggest that Flipgrid appears to have potential as a self-reflection tool, but may not be a “magic-bullet” to increase student engagement. Recommendations and considerations for implementing Flipgrid into a course to facilitate student engagement are provided
RETRACTED: The Excellence of Pharmacy Practice
Full text linkThis article has been retracted: please see INNOVATIONS in pharmacy retraction policy (https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/innovations/policies). This article has been retracted by the Editor and Publisher due to the inappropriate use of previously published work.
Over the past 50 years, the role of pharmacists has evolved along with the health care needs of our population. In addition to dispensing medications and ensuring patient safety, today’s pharmacists are taking a larger role as medical counselors, educators and advocates. They are integral part of the health care team, and are among the most trusted and accessible health care professionals. This accessibility allows them to perform more patient care activities, including counseling, medication management, and preventive care screenings. Beyond the care provided to individual patients, pharmacists have expanded their reach to influence the public health of communities. A pharmacist is uniquely positioned to provide disease state management through appropriate medication therapy management that has been demonstrated to improve patient outcomes and decrease overall health care costs. This role is more important than ever as the environment is demanding new practice and payment models that are required to further optimize care and outcomes while addressing the unsustainable increases in health care costs.
Article Type: Revie
Evaluation of Antidiabetic Injectable Technique: Is There an Association Between Accuracy and Health Literacy or Duration of Diabetes?
Full text linkIntroduction: Effective diabetes pharmacotherapy often involves injectable medications, which if used inappropriately represents a type of unintentional medication nonadherence that leads to poor outcomes.
Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to assess the percent of patients who accurately prepared, administered, stored, and disposed of their injectable diabetes medication. Secondary objectives included comparing the accuracy of injectable use among those with diabetes <5 years vs. ≥ 5 years duration and those with limited vs. proficient health literacy.
Methods: This was a prospective analysis conducted on a convenience sample of patients who received a pilot pharmacist-led, quality improvement service at an urban, ambulatory care clinic. The service components included health literacy screening, using the Rapid Assessment of Adult Literacy in Medicine – Short Form (REALM-SF) tool, evaluation of injectable technique by use of a standardized questionnaire, and provision of medication education. Duration of diabetes was determined by patient self-report. Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were utilized to assess accuracy of injectable technique in two group comparisons: (1) patients with limited vs. proficient health literacy and (2) patients with diabetes <5 years vs. ≥5 years.
Results: Thirty-five patients were included in the analysis. Despite the majority (71.4%) of patients reporting prior education on injectable use, 54.3% reported at least one error in product use. Significant findings noted were that those with limited health literacy had higher rates of accurately using the skin-fold technique and appropriate angle for injection vs. those with proficient health literacy (p<0.05 for both comparisons). Likewise, more patients in the cohort of diabetes duration ≥5 years accurately rotated the injection site vs. those with a duration <5 years (p=0.001).
Conclusion: Errors in injectable technique were common in this study and spanned across health literacy levels and duration of diabetes. Patients prescribed injectable diabetes medications should be routinely educated on proper technique for use.
Article Type: Original Researc
A Pharmacist’s Role in a Dental Clinic: Establishing a Collaborative and Interprofessional Education Site
Full text linkIn “A Pharmacist’s Role in A Dental Clinic: Establishing a Collaborative and Interprofessional Education Site” written by Kalin L. Johnson, et al., the article discusses the importance of having pharmacists in non-traditional settings, such as a university dental clinic, and the benefits of incorporating them into an interprofessional team. Pharmacists are medication experts who can reduce the burden on dental staff by assisting in disease state and medication counseling, medication reconciliation, medication management services, and identification of medication-related problems in dental settings. From August 2014 to July 2018, a total of 2,773 interventions were made on behalf of the pharmacy team. Integrating a pharmacy team contributed to more robust dentalcare and overall healthcare for patients. Overall, pharmacists were accepted by the dentistry team and patients with very few repercussions.1
The purpose of this commentary is to propose a solution towards multiple issues identified by the author during her experience as an interprofessional pharmacist. We propose telehealth to be the solution to these issues. Our telehealth system will consist of pharmacy residents to foster an engaging learning environment while ultimately keeping costs low. This telehealth system will not only advance the knowledge of pharmacy residents and dental students, but will allow more interventions to be made by the pharmacy team as they will be able to expand virtually.
Article Type: Commentar
Use of National Consumer Survey Data to Explore Perceptions of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Full text linkBackground: Although Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has been the standard of therapy in Asia for centuries, it started receiving more attention in the U.S. in the last three decades.
Objectives: The primary study objective was to explore individuals' perspectives of CAM. A secondary objective was to describe individuals' perceptions of pharmacists’ roles in facilitating their use of these services and products.
Methods: Data were obtained from the 2015 and 2016 National Consumer Surveys on the Medication Experience and Pharmacist Roles. Data were collected from adults residing in the United States via on-line, self-administered surveys coordinated by Qualtrics Panels between April 28 and June 22, 2015 (n = 26,173) and between March 14 and 30, 2016 (n = 10,500). This study focused on written comments made in the surveys with Content Conventional Analysis applied to the text. Four researchers were trained to conduct coding to assess inter-judge reliability. The four judges had a high level of agreement which was greater than 0.95 for category type.
Results: Out of a total of 36,673 respondents, 80% (29,426) submitted written comments at the end of the survey. Of these, 2,178 comments were about medications or health and 170 (8%) comments specifically about CAM, of which 136 (6%) were usable for analysis. Conventional Content Analysis revealed five themes:1)The role of pharmaceutical and insurance companies in CAM; 2) Overuse of medications; 3) Physicians can play a role in creating a balance between prescription use and CAM; 4) Individuals believe that CAM is more effective than Western medicines and prefer it; 5) Individuals want pharmacists to have a better understanding of CAM. The results of this study reveal individuals’ opinions regarding how they want CAM to be considered in their interactions with their healthcare team.
Conclusion: Emergent themes suggest that individuals are interested in receiving more professionals’ healthcare to become more knowledgeable about CAM.
Article Type: Original Researc
Integrating a Pharmacy Student into a Marriage and Family Therapy Counseling Course: A Pilot
Full text linkThe Problem: Interprofessional educational experiences are a requirement in pharmacy and counseling curricula. However, scheduling conflicts between professional programs and lack of administrative support create barriers for students who want to take a course in another healthcare program.
Innovation: This pilot enabled a pharmacy student to participate in a counseling course for 8 weeks. The course “Integrated Healthcare” is a 3-credit required core-course in the Master of Arts in marriage and family therapy (MFT) program. It explores the connection between emotional, psychological and physical health, covering information on behavior change, psychopharmacology, and common ways in which mood and anxiety manifest in the body. Class activities were matched to pharmacy interprofessional standards, in addition to Interprofessional Collaborative Practice competencies (IPEC).
Critical Analysis: All IPEC core competencies were achieved during this course. One pharmacy student and 18 counseling students helped one another understand the importance of their different roles in patient care. The course also established relationships between pharmacy and counseling faculty, paving the way for more interprofessional class experiences.
Conclusion: This pilot integrating pharmacy and counseling students in a course demonstrates that administrative barriers can be overcome and collaborative learning benefit is achieved for everyone involved.
Article Type: Not