Explaining drug-resistant infection in community pharmacies through effective information design

This paper describes a research project in which information design, human factors, architecture and pharmacy academics worked with pharmacy professionals and pharmacy users to consider how to present information about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in a community pharmacy setting. Project outcomes – as a result of an innovative design competition – included five different design solutions that explain aspects of AMR within the context of a community pharmacy. The project raised awareness in pharmacy professionals of how design can be used to challenge ideas and encourage new ways of thinking to communicate public health messages. Two winning prototype solutions were installed in a Day Lewis pharmacy in Reading and evaluated by pharmacists and pharmacy users. We make preliminary recommendations for effective health communication in community pharmacies

Scientific and Practical Approaches to Form the List of Social-psychological Characteristics for Pharmacy Specialist

Nowadays according to employers, pharmacy specialist should be not only competent professional, but versed in the consumer psychology and result oriented, at the same time, i.e. concentrated on the pharmacy competitiveness increase and on maximal income and customer satisfaction.The aim of the presented work was to investigate the social-psychological characteristics for pharmacy specialist essential in his or her professional activity, and to substantiate the list of these characteristics.Materials and methods. Analytical, graphical and comparative methods, methods of descriptive and abstract modeling, system analysis and synthesis, taxonomy and cluster analysis were applied in the study.Results. Social-psychological characteristics for pharmacy specialist methodologically should be selected and substantiated by the main stakeholders: employers, pharmacists, doctors, customers and graduation course students. The research algorithm to define the professionally important social-psychological characteristics for pharmacy specialist was suggested. The professionally important social-psychological characteristics regarding the requirements of employers from different countries to pharmacy specialists include sociability, responsibility, attentiveness, orderliness, and command-orientation. The main social-psychological characteristics for pharmacy specialists based on content analysis are attentiveness, sociability, indulgence, goodwill, responsibility, neatness, sensitivity, patience. Comparison of four research results for pharmacists, doctors, customers and graduation course students form specialty "Pharmacy" allowed to select and to substantiate the social-psychological characteristics for pharmacy specialist essential in his or her professional activity. They are goodwill, stress-stability, honesty, command-orientation, neatness, affability, decency, purposefulness, desire for learn and develop, grammatically correct language, non-conflictedness.Conclusion. The approaches to define the professionally important social-psychological characteristics for pharmacy specialist were analyzed. The research of the professionally important social-psychological characteristics for pharmacy specialist was conducted with the main stakeholders: employer, pharmacist, doctor, and customer. The list of the professionally important social-psychological characteristics for pharmacy specialist was formed on the base of conducted research

Implementing Pharmacy Informatics in College Curricula: The AACP Technology in Pharmacy Education and Learning Special Interest Group

Many professional organizations have initiatives to increase the awareness and use of informatics in the practice of pharmacy. Within education we must respond to these initiatives and make technology integral to all aspects of the curriculum, inculcating in students the importance of technology in practice. This document proposes 5 central domains for organizing planning related to informatics and technology within pharmacy education. The document is intended to encourage discussion of informatics within pharmacy education and the implications of informatics in future pharmacy practice, and to guide colleges of pharmacy in identifying and analyzing informatics topics to be taught and methods of instruction to be used within the doctor of pharmacy curriculum

Long term care for the elderly : the role for pharmacists

Consultant pharmacy represents a branch of the profession that has almost become synonymous with nursing homes in the USA. This is largely due to the legal framework that surrounds nursing home care in the USA and the requirement for pharmacy review of medication in this setting. However, consultant pharmacy has been in existence for almost 30 years and had its roots in community practice; today, a consultant pharmacist is defined as a practitioner who provides services to long-term care facilities on a contractual basis. This paper provides an overview of this type of pharmacy practice, the current delivery of consultant pharmacy services in the USA and lessons for the international pharmacy profession.peer-reviewe

Practice, Skill Mix, and Education: The Evolving Role of Pharmacy Technicians in Great Britain

Pharmacy technicians’ roles are rapidly evolving in Great Britain (GB) as they undertake more extended activities with increased autonomy across the different pharmacy sectors. This paper compares the GB pharmacy regulator initial education and training standards recently introduced (2017) with the qualifications currently used in practice and discusses whether future qualifications will be ‘fit for purpose’. In this context, knowledge, skills, and competence are reviewed to assess whether they will meet the expectations and underpin the evolving pharmacy technician role as integral to healthcare provision. Based on drivers, policy change, and the changing GB healthcare landscape, effectiveness of skill mix is analysed to establish whether this is being optimised to support person-centred pharmacy in response to the challenges and pressures faced within the NHS. On this basis and given there is a limited evidence base, this review has highlighted a need for larger scale research to reassure the pharmacy and wider healthcare professions, and the public, that the evolving pharmacy technician role presents no increased risk to patient safety and contributes significantly to releasing pharmacists time for person-centred clinical activities

Role of community pharmacists in patients' self-care and self-medication

This review highlights the growing prominence of self-care and explores the contribution of community pharmacy. Firstly, background to self-care is discussed, followed by placing self-care in context with regard to the general public and accessing community pharmacy. From this perspective the contribution community pharmacy currently makes is assessed, paying particular attention to the factors that negatively impact on the ability of community pharmacy to facilitate self-care

Why we should understand the patient experience: clinical empathy and medicines optimisation

Objectives To critically discuss the need for pharmacists to underpin their consultations with appropriate ‘clinical empathy’ as part of effective medicines optimisation. Methods Use of literature around empathy, consultation and pharmacy practice to develop a case for greater clinical empathy in pharmacy consultations. Key findings Clinical empathy is defined from the literature and applied to pharmacy consultations, with a comparison to empathy in other clinical professions. Historical barriers to the embedding of clinical empathy into pharmacy consultations are also explored. Conclusions We challenge the pharmacy profession to consider how clinical empathy should underpin consultations with a series of introspective questions and provide some sample questions to support pharmacy consultations. We also make the case for appropriate education and professional development of consultation skills at undergraduate and postgraduate level. We contend that patients’ relationships with practitioners are critical, and a lack of empathy can impact the effectiveness of care

Moral Development of First Year Pharmacy Students in the United Kingdom

Objective. To investigate the moral development of pharmacy students over their first academic year of study at a university in the United Kingdom. Methods. Pharmacy students completed Defining Issues Test (DIT) at the start of their first year (phase 1) and again at the end of their first year (phase 2) of the program. Results. Pharmacy students (N=116) had significantly higher moral reasoning at the beginning of their first year than by the end of it. Scores differed by students’ gender and age; however, these findings differed between phase 1 and phase 2. Conclusion. First-year pharmacy students in the United Kingdom scored lower on moral reasoning than did pharmacy students in the United States and Canada

Pharmacy Student's perceptions of Natural Science and Mathematics Subjects

Objective. To determine the level of importance pharmacy students placed on science and mathematics subjects for pursuing a career in pharmacy. Method. Two hundred fifty-four students completed a survey instrument developed to investigate students’ perceptions of the relevance of science and mathematics subjects to a career in pharmacy. Pharmacy students in all 4 years of a master of pharmacy (MPharm) degree program were invited to complete the survey instrument. Results. Students viewed chemistry-based and biology-based subjects as relevant to a pharmacy career, whereas mathematics subjects such as physics, logarithms, statistics, and algebra were not viewed important to a career in pharmacy. Conclusion. Students’ experience in pharmacy and year of study influenced their perceptions of subjects relevant to a pharmacy career. Pharmacy educators need to consider how they can help students recognize the importance of scientific knowledge earlier in the pharmacy curriculum

The Relationship Between Prior Experiences in Mathematics and Pharmacy School Success

Objective. To assess students’ pre-pharmacy math experiences, confidence in math ability, and relationship between experiences, confidence, and grades in math-based pharmacy courses. Methods. A cross-sectional survey of first year to third year pharmacy students was conducted. Students reported type of pre-pharmacy math courses taken, when they were taken [high school (HS) vs. college] and year of HS and college graduation. Students rated their confidence in math ability using the previously validated 11-item Fogerty Math Confidence Scale (Cronbach alpha=0.92). Math grade point average (GPA), Pharmacy College Admission Test quantitative (PCAT quant) scores, and grades (calculations and kinetics) were obtained from transcripts and school records. Spearman correlation and multivariate linear regression were used to compare math experiences, confidence, and grades. Results. There were 198 students who reported taking math courses 7.1 years since HS graduation and 2.9 years since their last schooling prior to pharmacy school. Students who took math courses with more time since HS/last schooling had lower calculations and kinetics grades. Students reporting having taken more HS math courses had better calculations grades. Students with higher math GPA, and PCAT quant scores also had higher calculations and kinetics grades. Greater confidence in math ability was associated with higher calculations grades. In multivariate regressions, PCAT quant scores and years since HS independently predicted calculations grades, and PCAT quant scores independently predicted kinetics grades. Conclusion. The number of pre-pharmacy math courses and time elapsed since they were taken are important factors to consider when predicting a pharmacy student’s success in math-based pharmacy school courses