Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice towards Medication Errors and Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting among Medicine Students

Background: The most common types of medical error are medication errors (MEs) which defined as any preventable event that may be caused by an inappropriate medication usage and lead to an adverse drug reaction (ADR) event in patients. In recent years, different approaches have been proposed to reduce MEs, one of which is reporting ADRs. The present study was designed to assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) of medicine students towards MEs and ADRs reporting. Method: The validated 12-item questionnaire included subsequently 4 questions, 5 items and the final 3 questions related to the knowledge, attitude, and practice that was given to each participant before and after of the clerkship course. The study population were 40 students of fourth-year of medicine. Results: Demographic features of the participants have no significant difference. Medicine students had a poor KAP towards MEs. Only 8% of respondents had general knowledge about MEs and 50% of students believed MEs are inevitable events, less than 20% of them were acquainted with 5 rules of prescriptions. Students had good knowledge and attitude but poor practice towards ADRs reporting. 55% of participants were aware of their responsibility of ADRs reporting but only 5% of respondents were acquainted with ADRs reporting method and the ADR center in the hospitals. Conclusion: The educational intervention, alteration in medicine student’s curriculum, and hold the interactive clerkship for health care professionals can improve the KAP towards ADRs reporting and diminish of the preventable medication errors

Design a Valid and Reliable Survey for the Communication Skills Assessment of the Pharmacists and Pharmacy Students in Iran

Background: Several essential roles defined for pharmacists which the important skills must possess in support of their roles. One of them is the essential ability, knowledge, and confident for the interactive and appropriate communication with other health professionals and the public. According to the importance of communication skills, there is a need to evaluation this ability in the pharmacist, and pharmacy students. Methods: The criteria of the communication skills assessment extracted from the “communication skills in pharmacy practice” book and the health professional educations and investigations with the focus on communication skills in pharmacy practice. Then the content validity ration (CVR) and the content validity index (CVI) were evaluated for assessing the necessity, relevancy, clarity, and simplicity. In addition, the reliability analysis was carried out for assessing of the internal consistency by the calculation of Cronbach’s alpha. The data were analyzed by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16. Results: The finally valid and reliable survey of the communication skills assessment of the pharmacist and pharmacy students have 15 items, which include the verbal and non-verbal skills such as greeting with patients, speaking clearly, listening to what patient had to say, the professional appearance, and clear writing medication orders. Conclusion: Communication skills in pharmacy practice can be a critical ability for the development of the dealing with patients, physicians, and other health care professionals and lead to improvement of the quality health care delivery

Design and Evaluation of an Application for Recording of Pharmacy Students’ Attendance via Smartphones and Personal Computer

Background: Attendance management is one of the most important issues in the educational institutions. The traditional method for attendance recording is manually recording by professors in the school or university which is associated with several problems. We proposed the design and utilization of an electronic application for students’ attendance recording via smartphones and PCs. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional and Quasi-experimental study, which held in the department of clinical pharmacy in the school of pharmacy in Ahvaz Jundishapur University of medical sciences. Group I was assigned to the manually recording of student attendance. Group II was assigned to the design and utilization of an electronic application for registration of attendance. Each of the professors records the students’ attendance in the class by smartphones. Finally, the satisfaction of the professors about the application was assessed with the 6-item questionnaire. Also, the efficacy of the application was evaluated through the comparison of the number of recorded attendance and the number of absent recorded in group I and II. Results: The results of satisfaction survey illustrated that all of the professors found the electronic recording of the attendance was the more useful than the traditional method and lead to the reducing the possibility of errors, the time spent, and the pleasure of students. Also, the comparison between the numbers of students’ recorded attendance and numbers of absence recorded were higher by utilization of the application more than by the traditional method. Conclusion: The students’ attendance recording application can improve performance compared to the manually attendance management system via decreasing the possibility errors and continuous assessing during a semester

A stepwise approach to prescribing novel lipid-lowering medications

Dyslipidemia is a major modifiable risk factor for developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Despite increasing high intensity statin prescription and adherence to statin therapy, a considerable number of patients will not reach the guideline directed goals due to statin intolerance, lack of adherence or treatment efficacy. Several new lipid lowering medications have received approval by regulatory agencies in the past decade including proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 modulators, ATP-citrate lyase inhibitors, angiopoietin-like 3 inhibitors, lomitapide, and icosapent ethyl. Although approved by regulatory agencies, these medications are still under-prescribed worldwide which may be related to cost issues, lack of cardiovascular outcome results, or clinicians not being familiar with their use. In this review, we propose a practical stepwise approach including each class\u27 efficacy, place in therapy, adverse effects, warnings and precautions, and monitoring parameters. This information can help the clinicians to prescribing these novel lipid lowering medications to achieve treatment goals and reduce the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The aim is to shift the paradigm for high-intensity statins from watch and wait to initial combination therapy for high-risk patients

Use of novel antithrombotic agents for COVID-19:Systematic summary of ongoing randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is associated with macro‐ and micro‐thromboses, which are triggered by endothelial cell activation, coagulopathy, and uncontrolled inflammatory response. Conventional antithrombotic agents are under assessment in dozens of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in patients with COVID‐19, with preliminary results not demonstrating benefit in several studies. OBJECTIVES: Given the possibility that more novel agents with antithrombotic effects may have a potential utility for management of patients with COVID‐19, we assessed ongoing RCTs including these agents with their potential mechanism of action in this population. METHODS: We searched clinicaltrials.gov and the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform to identify RCTs of novel antithrombotic agents in patients with COVID‐19. RESULTS: Based on a systematic literature search, 27 RCTs with 10 novel antithrombotic agents (including nafamostat, dociparstat, rNAPc2, and defibrotide) were identified. The results from these trials have not been disseminated yet. The studied drugs in the ongoing or completed RCTs include agents affecting the coagulation cascade, drugs affecting endothelial activation, and mixed acting agents. Their postulated antithrombotic mechanisms of action and their potential impact on patient management are summarized. CONCLUSION: Some novel antithrombotic agents have pleiotropic anti‐inflammatory and antiviral effects, which may help reduce the viral load or fibrosis, and improve oxygenation. Results from ongoing RCTs will elucidate their actual role in the management of patients with COVID‐19