Economics as a Source of National Power

War by Other Means: Geoeconomics and Statecraft, by Robert D. Blackwill and Jennifer Harri

The Pivotal Role of the Pharmacist in a Primary Care Office

Abstract The profession of pharmacy has evolved from a dispensing role to an interdisciplinary clinical role in patient care. One area of patient care expertise is Medication Therapy Management (MTM), which includes services such as pharmacotherapy, medication therapy reviews, disease management, immunizations and other clinical services. In various studies, pharmacists conducting MTM have shown improved patient outcomes in community pharmacy and hospital settings. Amidst the valuable services all healthcare professionals are providing, increasing medical costs and consequences have become overwhelming, leading to negative patient outcomes. A lack of primary care physicians (PCPs) may contribute to these distressing facts. Gaps in communication between hospital, PCPs and community pharmacies also contribute to negative patient outcomes. Pharmacists can bridge the gap in miscommunication and help improve patient outcomes. Thus far in practice, pharmacists have had a limited role in primary care settings. The objective of this study is to determine if the addition of pharmacists providing clinical services (i.e. MTM) in a primary care setting can support the prescribers’ patient care demands. For this observational, exploratory research, the primary care settings under study will be all Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in Ohio. IRB approval will be acquired before contact is made with participants. The contact person from each FQHC has been identified from the HRSA Office of Pharmacy Affairs. A script will be used to gather email addresses for the manager, physician, nurse and pharmacist, if available, from the contact person. A Qualtrics survey will be administered to these participants via email. The purpose of this study is to establish components of patient care in a primary care office, specifically FQHCs, that other medical professionals identify as lacking, which pharmacists can provide. A consent form, information about the study and a link to the survey will be provided in an email. The survey will include demographic, open-ended and 5-point Likert-type scale (1=strongly agree, 5=strongly disagree) questions. Reliability and validity of the survey will be established by a thorough search of the literature and expert review. Submitted answers will be analyzed with the appropriate statistical tests

Use of Myers-Briggs Personality Types in the Distribution of Students to Team-Based Learning Groups

Objectives: To examine students\u27 perceptions of team-based learning (TBL) and the level of confidence associated with the learning format when distributed into teams consisting of diverse personality types and gender. Methods: Team-based learning (TBL) is an active learning tool where students are organized into teams for a specified term but little data exists regarding the best method of distributing students into teams. TBL was utilized in two pharmacy courses. Prior to the start of the 2012 academic year, students completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) personality test. Students were separated into nine teams of diverse MBTI® types and gender. Pre- and post-tests, administered at the beginning and end of the semester, were utilized to assess the students\u27 perceptions of TBL and the level of confidence associated with the learning format. Descriptive statistics and paired t-tests were performed in SPSS. Results: A total of 53 students were distributed into teams; 26 students (50 percent) were extroverts and a total of 21 students (40 percent) were identified as Sensing-Thinking-Judging MBTI® type

Dual practice in the health sector: review of the evidence

This paper reports on income generation practices among civil servants in the health sector, with a particular emphasis on dual practice. It first approaches the subject of public–private overlap. Thereafter it focuses on coping strategies in general and then on dual practice in particular. To compensate for unrealistically low salaries, health workers rely on individual coping strategies. Many clinicians combine salaried, public-sector clinical work with a fee-for-service private clientele. This dual practice is often a means by which health workers try to meet their survival needs, reflecting the inability of health ministries to ensure adequate salaries and working conditions. Dual practice may be considered present in most countries, if not all. Nevertheless, there is surprisingly little hard evidence about the extent to which health workers resort to dual practice, about the balance of economic and other motives for doing so, or about the consequences for the proper use of the scarce public resources dedicated to health. In this paper dual practice is approached from six different perspectives: (1) conceptual, regarding what is meant by dual practice; (2) descriptive, trying to develop a typology of dual practices; (3) quantitative, trying to determine its prevalence; (4) impact on personal income, the health care system and health status; (5) qualitative, looking at the reasons why practitioners so frequently remain in public practice while also working in the private sector and at contextual, personal life, institutional and professional factors that make it easier or more difficult to have dual practices; and (6) possible interventions to deal with dual practice