Naloxone Accessibility Across Mississippi

Background/Objectives Despite widespread standing orders allowing pharmacies to dispense naloxone under protocol or without a prescription, there is substantial variation in naloxone availability and cost geographically. This study geospatially assessed naloxone availability and cost across community pharmacies within Mississippi. Additionally, this study examined the association of county-level characteristics, including rurality, race, household income, overdose numbers, and percent uninsured, with naloxone availability. This study aims to inform health policymakers about effectiveness of current naloxone standing orders, and to guide potential interventions for improving naloxone accessibility at the community-level. Methods This study was a “mystery shopper” telephone census of naloxone availability and cost at all Mississippi pharmacies. Naloxone availability and cost were descriptively analyzed. T-tests were used to detect differences in naloxone availability based on county racial makeup, income, overdose deaths, and percentage uninsured. Chi-square tests were used to detect differences in naloxone availability based on pharmacy type and county rurality. Results Overall, there were 591 publicly-available community pharmacies surveyed in Mississippi. Overall, only 36.6% (n=216) of Mississippi pharmacies indicated that naloxone was available under state standing order. The mean cost for naloxone nasal spray was $105.58 (range$38.11 to $229.39). Differences existed in naloxone availability based on pharmacy type (X2 (2, 591) =41.09, p \u3c 0.001), but not pharmacy rurality (X2 (2, N = 591) = 3.06, p = 0.216). There was no difference in naloxone availability according to county-level measures. Mapping naloxone availability revealed that 16 (19.25$100. Implications This study demonstrates that, despite lawful availability, naloxone is not widely available across the state of Mississippi. Lack of external drivers of naloxone availability suggest that naloxone availability may be driven by pharmacies. Further studies examining reasons for low naloxone availability, particularly among community pharmacies, should be conducted. Additionally, follow-up analyses of pharmacy pricing for naloxone are warranted

Interventions to increase uptake of the human papillomavirus vaccine in unvaccinated college students: A systematic literature review

© 2019, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. All rights reserved. The Committee was charged with the responsibility for examining the need for change in pharmacy education and the models of leadership that would enable that change to occur across the academy. They also examined the question of faculty wellbeing in a time of change and made several recommendations and suggestions regarding both charges. Building upon the work of the previous Academic Affairs Committee, the 2018-19 AAC encourages the academy to implement new curricular models supporting personalized learning that creates engaged and lifelong learners. This will require transformational leadership and substantial investments in faculty development and new assessment strategies and resources. Recognizing that the magnitude of the recommended change will produce new stress on faculty, the committee identified the need for much additional work on student, faculty and leaders’ wellbeing, noting the limited amount of empirical evidence on pharmacy related to stress and resilience. That said, if faculty and administrators are not able to address personal and community wellbeing, their ability to support their students’ wellbeing will be compromised

Student Composers Concert

Kennesaw State University School of Music presents the 2013 Student Composers Concert featuring Premieres of Newly Composed Works.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1348/thumbnail.jp

COVID-19 Vaccination Engagement and Barriers among Mississippi Pharmacists

After the emergency use authorization of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccinations in the United States, existing pharmacy infrastructure was leveraged to disseminate vaccines. However, the national uptake of COVID-19 vaccines remains poor. This survey study of Mississippi pharmacists aimed to identify barriers to providing COVID-19 vaccination among pharmacists in practice settings that provided other vaccines. A thematic analysis was used to analyze open-ended survey responses. This study found that the greatest identified barrier to COVID-19 vaccination for pharmacists was patient willingness. The thematic analysis revealed logistical barriers, vaccine hesitancy, and rural pharmacy distribution concerns. These findings suggest that pharmacists require further training in overcoming vaccine hesitancy, and potentially indicate a need for the distribution of vaccination responsibilities to additional pharmacy staff members

Interventions to increase uptake of the human papillomavirus vaccine in unvaccinated college students: A systematic literature review

Objective: The purpose of this systematic review is to summarize the best available evidence on interventions that could be implemented in the college environment to increase HPV vaccination uptake in college students who were not previously vaccinated. Methods: Pubmed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane, and EBSCO were searched in December 2017 to identify all literature meeting the following criteria: human subjects, English language, HPV, HPV vaccination, and college. PRISMA recommendations were followed. We focused only on manuscripts that reported vaccine uptake, excluding studies that only reported vaccine intentions. We identified 2989 articles; 101 relevant after screening; nine eligible for final qualitative review. Results: Vaccine uptake rates ranged from 5% to 53%. Theory-based variables (e.g., perceived susceptibility and self-efficacy) were associated with vaccine uptake in most studies. A study exposing participants to a narrative video about HPV vaccination led by a combination of peers and medical experts produced the greatest difference in HPV vaccination initiation compared to a control group (21.8% vs 11.8%) of all the studies reviewed. Conclusions: Few interventions resulted in substantial HPV vaccine uptake. A combination of peer and provider encouragement may be the most effective method to increase vaccine uptake in this population. Keywords: Systematic review, HPV vaccination, College health, HPV vaccine uptake, Interventio