The impact of COVID-19 through the eyes of a fourth-year pharmacy student

© 2020 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. This commentary, written primarily by a recent pharmacy graduate, discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the class of 2020. Everyone has been impacted by COVID-19, but pharmacy students have been affected by and experienced COVID-19 in unique ways. This was the first class to complete pharmacy practice experiences in an online format, miss out on milestone events including graduation, and face uncertainty about becoming licensed and entering the job market in the midst of a pandemic. However, instead of discouraging them, these events have in many ways strengthened the resilience of the class of 2020. Additionally, COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of continued advocacy for the profession and articulation of the pharmacist’s expanded role and value to the health care team, and inspired the class of 2020 to join the ranks of colleagues nationwide in raising awareness in these areas. Nevertheless, uncertainty over their future and that of their peers lingers as COVID-19 has forever changed pharmacy education and practice

Multisite study assessing the effect of cognitive test anxiety on academic and standardized test performance

Objective. To evaluate the degree of cognitive test anxiety (CTA) present in student pharmacists at multiple pharmacy programs in the United States and to determine if there are associations between self-reported CTA and relevant academic outcomes. Methods. All 2018-2019 advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) students from three US Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programs (N=260) were invited to participate in the study. Participants completed a validated 37-question survey that included the Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale-2 (CTAS-2) along with demographics-related questions. Responses were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), Kruskal Wallace, and multiple linear regression where appropriate. Results. One hundred twenty-four students (48%) from the three programs participated in the study, and the individual data of 119 (46%) were included in the final analysis. Twenty-two students (18.5%) were classified as having high CTA, 41 (34.5%) as having moderate CTA, and 56 (47.1%) as having low CTA. High CTA predicted a 8.9 point lower NAPLEX total scaled score after accounting for other variables and was also correlated with lower cumulative didactic GPA, performance on the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA), and increased likelihood of requiring course remediation. Conclusion. High cognitive test anxiety affects 18% of pharmacy students and may significantly impact their performance on a variety of traditional student success measures, including the NAPLEX. Pharmacy educators should consider further use and adoption of test anxiety measurements to identify and assist potentially struggling students

Evaluation of Patient Adherence to Vaccine and Screening Recommendations during Community Pharmacist-led Medicare Annual Wellness Visits in a Family Medicine Clinic

Background: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services initiated annual wellness visits (AWV) to reduce healthcare costs and improve preventive healthcare for beneficiaries. Provider time constraints and varying preferences to perform AWVs have limited its clinical implementation in some areas, affording pharmacists an opportunity to expand their role. Objective: To evaluate patient adherence to pharmacist recommendations for vaccinations and preventive screenings in an annual wellness visit service at a family medicine clinic in northeast Mississippi. Methods: This study included patients receiving at least one vaccination or screening recommendation during an AWV. Investigators provided vaccination (influenza, pneumococcal and herpes zoster) and screening (mammograms, DEXA, and colorectal cancer) recommendations based on current guidelines. For services not provided in-clinic, investigators contacted outside facilities 45 days post-visit to confirm adherence to recommendations. Primary endpoints included the composite adherence rate of all recommendations and percentage of patients achieving the 60% goal composite adherence rate. Secondary endpoints included individual vaccination and screening adherence rates. Results: Investigators recommended 715 interventions to a total of 254 patients, of which 239 were completed within 45 days for a 33.4 percent composite adherence rate. 20.1 percent of all participants achieved the goal composite adherence rate (60%). Overall, participants were 30.5 and 41 percent adherent to all vaccinations and preventive screening recommendations, respectively. Conclusion: Pharmacists providing AWVs increased patient access to preventive health recommendations. Although, adherence to recommendations remains a challenge and warrants further study. The findings and limitations observed in this study have identified opportunities for future research to evaluate pharmacist-led AWV services

Observation of Top Quark Production in Proton-Nucleus Collisions

Peer reviewe

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Promoting Nanotechnology among Middle School Students: Development and Implementation of Lesson Plans

Abstract Hands-on experience on nanotechnology was offered to the seventh grade students at West Fargo STEM Middle School using grade appropriate teaching modules developed in collaboration with subject teachers from West Fargo Public Schools. The content of the modules complemented course contents in science and mathematics in the seventh grade class. Eighty six students from the school participated in this year long program. Pre-and post-surveys were conducted and additional information on students' perspective on various issues were collected to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. The results indicate that hands-on activities help in stimulating students' interest in technologies. The authors believe that these programs can be emulated by others in promoting engineering education and research. The pre-and post-survey data also indicate that the students do not have enough information to decide their career paths and there is a need for additional outreach activities on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers among the students