Faculty Perceptions and Teaching Practices for Transformative Change: Culturally Responsive Teaching in Pharmacy Education

Cultural diversity training in pharmacy education has evolved from standalone lectures to longitudinal courses, service-learning initiatives, rotation experiences, and global health opportunities. This mixed methods study explored the perceptions, attitudes, and pedagogies of pharmacy educators who have incorporated culture diversity into their classrooms and clinic sites. First, 91 online surveys incorporating items from the Teaching Multicultural Attitudes Survey and the Multicultural Competency Teaching Scale were distributed to a random sample of pharmacy faculty who interface with cultural diversity. In total, 36 completed surveys were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and stepwise linear regressions. Following the survey, seven pharmacy faculty members volunteered for one-on-one interviews. Interviews were interpreted using the five elements of culturally responsive teaching as a theoretical lens. Survey results indicated that multicultural awareness is highly relevant to the courses the participants teach, multiculturalism is rewarding, and it is important for students to be multiculturally aware. Additionally, respondents indicated they often promote diversity by demonstrating appropriate behaviors, integrate cultural values and lifestyles of ethnic minority groups into their teaching, and include examples of experiences and perspectives of these diverse groups as well. Qualitative results indicated pharmacy faculty engage in all aspects of culturally responsive teaching; namely, they create opportunities for cultural socialization, adopt diverse teaching strategies to meet student needs, learn the cultural diversity of the classroom, develop culturally relevant curricula, and demonstrate cultural compassion. The results suggest that pharmacy educators with a vested interest in culture teach to and through cultural diversity

Applying Principles of Developmental Biology to Generate Three-dimensional Lung Organoids from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells.

The lungs are a complex organ consisting of two main anatomical features, the airways and alveoli. The airways form an arborized network of epithelial tubes surrounded by supporting tissue that conduct air in and out of the body. The airways connect to clusters of alveoli where gas exchange occurs between a thin epithelium and the surrounding vasculature. Any disruption to these tissues leads to the vast number of lung diseases that are known today. The number and severity of diseases affecting human lung development and adult respiratory function has stimulated great interest in deriving new in vitro models to study the human lung. Currently, a variety of animal models and cell culturing systems are used to model human lung development and adult homeostasis and disease. As described herein, I have taken two different approaches to understand how the lung develops normally. First, by utilizing mouse models, we have determined that a transcription factor, Sox9, which is expressed during lung development, is necessary to establish the proper arborized network of airways in the adult. Second, I used human pluripotent stem cells, which are grown in a tissue culture dish and are capable to differentiate into any cell type of the human body, in order to investigate human lung development and to derive a model for human lung disease. Using human pluripotent stem cells, we have developed a three-dimensional human lung model system that consists of structures that are similar to the human lung, including complex, multicellular lung epithelium and supporting tissue. This dissertation will describe my efforts to exploit both animal models and human cells grown in vitro in order to better understand how the lung develops into the complex airway and alveolar structures of the adult lung.PhDCell and Developmental BiologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/120888/1/rockichb_1.pd

Improving Pharmacy Student Communication Outcomes Using Standardized Patients

Objective. To examine whether standardized patient encounters led to an improvement in a student pharmacist-patient communication assessment compared to traditional active-learning activities within a classroom setting. Methods. A quasi-experimental study was conducted with second-year pharmacy students in a drug information and communication skills course. Student patient communication skills were assessed using high-stakes communication assessment. Results. Two hundred and twenty students’ data were included. Students were significantlymore likely to have higher scores on the communication assessment when they had higher undergraduate GPAs, were female, and taught using standardized patients. Similarly, students were significantly more likely to pass the assessment on the first attempt when they were female and when they were taught using standardized patients. Conclusion. Incorporating standardized patients within a communication course resulted in improved scores as well as first-time pass rates on a communication assessment than when using different methods of active learning

Cost-Effectiveness of Using Standardized Patients to Assess Student-Pharmacist Communication Skills

Objective. To explore the cost-effectiveness of including standardized patients (SP) in the didactic curriculum for application and assessment of students’ pharmacist-patient communication skills. Methods. Five role play/case study (RP/CS) activities from a communication skills curriculum were replaced with five SP encounters. Communication was assessed using a rubric. This study developed an economic model to examine the costs and effectiveness of replacing RP/CS events with SP events in knowledge-application and communication assessment. Costs consisted of SP hourly wages for training and delivery of SP events. Outcomes examined were the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) per student. Results. The ICER comparing SP to RP/CS was $100.93 higher per student on first-attempt pass rates and$9.04 per one-point increase in the mean score. Conclusion. SP was more effective and more costly than RP/CS. Further research into students’ willingness to pay needs to occur before determining if using SPs is cost-effective in teaching communication skills

Magneto-Optical Relaxation Measurements of Functionalized Nanoparticles as a Novel Biosensor

Measurements of magneto-optical relaxation signals of magnetic nanoparticles functionalized with biomolecules are a novel biosensing tool. Upon transmission of a laser beam through a nanoparticle suspension in a pulsed magnetic field, the properties of the laser beam change. This can be detected by optical methods. Biomolecular binding events leading to aggregation of nanoparticles are ascertainable by calculating the relaxation time and from this, the hydrodynamic diameters of the involved particles from the optical signal. Interaction between insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and its antibody was utilized for demonstration of the measurement setup applicability as an immunoassay. Furthermore, a formerly developed kinetic model was utilized in order to determine kinetic parameters of the interaction. Beside utilization of the method as an immunoassay it can be applied for the characterization of diverse magnetic nanoparticles regarding their size and size distribution

Retinoic acid regulates avian lung branching through a molecular network

Retinoic acid (RA) is of major importance during vertebrate embryonic development and its levels need to be strictly regulated otherwise congenital malformations will develop. Through the action of specific nuclear receptors, named RAR/RXR, RA regulates the expression of genes that eventually influence proliferation and tissue patterning. RA has been described as crucial for different stages of mammalian lung morphogenesis, and as part of a complex molecular network that contributes to precise organogenesis; nonetheless, nothing is known about its role in avian lung development. The current report characterizes, for the first time, the expression pattern of RA signaling members (stra6, raldh2, raldh3, cyp26a1, rar alpha, and rar beta) and potential RA downstream targets (sox2, sox9, meis1, meis2, tgf beta 2, and id2) by in situ hybridization. In the attempt of unveiling the role of RA in chick lung branching, in vitro lung explants were performed. Supplementation studies revealed that RA stimulates lung branching in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, the expression levels of cyp26a1, sox2, sox9, rar beta, meis2, hoxb5, tgf beta 2, id2, fgf10, fgfr2, and shh were evaluated after RA treatment to disclose a putative molecular network underlying RA effect. In situ hybridization analysis showed that RA is able to alter cyp26a1, sox9, tgf beta 2, and id2 spatial distribution; to increase rar beta, meis2, and hoxb5 expression levels; and has a very modest effect on sox2, fgf10, fgfr2, and shh expression levels. Overall, these findings support a role for RA in the proximal-distal patterning and branching morphogenesis of the avian lung and reveal intricate molecular interactions that ultimately orchestrate branching morphogenesis.The authors would like to thank Ana Lima for slide sectioning and Rita Lopes for contributing to the initiation of this project. This work has been funded by FEDER funds, through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE), and by National funds, through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the scope of the Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007038; and by the Project NORTE-01-0145- FEDER-000013, supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Lung epithelial stem cells and their niches : Fgf10 takes center stage

Throughout life adult animals crucially depend on stem cell populations to maintain and repair their tissues to ensure life-long organ function. Stem cells are characterized by their capacity to extensively self-renew and give rise to one or more differentiated cell types. These powerful stem cell properties are key to meet the changing demand for tissue replacement during normal lung homeostasis and regeneration after lung injury. Great strides have been made over the last few years to identify and characterize lung epithelial stem cells as well as their lineage relationships. Unfortunately, knowledge on what regulates the behavior and fate specification of lung epithelial stem cells is still limited, but involves communication with their microenvironment or niche, a local tissue environment that hosts and influences the behaviors or characteristics of stem cells and that comprises other cell types and extracellular matrix. As such, an intimate and dynamic epithelial-mesenchymal cross-talk, which is also essential during lung development, is required for normal homeostasis and to mount an appropriate regenerative response after lung injury. Fibroblast growth factor 10 (Fgf10) signaling in particular seems to be a well-conserved signaling pathway governing epithelial-mesenchymal interactions during lung development as well as between different adult lung epithelial stem cells and their niches. On the other hand, disruption of these reciprocal interactions leads to a dysfunctional epithelial stem cell-niche unit, which may culminate in chronic lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic asthma and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)