Piloting the United Kingdon 'Prescribing Safety Assessment' with pharmacist prescribers in Scotland.

Background: Prescribing is a complex task requiring considerable knowledge and skills. The Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA) was developed by the British Pharmacological Society and the United Kingdom (UK) Medical Schools Council. Between February and June 2014, over 7000 final year medical students undertook the PSA, with an overall pass rate of 94%. Independent prescribing for suitably trained pharmacists was introduced in the UK in 2006. To date there has been little focus on any objective measures of prescribing safety. Objective: To determine the PSA performance of a pilot group of pharmacist prescribers in Scotland relative to medical students and to test the feasibility and acceptability of running the PSA. Methods: A group of 59 pharmacist prescribers took part in ten events. The PSA consisted of 30 questions to be completed over 60 min. All questions had been used in the 2014 assessments for final year medical students. The PSA was undertaken online under invigilated conditions, mirroring the medical student assessment. One month later, participants were invited to complete an online evaluation questionnaire. Results: The mean overall PSA scores (±SD) were 87.5% ± 8.7 (range 52–98) compared to a 88.5% for medical students. Based on an Angoff passmark of 76.0%, 53 pharmacists (89.8%) passed compared to an overall pass rate in PSA 2014 of 94%. Pharmacists performed equivalently to medical students in all assessment areas, with a slightly lower performance in the prescribing, drug monitoring and data interpretation questions offset by better performance in prescription review and adverse drug reactions. Feedback was positive in relation to appropriateness, relevance and level of difficulty of the PSA although several commented that they were practicing in very specific clinical areas. Conclusion: These pilot events have benchmarked the PSA performance of pharmacist prescribers with final year medical students, and feedback confirmed feasibility and acceptability

Parenting a child with haemophilia while living in a non-metropolitan area

The experience of living in a non-metropolitan area and\ud parenting a child with haemophilia is relatively unknown.\ud Using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA),\ud the following study explored the experiences of seven\ud parents, from which four themes emerged: ‘bearing the\ud brunt of diagnosis’ captures the impact of the diagnosis;\ud ‘if you can’t help me, who can?’ reveals experiences with\ud the health system; ‘tackling the challenge of treatment’\ud encompasses difficulties in adhering to the treatment\ud regime; ‘I need you to understand’ reflects desires for\ud others support and understanding. These themes should\ud be considered when developing support systems and\ud interventions for parents living in non-metropolitan areas

What business school characteristics are correlated with more favourable National Student Survey (NSS) rankings?

The reliability and importance of business school rankings has long been debated, however most of the discussion has centred on research rankings. With the introduction of the National Student Survey (NSS) the spotlight has been shone on student satisfaction with teaching. With a rumoured teaching excellence framework on the horizon, it is pertinent to analyse the variables correlated with higher NSS satisfaction scores. This paper finds that the variable significantly correlated with higher NSS satisfaction scores in the subject group of Management, Marketing, Business Studies and Human Resource Management is the value added by a higher education institution. The level of learning resources in business schools do not significantly explain any of the variation between student satis-faction levels. The percentage of staff who are an A on the REF is not significantly correlated with NSS scores, nor is spend per student. While not removing all concerns, these findings should at least help quell some misgivings around the appropriateness of using NSS data as a measure of the quality of teaching in business schools

Inhibited interpersonal coping style predicts poorer adherence to scheduled clinic visits in human immunodeficiency virus infected women at risk for cervical cancer

Background: One of the most common gynecologic conditions among HIV+ women is cervical dysplasia, the precancerous phase of cervical cancer. Therefore, adherence to gynecology vi sits may be among the most important health care practices for HIV+ women. However, no research has evaluated the psychosocial factors associated with health care practices among HIV+ women at risk for cervical cancer.Purpose: This study examined the relationship between inhibited interpersonal coping style and adherence to primary care and obstetrics/gynecology visits in HIV+ women with Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection.Methods: Twenty-eight HIV-1 seropositive Black, non-Hispanic women underwent a psychosocial interview, blood draw, and gynecologic examination. The Millon Behavioral Health Inventory was used to assess coping style. Medical chart review was used to assess adherence to scheduled special immunology clinic visits for 24 months following study entry.Results: Results suggested that greater inhibited coping style significantly predicted greater nonadherence to clinic visits during 1-year (β = .45, p = .04) and 2-year (β =.58, p = .02) follow-up, even after controlling for the possible confounding effects of recent depressed mood on adherence. Social support satisfaction did not mediate the relationship between inhibited coping style and nonadherence.Conclusions: These findings suggest that interpersonal coping style assessment may be a useful tool in predicting adherence in HIV+ women with HPV. Future research should assess the effect of psychosocial interventions on coping style, adherence, and cervical dysplasia in HIV+ women with HPV

Connected : Contemporary Art in Kingston

This exhibition examines the nature of art practice in Kingston, Ontario through the interrelationships of 18 of its artists. The curator asked nine local artists to select one work by an artist of their choice for the exhibition, and those artists who were chosen, in turn, selected one work by their nominator. In brief statements, the artists reveal the reasons for their choices. 3 bibl. ref. Biographical notes. List of works