A qualitative assessment of the pediatric content in pharmacy curricula adopted by pharmacy schools in Jordan

Objective: The present study aimed to explore faculty (i.e., professors of various ranks) opinions and views regarding the pediatric content in courses taught to pharmacy students in Jordan. Methods: Purposeful sampling was used to identify faculty from ten pharmacy schools. Participants were identified through their institutions’ websites. After obtaining required approvals, twelve in-depth interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed and analyzed using NVivo 11 Software. Interviews followed a previously prepared and validated interview guide. The interview guide covered various aspects of pediatric undergraduate education and training. Results: Twelve professors (eight assistants and four associate professors) agreed to take part in the study. Qualitative analysis revealed four themes each with regard to respondents’ knowledge of the pediatric content and their students’ competency in dealing with pediatric patients. The emerging themes were: the lack of pediatric content in their current curriculum, the need for exposing students to more courses teaching pediatrics, and future aspirations to deal with this, and implications on practice. Conclusions: This study highlights the deficiency of pediatric courses in pharmacy curriculum in Jordan. Respondent believed that this will have negative implications on pediatric pharmaceutical care and treatment efficacy and safety. It was thought that adding more pediatrics topics to undergraduate curricula, offering pediatric specialized postgraduate education, and implementing pre-registration training could alleviate the current situation

Scholarly publishing depends on peer reviewers

The peer-review crisis is posing a risk to the scholarly peer-reviewed journal system. Journals have to ask many potential peer reviewers to obtain a minimum acceptable number of peers accepting reviewing a manuscript. Several solutions have been suggested to overcome this shortage. From reimbursing for the job, to eliminating pre- publication reviews, one cannot predict which is more dangerous for the future of scholarly publishing. And, why not acknowledging their contribution to the final version of the article published? PubMed created two categories of contributors: authors [AU] and collaborators [IR]. Why not a third category for the peer-reviewer

Dispensing of non-prescribed antibiotics in Jordan

Ammar Almaaytah,1 Tareq L Mukattash,2 Julia Hajaj2 1Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, 2Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan Objective: Current regulations in Jordan state that antibiotics cannot be sold without a medical prescription. This study aimed to assess the percentage of pharmacies that dispense antibiotics without a medical prescription in the Kingdom of Jordan and identify and highlight the extent and seriousness of such practices among Jordanian pharmacies. Methods: A prospective study was performed, and five different clinical scenarios were simulated at pharmacies investigated including sore throat, otitis media, acute sinusitis, diarrhea, and urinary tract infection in childbearing-aged women. Three levels of demand were used to convince the pharmacists to sell an antibiotic. Results: A total of 202 total pharmacies in Jordan were visited in the present study. The majority of pharmacies (74.3%) dispensed antibiotics without prescription with three different levels of demand. The percentage of pharmacies dispensing antibiotics without a prescription for the sore throat scenario was 97.6%, followed by urinary tract infection (83.3%), diarrhea (83%), and otitis media (68.4%). The lowest percentage of antibiotic dispensing was for the acute sinusitis simulation at 48.5%. Among the pharmacies that dispensed antibiotics, the pharmacists provided an explanation as the number of times per day the drug should be taken in 95.3% of the cases, explained the duration of treatment in 25.7%, and inquired about allergies prior to the sale of the antibiotic in only 17.3%. Only 52 pharmacies (25.7%) refused to dispense any kind of antibiotics, the majority (61.5%) of this refusal response came from acute sinusitis cases, while the minority (2.4%) came from the sore throat cases. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that antibiotics continue to be dispensed without prescription in Jordan in violation with national regulations regarding this practice. The findings of this study could provide a layout for governmental health authorities to implement strict enfrorcment of national regulations regarding antibiotic dispensing in order to avoid the serious complications that could arise in the future as a result of such practices. Keywords: pharmacy, pharmacy practice, non-prescribed antibiotics, microbial resistance, Jorda

Medication Adherence and Its Associated Factors Among Outpatients with Heart Failure

Anan S Jarab,1,2 Walid A Al-Qerem,3 Hanan Walid Hamam,1 Karem H Alzoubi,4,5 Shrouq R Abu Heshmeh,1 Tareq L Mukattash,1 Eman Alefishat6– 8 1Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, 22110, Jordan; 2College of Pharmacy, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; 3Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Amman, 11733, Jordan; 4Department of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapeutics, College of Pharmacy, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; 5Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan; 6Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine and Health Science, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, 127788, United Arab Emirates; 7Department Biopharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Jordan, Amman, 11942, Jordan; 8Center for Biotechnology, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, 127788, United Arab EmiratesCorrespondence: Eman Alefishat, Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine and Health Science, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, 127788, United Arab Emirates, Tel +971 5 07293877, Email [email protected]: Poor adherence to heart failure (HF) medications represents a major barrier to achieve the desired health outcomes in those patients.Objective: To assess medication adherence and to explore the factors associated with medication non-adherence among patient with HF in Jordan.Methods: The current cross-sectional study was conducted at the outpatient cardiology clinics at two main hospitals in Jordan from August 2021 through April 2022. Variables including socio-demographics, biomedical variables, in addition to disease and medication characteristics were collected using medical records and custom-designed questionnaire. Medication adherence was assessed using the 4-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the factors that are significantly and independently associated with medication non-adherence.Results: Of the 427 participating patients, 92.5% had low to moderate medication adherence. Results of the regression analysis revealed that that patients who had higher education level (OR=3.36; 95% CI 1.08– 10.43; P=0.04) and were not suffering from medication-related side effects (OR=4.7; 95% CI 1.91– 11.5; P=0.001) had significantly higher odds of being in the moderate adherence group. Patients who were taking statins (OR=16.59; 95% CI 1.79– 153.98; P=0.01) or ACEIs/ ARBs (OR=3.95; 95% CI 1.01– 15.41; P=0.04) had significantly higher odds of being in the high adherence group. Furthermore, Patients who were not taking anticoagulants had higher odds of being in the moderate (OR=2.77; 95% CI 1.2– 6.46; P=0.02) and high (OR=4.11; 95% CI 1.27– 13.36; P=0.02) adherence groups when compared to patients who were taking anticoagulants.Conclusion: The poor medication adherence in the present study sheds the light on the importance of implementing intervention programs which focus on improving patients’ perception about the prescribed medications particularly for patients who have low educational levels, receive an anticoagulant, and do not receive a statin or an ACEI/ ARB.Keywords: heart failure, medication adherence, medication necessity, medication concerns, intervention, Jorda

Prevalence and nature of off-label antibiotic prescribing for children in a tertiary setting: A descriptive study from Jordan

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the use of off-label antibiotics in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and paediatric wards in Jordan. Methods: Data of patients admitted to the neonatal intensive care units and paediatric wards in King Abdulla University Hospital were collected over an 8-week survey between May and July 2012. Data collected in this study included patients’ age, weight, medical history, diagnosis and the details of antibiotics prescribed to each patient. Results: The study involved a total of 250 children (80 admitted to the NICU and 170 admitted to the wards). A total of 598 antibiotic prescriptions were issued for these patients (244 in NICUs and 354 in paediatricwards). The results of the present study show that off-label antibiotic prescribing to paediatric patients is very common. Off-label antibiotic prescribing to paediatric patients is related mostly to doses and indications, and rarely to age. The majority of admitted patients received at least one off-label antibiotic during their hospital stay. Conclusion: This study reveals the high prevalence of off-label use of antibiotic among paediatric children in Jordan. There is a serious need for robust and continuous educational programs to improve the awareness of paediatricians of guidelines surrounding the use of antibiotics in paediatric patients. Furthermore, true collaboration between paediatricians and clinical pharmacists towards safe and effective antibiotic prescribing in paediatric patients is crucial

Healthcare professional experiences and attitudes on unlicensed/off-label paediatric prescribing and paediatric clinical trials.

International audienc