Pharmacist Opioid Dispensing Confidence in an Evolving Practice Landscape.

Pharmacists are increasingly called upon to make dispensing decisions when presented with prescriptions for opioids. Risk mitigation strategies have been implemented to assist pharmacists in making these decisions, but they have also increased the complexity of decision-making. The primary objective of this study was to describe change in pharmacist comfort levels with opioid prescription dispensing over the previous year.

A Multi-Site Qualitative Study Examining Pharmacy Student Perspectives on the Opioid Crisis.

To determine pharmacy students' perspectives regarding opioid use, the opioid crisis, and pharmacy education related to both topics. Students from each professional year at eight participating schools and colleges of pharmacy were invited to participate in focus groups and answer questions about their experiences with the opioid crisis. Faculty and/or staff moderated the focus groups and audio-recorded responses.

Design and Validation of Patient-Centered Communication Tools (PaCT) to Measure Students' Communication Skills.

To develop a comprehensive instrument specific to student pharmacist-patient communication skills, and to determine face, content, construct, concurrent, and predictive validity and reliability of the instrument. A multi-step approach was used to create and validate an instrument, including the use of external experts for face and content validity, students for construct validity, comparisons to other rubrics for concurrent validity, comparisons to other coursework for predictive validity, and extensive reliability and inter-rater reliability testing with trained faculty assessors. Patient-centered Communication Tools (PaCT) achieved face and content validity and performed well with multiple correlation tests with significant findings for reliability testing and when compared to an alternate rubric.

Student use of health literacy tools to improve patient understanding and medication adherence.

Objective: Evaluate curricular changes related to health literacy and determine impact on independent-living senior residents as part of an introductory pharmacy practice experience for third-year student pharmacists.

Design: Students were randomly assigned a resident whom they visited multiple times to conduct assessments and provide various services using three methods: Ask Me 3™ Four Habits Model, and Teach-back.

Setting: The study was conducted at independent-living apartments within a 24-mile radius from the St.

The ins and outs of pharmacy services at a program of all-inclusive care for the elderly.

A program of all-inclusive care for the elderly (PACE) is a medical care model currently used in 75 clinical settings across the country. The goal of the model is to allow a participant to live independently in the community as an alternative to living in a long-term care facility. To be eligible for enrollment, participants must meet the following criteria: 55 years of age or older, at a nursing-facility level of care (as determined by the state), living in the PACE service area, and can be safely cared for in the community at the time of enrollment.

Health literacy: use of the Four Habits Model to improve student pharmacists' communication.

Objective: To assess whether student pharmacists' communication skills improved using the Four Habits Model (FHM) at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy.

Methods: During the Fall of 2009 and 2010, student pharmacists in the third professional year learned and practiced the FHM.

Genetic-based dosing in orthopedic patients beginning warfarin therapy.

High variability in drug response and a narrow therapeutic index complicate warfarin therapy initiation. No existing algorithm provides recommendations on refining the initial warfarin dose based on genetic variables, clinical data, and international normalized ratio (INR) values. Our goal was to develop such an algorithm.