Health-system pharmacist preceptor development and educational needs for accessible resources.

Introduction: Skilled preceptors are crucial to the pharmacy profession as they contribute to the growth and development of student pharmacists and resident pharmacists. As a result, providing education and further growth for preceptors is vital. The purpose of this survey was to determine preceptor development topics of interest and preferred platforms for receiving education.

Transformation of an Online Multidisciplinary Course into a Live Interprofessional Experience.

To design, implement, and assess an interprofessional education (IPE) course in the first professional year of students enrolled in eight different health professions programs. An interprofessional faculty committee created a 1-credit hour required IPE course to not only teach students about the roles and responsibilities of each discipline and how they may contribute to an interprofessional team, but to also improve collaboration and team-based communication skills among health care professions students. Students were placed in interprofessional groups and met weekly to participate in didactic lectures, discussion sessions, and a standardized patient encounter.

Debating the Effectiveness and Necessity of Tenure in Pharmacy Education.

Academic tenure is a controversial and highly debated topic. Is tenure truly outdated or does it simply need to be reformed? On one hand, the tenure system has shortcomings including deincentivizing productive faculty members, inconsistent application of tenure policies and procedures, and the potential for discrimination during tenure decisions. On the other hand, the tenure system is a long held tradition in the academy, essential in higher education to ensure academic standards and values are upheld in the best interest of students.

Development of a center for teaching excellence.

This article describes the development, implementation, and assessment of a Center for Teaching Excellence at Midwestern University Chicago College of Pharmacy. The purpose of the Center was to create a systematic framework to promote, enhance, and assess the scholarship of teaching and learning. Assessment of the Center's activities suggests a positive impact on the teaching abilities of faculty.

Iclaprim, a novel diaminopyrimidine for the treatment of resistant gram-positive infections.

Objective: To review the pharmacology, microbiology, in vitro susceptibility, pharmacokinetics, clinical trial data, safety, and tolerability of iclaprim, a novel dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) inhibitor.

Data Sources: A MEDLINE search was conducted from 1966 through December 2008. Additional sources included abstracts from meetings of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and the Infectious Diseases Society of America from 2001 to 2008 and information available from the manufacturer's Web site.