Pharmacist-Led Population Health Initiative to Address Statin Care Gaps: A Quality Improvement Project.

Background: Evidence-based guidelines recommend statins as first-line therapy to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with cardiovascular disease and/or diabetes. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services assess compliance with these guidelines through performance and process quality measures.

Purpose: To describe innovative practices to address statin use care gaps, to identify successes and challenges of a pharmacist-led statin initiative, and share quality improvement opportunities related to statin quality metrics.

Characterization of beta2-adrenergic receptor knockout mouse model during Chlamydia muridarum genital infection.

Chlamydia genital infection caused by Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted disease worldwide. A mouse model has been developed in our laboratory to better understand the effect of cold-induced stress on chlamydia genital infection and immune response. However, the stress mechanism affecting the host response to Chlamydia muridarum genital infection remains unclear.

Traveling the road toward academic promotion for faculty with a DNP degree.

There is a widely recognized need for nursing faculty in the United States. To prepare a practice-ready workforce, schools of nursing are hiring faculty with Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) preparation to ensure clinical expertise is embedded into curriculum by practice experts. However, nurses transitioning from clinical nursing to faculty positions require tailored support and guidance in navigating the academic environment.

Implementation of pharmacist recommendations in patients with type 2 diabetes enrolled in an employer-sponsored health plan.

Background: The new, employee health plan (EHP) focused, population health initiative was established at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in October 2020. The initiative's goals are to reduce health care costs and optimize patient care by providing patient-specific recommendations to help manage chronic disease states in the ambulatory care setting. This project's purpose is to quantify and categorize pharmacist recommendations implemented and not implemented.

Assessment of a pharmacy technician medication history program.

Purpose: To determine the percentage of unintentional prior-to-admission (PTA) medication list discrepancies captured by second-source verification.

Methods: A prospective, randomized, controlled intervention was conducted on all patients admitted to a large academic medical center with a PTA medication list completed by a pharmacy technician from December 2018 through January 2019. Excluded patients included those admitted as observation status or discharged prior to the time of second-source verification.

Disentangling beliefs about emotions from emotion schemas.

Objective: The current study sought to empirically evaluate a new clinical tool, the Individual Beliefs about Emotion (IBAE) which assesses nine beliefs about emotion. The goal was to examine the overlap of the IBAE with the Leahy Emotional Schema Scale (LESS), indices of psychopathology, and emotion dysregulation.

Method: Participants (n = 513) completed the IBAE, the LESS, and measures of affective distress, borderline personality features, and emotion dysregulation.

Beliefs About Emotion Shift Dynamically Alongside Momentary Affect.

This study examined if beliefs about emotion change across emotional contexts in daily life, and it investigated whether people with prominent features of borderline personality pathology experience greater shifts in emotion beliefs during emotional states. Undergraduate participants with ( = 49) and without borderline features ( = 50) completed a 1-week ecological momentary assessment study where they provided ratings of affect, nine different beliefs about emotion, and indicators of momentary self-efficacy. Results support the notion of beliefs as relatively schematic.

Interpersonal vs. Non-Interpersonal Cumulative Traumas and Psychiatric Symptoms in Treatment-Seeking Incarcerated Women.

Incarcerated women are at elevated risk of lifetime trauma exposure. Prevalence rates of trauma exposure and how these events relate to specific domains of psychiatric symptomology among this group are lacking. This study hypothesized a greater range of diverse cumulative trauma experiences (CTEs) would be positively associated with psychiatric symptoms in general (depression, PTSD, distress tolerance), but that interpersonal CTEs in particular would be uniquely associated with greater symptoms of guilt and shame.

Predicting attrition in long-term residential substance use disorder treatment: A modifiable risk factors perspective.

Although numerous factors are associated with attrition in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, many are unmodifiable and therefore difficult to target in efforts to improve treatment outcomes. The current study sought to identify the strongest and most modifiable predictors of attrition in long-term residential SUD treatment from myriad characteristics associated with treatment termination. Archival data were examined for 2,069 adults (74% male; 38% non-Hispanic White) who entered a long-term residential SUD treatment facility between January 2010 and June 2016.

The dynamics of persisting through distress: Development of a Momentary Distress Intolerance Scale using ecological momentary assessment.

Distress tolerance, or the ability to withstand uncomfortable states, is thought to be a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology. Distress tolerance is typically measured using self-report questionnaires or behavioral tasks, both of which construe distress tolerance as a trait and downplay the potential variability in distress tolerance across time and situation. The aim of the current study was to provide a method for assessing momentary distress tolerance using ecological momentary assessment to capture both within- and between-individual information.