Design and Refinement of a Faculty Workload Estimator.

Objective: This paper describes the creation and refinement of a Workload Estimator to be used at Colleges/Schools of pharmacy to calculate faculty workload.

Methods: We describe the initial development of the Workload Estimator for pharmacy practice faculty, including the consensus-building methodology and the implementation process. Additionally, we describe the annual refinement and expansion of use to pharmaceutical and administrative sciences faculty.

Words matter: Comments in support of diagnosis education in pharmacy.

Diagnosis education is explicitly included in the Draft Accreditation Standards 2025 and should be wholeheartedly supported. To address the staggering number of diagnostic errors in the US, the National Academy of Medicine advocates for diagnosis education for all health professions. Misperceptions of pharmacists' involvement in diagnosis are exacerbated by use of implicit language and euphemisms, and it's long overdue that we provide clarity.

Recommitting to AACP Engaged Governance for the Common Good: Report of the 50th Anniversary Commission to Reimagine the AACP House of Delegates.

The 50th Anniversary Commission to Reimagine the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) House of Delegates (HOD Commission) was charged to consider and recommend changes to the AACP Board of Directors and AACP HOD regarding a broad range of issues related to the HOD. The 2021-2022 HOD Commission met virtually many times throughout the year as 2 sub-groups and a full commission, using Basecamp for shared documents and timelines, and it provided interim reports to the Board of Directors in November and February. A survey of 2022 delegates was developed and administered; responses from 163 delegates informed final recommendations as described in the report.

Predictors of Student Failure or Poor Performance on Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences.

To determine factors predictive of student failure or poor performance on advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) at a single pharmacy program. This retrospective cohort evaluated students entering the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program from 2012-2014 at St. Louis College of Pharmacy.

Development of a tool to assess and advance the effectiveness of preceptors: The Habits of Preceptors Rubric.

Purpose: Present the research performed to identify and describe habits of effective pharmacy preceptors and provide a framework for targeted preceptor assessment and development.

Methods: A 5-round Delphi consensus-building process was used to refine the initial Habits of Preceptors Rubric (HOP-R) developed by the research team. Twenty experts in pharmacy experiential education participated.

Pharmacy Education Needs to Address Diagnostic Safety.

The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, and the Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Education frame patient safety from the perspective of medication management, which is also the current focus of pharmacy education and training. With the growing appreciation that diagnostic errors represent an urgent and actionable patient safety concern, the National Academy of Medicine has recommended diagnostic safety training for all health care professions. The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine has worked with an interprofessional consensus group to identify a set of 12 key competencies necessary to achieve diagnostic quality and safety that focuses on individual, team-based, and system-related competencies.

Competencies for improving diagnosis: an interprofessional framework for education and training in health care.

Background Given an unacceptably high incidence of diagnostic errors, we sought to identify the key competencies that should be considered for inclusion in health professions education programs to improve the quality and safety of diagnosis in clinical practice. Methods An interprofessional group reviewed existing competency expectations for multiple health professions, and conducted a search that explored quality, safety, and competency in diagnosis. An iterative series of group discussions and concept prioritization was used to derive a final set of competencies.

Intentional Interprofessional Experiential Education.

The experiential component of a doctor of pharmacy curricula is an ideal, yet underutilized vehicle to advance interprofessional education (IPE) initiatives. To date, most experiential-based IPE initiatives occur in a naturally occurring, non-deliberate fashion. The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Experiential Education Section formed the Task Force on Intentional Interprofessional Education in Experiential Education in academic year 2015-2016 to explore the issue.

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.

Assessment of students' critical-thinking and problem-solving abilities across a 6-year doctor of pharmacy program.

Objective: To determine the feasibility of using a validated set of assessment rubrics to assess students' critical-thinking and problem-solving abilities across a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum.

Methods: Trained faculty assessors used validated rubrics to assess student work samples for critical-thinking and problem-solving abilities. Assessment scores were collected and analyzed to determine student achievement of these 2 ability outcomes across the curriculum.

Comparison of patient simulation methods used in a physical assessment course.

Objective: To determine whether there is a difference in student pharmacists' learning or satisfaction when standardized patients or manikins are used to teach physical assessment.

Design: Third-year student pharmacists were randomized to learn physical assessment (cardiac and pulmonary examinations) using either a standardized patient or a manikin.

Assessment: Performance scores on the final examination and satisfaction with the learning method were compared between groups.

Global management of chronic disease in sub-Saharan Africa: a call to action for pharmacists.

Objectives: To shed light on the growing prevalence of type 2 diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa and to highlight the important role that pharmacists can play in addressing this growing global concern.

Summary: The combination of scarce health care resources, a lack of general awareness and data to drive new policies, and the severe shortage of health workers has contributed to the escalation of chronic disease in sub-Saharan Africa. The profession of pharmacy offers extensive knowledge on disease and medication management that has proven to yield positive health outcomes.

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.

Pharmacogenetic warfarin dose refinements remain significantly influenced by genetic factors after one week of therapy.

By guiding initial warfarin dose, pharmacogenetic (PGx) algorithms may improve the safety of warfarin initiation. However, once international normalised ratio (INR) response is known, the contribution of PGx to dose refinements is uncertain. This study sought to develop and validate clinical and PGx dosing algorithms for warfarin dose refinement on days 6-11 after therapy initiation.

Gamma-glutamyl carboxylase and its influence on warfarin dose.

Via generation of vitamin K-dependent proteins, gamma-glutamyl carboxylase (GGCX) plays a critical role in the vitamin K cycle. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in GGCX, therefore, may affect dosing of the vitamin K antagonist, warfarin. In a multi-centered, cross-sectional study of 985 patients prescribed warfarin therapy, we genotyped for two GGCX SNPs (rs11676382 and rs12714145) and quantified their relationship to therapeutic dose.

Pharmacogenomics of warfarin: uncovering a piece of the warfarin mystery.

Purpose: The literature on the pharmacogenomics of warfarin and the use of genetic testing to optimize initial and maintenance warfarin dosing is reviewed.

Summary: Warfarin tablets contain a racemic mixture of R- and S-isomers. The S-isomer is responsible for about 70% of warfarin's anticoagulant effect.

Gabapentin as a potential option for treatment of sciatica.

Gabapentin has been approved in the United States for the treatment of epilepsy and postherpetic neuralgia. Gabapentin has also demonstrated proven efficacy for the treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathy and trigeminal neuralgia, although these represent off-label uses of the drug. However, to our knowledge, no data have been published regarding the efficacy of gabapentin for treating sciatica.

Optimal initial dose adjustment of warfarin in orthopedic patients.

Background: Warfarin sodium is commonly prescribed for the prophylaxis and treatment of venous thromboembolism. Dosing algorithms have not been widely adopted because they require a fixed initial warfarin dose (eg, 5 mg) and are not tailored to other factors that may affect the international normalized ratio (INR).

Objective: To develop an algorithm that could predict a therapeutic warfarin dose based on drug interactions, INR response after the initial warfarin doses, and other clinical factors.

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.

Defining the opportunity for pharmacogenetic intervention in primary care.

Unlabelled: Pharmacogenetics (PG), the study of human genome function and its effects on drug response, represents an exciting approach for reducing adverse drug events and increasing therapeutic efficacy. However, there is no clear information of the potential impact of PG in the primary care setting. Therefore, a study was conducted to determine the frequency of use of medications under PG influence, including 16 PG adverse drug reaction (ADR)-associated medications, in the primary care setting.