Recommendations for the successful pursuit of scholarship by pharmacy practice faculty members.

Scholarship has long been a basic expectation of faculty members at institutions of higher learning in the United States and elsewhere. This expectation is no less assumed in academic pharmacy. A number of organizations have verbalized and enforced this precept over the years.

Academic help-seeking behavior among student pharmacists.

Objectives. To identify factors associated with academic help-seeking behavior among student pharmacists at a public university.Methods.

Arkansas community pharmacists' opinions on providing immunizations.

Objectives: To determine community pharmacists' attitudes and knowledge on providing immunizations including perceived barriers to immunizing. The study also examined the percentage of Arkansas pharmacists providing immunizations and the utilization of student pharmacists.

Design: Survey.

An Objective Standardized Clinical Examination (OSCE) in an advanced nonprescription medicines course.

Objective: To add an objective standardized clinical examination (OSCE) to a nonprescription medication elective and assess the impact on students' knowledge, skills, and satisfaction.

Design: A nonprescription medicine elective was altered to incorporate more active learning and skill-assessment measures. Small group recitation sessions were added to review didactic material from a prior required nonprescription medicine course, and an objective standardized clinical examination was used to assess skills.

Web-based multimedia vignettes in advanced community pharmacy practice experiences.

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of Web-based multimedia vignettes on complex drug administration techniques to augment the training of pharmacy students in advanced community pharmacy practice experiences.

Design: During the orientation for a community APPE, students were randomly assigned to either a study group or control group After they began their APPE, students in the study group were given an Internet address to access multimedia vignettes which they were required to watch to augment their training and standardize their counseling of patients in the use of inhalers and ear and eye drops.

Assessment: A 12-item questionnaire was administered to students in both groups at the orientation and again on the last day of the APPE to evaluate their knowledge of counseling patients in the use of inhalers and ear and eye drops.

Integrating an elective self-care experience with a required advanced pharmacy practice community experience.

The development, planning, implementation, and integration of a nonprescription medication (self-care) experience into an existing community advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Pharmacy is described. The APPE will provide enhanced self-care education and skill development for students in response to the new Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education Standards and Guidelines for the Professional Program in Pharmacy Leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy Degree, which will take effect in July 2007. A description of the Advanced Community Pharmacy Over-The-Counter APPE is provided along with insights gleaned from the faculty involved.