Preceptor Perspectives Using Entrustable Professional Activity-Based Assessments During Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences.

Objective: To explore advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) preceptor perspectives including implementation recommendations, barriers, and facilitators to using entrustable professional activity (EPA) assessment in pharmacy experiential education.

Methods: Two 90-min virtual focus group sessions were conducted to elucidate preceptor perspectives on EPA integration into APPEs through semistructured discussion. Preceptors with experience utilizing entrustment-supervision scales with EPAs for assessments for at least 4 APPE learners in the last year were eligible.

Be SMART About Asthma Management: Single Maintenance and Reliever Therapy.

Single maintenance and reliever therapy (SMART) is an asthma treatment approach that utilizes combined inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting β-agonists for maintenance and quick relief therapy. Despite the evidence for its benefits in asthma treatment and its adoption into American and international asthma guidelines and recommendations, SMART remains a practice of some debate. This article reviews the available evidence for SMART and offers guidance for its integration into comprehensive asthma management.

Patient experiences of buprenorphine dispensing from a mobile medical unit.

Background: Overdose deaths continue to rise within the United States, despite effective treatments such as buprenorphine and methadone for opioid use disorder (OUD). Mobile medical units with the ability to dispense buprenorphine have been developed to engage patients and eliminate barriers to accessing OUD treatment. This study reports survey responses of patients of a mobile medical unit dispensing buprenorphine in areas of Chicago, IL with high overdose rates.

Evaluating the Strengths and Barriers of Competency-Based Education in the Health Professions.

Objective: This study aimed to define competency-based education (CBE) for pharmacy education and describe how strengths and barriers of CBE can support or hinder implementation.

Findings: Sixty-five studies were included from a variety of health professions in order to define competency based pharmacy education (CBPE) and identify barriers and benefits from the learner, faculty, institution, and society perspectives. From the 7 identified thematic categories, a CBPE definition was developed: "Competency-based pharmacy education is an outcomes-based curricular model of an organized framework of competencies (knowledge, skills, attitudes) for pharmacists to meet health care and societal needs.

The Need for Competency-Based Education.

Objectives: While pharmacy education updates learning as new information arises, changes to learning experiences can trail behind current practices and technology. There have been multiple calls for radical changes in how health professions education is delivered to ensure patients are receiving high-quality care. Competency-based education has been one way discussed in the literature for how to handle this need to develop students who have a willingness to learn and can problem-solve.

How Should Resources From National Stockpiles Be Managed?

The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) is a national system maintained by the US federal government to deliver medical supplies during emergencies. In the past, the SNS has been used to mitigate public health consequences of tragedies, such as Hurricane Katrina and Ebola outbreaks. However, challenges in maintaining and utilizing the SNS for patient safety are prevalent.

Stronger, longer, better opioid antagonists? Nalmefene is NOT a naloxone replacement.

The fatal overdose crisis claims nearly 200 lives daily in the United States (U.S). Evolutions in the illicit drug supply, such as the addition of sedative adulterants and a shift to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, have driven increasing rates of both fatal and non-fatal overdose.

Survey of Pediatric Pharmacy Residency Program Directors and Former Residents on Post-Graduate Training Paths.

Objective: There are currently no data comparing outcomes of traditional vs pediatric-focused PGY1 residency programs. The primary objective of the survey was to identify if a difference in resident preparedness for a PGY2 pediatric pharmacy residency exists between these PGY1 program types.

Methods: This survey-based study included all PGY2 pediatric residency program directors (RPDs) in 2021 and PGY2 pediatric pharmacy residents who completed residency between 2016-2020.

Competency-based pharmacy education definition: What components need to be defined to implement it?

Objectives: This study aimed to define the essential elements in the proposed competency-based pharmacy education (CBPE) definition, provide the key defining components of each essential element on the basis of educational theory and evidence, and define how the essential elements meet the identified needs for CBPE.

Methods: best-practice integrative review was conducted as part of the work of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy CBPE Task Force to define the essential elements in the CBPE definition and how these elements fit with the need for CBPE. The definition was compared with other published competency-based education definitions across K-12, higher education, medical education, and veterinary education.

Research Priorities for Expansion of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment in the Community Pharmacy.

In the last decade, the U.S. opioid overdose crisis has magnified, particularly since the introduction of synthetic opioids, including fentanyl.

Evaluating the Quality of the Core Entrustable Professional Activities for New Pharmacy Graduates.

This study aimed to evaluate the quality of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Core Entrustable Professional Activities (Core EPAs) for New Pharmacy Graduates according to standards outlined in competency-based education literature utilizing the Queen's EPA Quality (EQual) rubric. A cohort of pharmacists with EPA expertise rated Core EPA quality with the EQual rubric and provided recommendations for revisions. A generalizability study determined the reliability of the EQual ratings with pharmacist users.

Leveraging Mindfulness to Reduce Stress and Improve Quality of Life Among Pharmacy Students.

Objective: Methods to improve stress and well-being for health profession trainees are limited. Mindfulness, elevating awareness to the present moment experience with compassion, has been shown to demonstrate effectiveness to enhance well-being. This research leverages techniques from mindfulness to develop and evaluate a credit-bearing longitudinal mindfulness elective, designed to teach mindfulness to improve stress and quality of life (QoL).

I Trust or I Trust? The Gap between Entrustment Determinations and Entrustment Decisions for Trainees in Pharmacy and Other Health Professions.

Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) and entrustment decision making are rapidly becoming mainstream in competency-based education in the health professions. EPAs are the units of professional practice to entrust graduates with once they have developed the required competencies. They were conceived to enable a gradual increase in professional autonomy during training, by allowing trainees to practice activities in which they have demonstrated they have mastered well, with decreasing supervision.

Patient with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes? Remember these steps.

In addition to promoting glycemic control, you'll need to initiate statin therapy for CV risk, administer appropriate vaccinations, and screen for depression regularly.

Recommendations and Next Steps For Competency-Based Pharmacy Education.

In July 2021, the chairs of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Council of Deans, Council of Faculties, and Council of Sections developed a task force to discuss potential ways to improve pharmacy education. The Competency-Based Education (CBE) Joint Task Force was created to explore the pros and cons of advancing a competency-based approach to pharmacy education (CBPE) and to determine ways to create more flexibility within pharmacy curricula to enable CBE. To achieve these goals, the Task Force systematically reviewed available resources and outlined the pros and cons of CBPE, best practices for implementation, strategies to minimize barriers, and recommendations on whether CBE should be implemented in pharmacy education.

Which Entrustment-Supervision Scale is Right for Pharmacy Education?

Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are an outgrowth of the competency-based educational model to support workplace-based learner assessments and evaluation. A learner's performance of EPAs is assessed by the degree of provided entrustment and required supervision rather than by a score, percentage, or letter grade typically assigned in traditional academic coursework. Entrustment-supervision (ES) scales are used to document learner progression and steer learner development over time.

Medication-assisted recovery for opioid use disorder: A guide.

Considering offering medical intervention for OUD to reduce mortality? It's essential to understand the clinical benefits, limitations, and regulation of available agents.

Outcomes of a mobile medical unit for low-threshold buprenorphine access targeting opioid overdose hot spots in Chicago.

Introduction: Opioid overdoses in Chicago are unevenly distributed, affecting medically underserved neighborhoods most acutely. Innovations in reaching patients perceived to be hard-to-reach (e.g.

Twelve tips to develop entrustable professional activities.

Entrustable professional activities (EPAs), units of professional practice that require proficient integration of multiple competencies and can be entrusted to a sufficiently competent learner, are increasingly being used to define and inform curricula of health care professionals. The process of developing EPAs can be challenging and requires a deep yet pragmatic understanding of the concepts underlying EPA construction. Based on recent literature and the authors' lessons learned, this article provides the following practical and more or less sequential recommendations for developing EPAs: [1] Assemble a core team; [2] Build up expertise; [3] Establish a shared understanding of the purpose of EPAs; [4] Draft preliminary EPAs; [5] Elaborate EPAs; [6] Adopt a framework of supervision; [7] Perform a structured quality check; [8] Use a Delphi approach for refinement and/or consensus; [9] Pilot test EPAs; [10] Attune EPAs to their feasibility in assessment; [11] Map EPAs to existing curriculum; [12] Build a revision plan.

Relationship between advanced pharmacy practice experience grading schemes and pharmacy residency match rates.

Purpose: To determine the relationship of advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) grading schemes and other pharmacy program variables (ie, program age and funding) with pharmacy residency match rates.

Summary: A 12-question survey was disseminated to experiential administrators of pharmacy programs in October 2018. Respondents identified their program's APPE grading scheme (pass/fail, letter grades, or other) and associated pros and cons.

Stratification of burnout in health-system pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic: A focus on the ambulatory care pharmacist.

Introduction: Burnout is defined as high emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and low personal accomplishment from work. Prevalence of burnout among health-system and ambulatory care pharmacists is unknown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: The purpose of this research is to analyze burnout prevalence among health-system pharmacists (HSPs) and ambulatory care pharmacists (ACPs) using the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory and Maslach Burnout Inventory.