Impact of training and student self-identification on frequency, constructiveness, and professionalism of pharmacy student evaluations of teaching.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to simultaneously assess impact of enhanced training and anonymity on frequency, constructiveness, and professionalism of open-ended comments provided on course and instructor evaluations.

Methods: In a 2 × 2 factorial study, didactic students at one doctor of pharmacy program were randomized to receive enhanced training in providing constructive feedback on student evaluations of teaching or an unrelated control activity at the beginning of the academic year, and to provide or not provide an electronic signature at the time of evaluation completion for two consecutive semesters. After ensuring intercoder reliability and agreement among all investigators, one external investigator coded all open-ended comments based on the following factors: comment provided/comment not provided, constructive/less than constructive, professional/unprofessional, training/no training, and signed/unsigned.

A Team, Case-based Examination and Its Impact on Student Performance in a Patient Safety and Informatics Course.

To describe the redesigned assessment plan for a patient safety and informatics course and assess student pharmacist performance and perceptions. The final examination of a patient safety course was redesigned from traditional multiple choice and short answer to team-based, open-ended, and case-based. Faculty for each class session developed higher level activities, focused on developing key skills or attitudes deemed essential for practice, for a progressive patient case consisting of nine activities.

Peer support to assist in transition to adult services.

A peer support worker employment initiative was developed to help young service users with the transition from child and adolescent to adult mental health services, an area that needs improving nationally. This article describes how the initiative was set up and its effectiveness.

FGFR4 blockade exerts distinct antitumorigenic effects in human embryonal versus alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma.

Purpose: Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a malignancy with features of skeletal muscle, and the most common soft tissue sarcoma of childhood. Survival for high-risk groups is approximately 30% at 5 years and there are no durable therapies tailored to its genetic aberrations. During genetic modeling of the common RMS variants, embryonal RMS (eRMS) and alveolar RMS (aRMS), we noted that the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4) was upregulated as an early event in aRMS.