Integrating Patient Safety Discussions with First-Year Doctor of Pharmacy Students in a Skills Lab Course.

The patient safety problem has been well established for over 20 years in the United States (U.S.), and there is a recognized focus on ensuring that health professions' trainees receive explicit education in various patient safety principles and practices.

A MIXED-METHODS EVALUATION OF STANDALONE PERSONAL HEALTH RECORD USE BY PATIENTS WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES.

Background: Self-management of diabetes is key for achieving positive clinical outcomes, with personal health records (PHRs) proposed as a patient-centered technology for facilitating self-care. However, few studies have described patient engagement with a PHR, including facilitators and barriers to use from the perspective of actual users.

Objectives: To compare use of a standalone PHR by patients with Type 2 diabetes to usual care through assessment of self-care behaviors, and short-term impact on social cognitive outcomes and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c).

Independent community pharmacies' provision of enhanced services: A mixed methods approach.

Background: The pharmacy profession continues to broaden toward a patient-centered care practice. Pharmacy members of formal enhanced services networks are embracing this practice. However, descriptions of how pharmacies adopt a patient-centered care practice by providing enhanced services are not widely known.

National survey of diabetes self-management program coordinators views about pharmacists' roles in diabetes education.

Objectives: To examine the viewpoints of diabetes self-management training (DSMT) program coordinators about the roles and engagement of pharmacists who participate in DSMT programs, and the engagement between community pharmacies and DSMT programs by developing and administering a nationwide survey.

Design: A mixed-methods exploratory sequential design; initial qualitative phase followed by a quantitative phase. Six in-depth interviews of DSMT program coordinators and intensive literature review informed the development of a 20-item survey instrument.

The lock-in loophole: Using mixed methods to explain patient circumvention of a Medicaid opioid restriction program.

Lock-in programs are proliferating among private and public payers to restrict access to controlled substance prescriptions and enhance care coordination for patients exhibiting high-risk use of, primarily, opioids. Patients enrolled in lock-in programs are required to seek opioids from a designated provider and pharmacy for insurance coverage of their opioid and benzodiazepine prescriptions. Lock-in program restrictions are often circumvented by patients through out-of-pocket cash purchases of opioid prescriptions, undermining the program's intended function.

Error types with use of medication-related technology: A mixed methods research study.

Background: Health information technology has been integrated throughout the medication use process to enhance safety, quality, and care efficiency. However, technologies have the potential to eliminate or reduce, but also create some new types of errors.

Objective: Assess specific error types before and after the incorporation of two different health information technologies (HITs), e-prescribing and automated dispensing cabinets (ADCs), into pharmacists' daily work.

Health Information Technology Use and Patient Safety: Study of Pharmacists in Nebraska.

This study aimed to describe the impact of 13 different health information technologies (HITs) on patient safety across pharmacy practice settings from the viewpoint of the working pharmacist. A cross-sectional mixed methods survey of all licensed practicing pharmacists in 2008 in Nebraska ( = 2195) was developed, pilot-tested and IRB approved. One-fourth responded (24.

An online health informatics elective course for doctor of pharmacy students.

Objective: To describe the development and assessment of an online elective health informatics course and determine its potential for universal integration into doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) curricula.

Design: A 2-credit hour online elective course was developed and offered to all PharmD students; voiced-over Powerpoint lectures were used to deliver content.

Assessment: Assessment of student performance was measured using quantitative metrics via discussion questions, quizzes, written papers, and examinations.

Implementing Collaborative Learning in Prelicensure Nursing Curricula: Student Perceptions and Learning Outcomes.

This study evaluated learning outcomes and student perceptions of collaborative learning in an undergraduate nursing program. Participants in this 3-phase action research study included students enrolled in a traditional and an accelerated nursing program. The number of students who passed the unit examination was not significantly different between the 3 phases.

A qualitative study of how patients with type 2 diabetes use an electronic stand-alone personal health record.

Background: Patient use of personal health records (PHRs) to manage their health information has been proposed to enhance patient knowledge and empower patients to make changes in their self-care behaviors. However, there remains a gap in understanding about patients' actual PHR use behaviors. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how patients with type 2 diabetes used a PHR to manage their diabetes-related health information for self-care.

A Qualitative Case Study Exploring Nurse Engagement With Electronic Health Records and E-Prescribing.

There is a national focus on the adoption and use of electronic health records (EHRs) with electronic prescribing (e-Rx) for the goal of providing safe and quality care. Although there is a large body of literature on the benefits of adoption, there is also increasing evidence of the unintentional consequences resulting from use. As little is known about how use of EHR with e-Rx systems affects the roles and responsibilities of nurses, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe how nurses adapt to using an EHR with e-Rx system in a rural ambulatory care practice.

Patient safety problem identification and solution sharing among rural community pharmacists.

Objectives: To implement a communication network for safety problem identification and solution sharing among rural community pharmacists and to report participating pharmacists' perceived value and impact of the network on patient safety after 1 year of implementation.

Design: Action research study.

Setting: Rural community pharmacies in Nebraska from January 2010 to April 2011.

How baccalaureate nursing students value an interprofessional patient safety course for professional development.

Nursing students need foundation knowledge and skills to keep patients safe in continuously changing health care environments. A gap exists in our knowledge of the value students place on interprofessional patient safety education. The purpose of this exploratory, mixed methods study was to understand nursing students' attitudes about the value of an interprofessional patient safety course to their professional development and its role in health professions curricula.

Research skills training for the doctor of pharmacy in U.S. schools of pharmacy: a descriptive study.

Objectives: As the practice of pharmacy grows increasingly complex, graduates are expected to possess a comprehensive set of skills enabling them to provide optimal patient care. Thus, research skills are becoming increasingly valuable and a necessary part of pharmacist training globally. However, training opportunities for improving research skills have not been well explored in the literature.

Personal health record use by patients as perceived by ambulatory care physicians in Nebraska and South Dakota: a cross-sectional study.

The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to examine the awareness and engagement that ambulatory care physicians have with patients who use a personal health record (PHR). This is part of a larger study examining health information technology (HIT) and electronic health record (EHR) adoption by ambulatory care physicians in Nebraska and South Dakota. Descriptive results and inferential findings about physician awareness and engagement are presented in relationship to the physician's stage of EHR adoption, practice type and size, gender, specialty, and age.

Evaluation of an instructional model to teach clinically relevant medicinal chemistry in a campus and a distance pathway.

Objectives: To evaluate an instructional model for teaching clinically relevant medicinal chemistry.

Methods: An instructional model that uses Bloom's cognitive and Krathwohl's affective taxonomy, published and tested concepts in teaching medicinal chemistry, and active learning strategies, was introduced in the medicinal chemistry courses for second-professional year (P2) doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students (campus and distance) in the 2005-2006 academic year. Student learning and the overall effectiveness of the instructional model were assessed.

New technology, new errors: how to prime an upgrade of an insulin infusion pump.

Background: A series of use errors occurred when switching an ambulatory care clinic patient from an older model to a newer model of an ambulatory continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion pump.

Case Report: The nurse practitioner (N.P.

Instructional model to teach clinically relevant medicinal chemistry.

The relevance of medicinal chemistry to pharmacy practice has been questioned by many pharmacy educators as more emphasis has been placed on linking clinical knowledge and practice to pharmacy student educational outcomes. Faculty teaching in medicinal chemistry and other biomedical and pharmaceutical science courses have embraced this challenge. Various teaching methods and approaches within medicinal chemistry that emphasize application of this knowledge have been sought to improve the usefulness of this scientific discipline to the future careers of students.

Personal digital assistant-based drug information sources: potential to improve medication safety.

Objectives: This study compared the potential for personal digital assistant (PDA)-based drug information sources to minimize potential medication errors dependent on accurate and complete drug information at the point of care.

Methods: A quality and safety framework for drug information resources was developed to evaluate 11 PDA-based drug information sources. Three drug information sources met the criteria of the framework: Eprocrates Rx Pro, Lexi-Drugs, and mobileMICROMEDEX.