Live and learn: Utilizing MyDispense to increase student knowledge and confidence in caring for patients with diverse religious backgrounds.

Background: The American Council for Pharmacy Education outlines that pharmacists should be able to "recognize social determinants of health to diminish disparities and inequities in access to quality care." This randomized, cross-sectional study assessed students' knowledge and confidence in caring for patients with diverse religious backgrounds. Students were assigned to either a series of religious cases created in MyDispense or a control group to read a pamphlet on religious considerations in patient care.

Virtual self-care simulations for third-year pharmacy skills laboratory courses in three institutions.

Background And Purpose: This study was designed to determine whether a virtual, self-care activity improved knowledge and confidence in third-year student pharmacists.

Educational Activity And Setting: Third-year student pharmacists (n = 386) from three institutions participated in the virtual self-care simulation during their respective practice laboratory course. A pre- and post-assessment collected 10 knowledge and five confidence questions, self-reported on 0-100 scale, mapped to learning outcomes and pharmacy standards.

A Virtual Reality 360 Video to Introduce Second-Year Student Pharmacists to Sterile Compounding Prior to Course Activity.

Virtual reality (VR) has not been used in pharmacy education when teaching sterile compounding. The objective of this study was to describe the development of a VR 360 video for second-year student pharmacists. The secondary objective was to assess the VR experience, specifically on participants' knowledge and performance in sterile compounding, as well as the VR video demands and efforts.

A comparison of in-person vs. asynchronous learning with self-care patient cases.

Background And Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of a live laboratory setting compared to an asynchronous session in a crossover teaching design on knowledge and confidence in self-care review topics.

Educational Activity And Setting: Pharmacy students (n = 88) participated in a crossover designed laboratory session where they either attended a live, active-learning laboratory session on self-care review topics, followed by a virtual, asynchronous self-care simulation or vice versa. Sessions were held one week apart.

From refugee to pharmacist: Insights for better care.

Purpose: This reflection utilizing Gibb's model offers insight into the lived experience of a Vietnamese child refugee who, many years later, found herself working as a pharmacist with Afghan refugees.

Description: Through this piece, the author describes her childhood experience with the United States (US) healthcare system as a refugee, her experience as a pharmacist caring for refugees, and explores her thoughts and feelings about the experience.

Analysis/interpretation: The author evaluates the positive and negative aspects of the situation and analyzes the experience to make sense of the situation.

A call for sustainability: Why unused drugs should be redistributed to pharmacy schools for simulated pharmacy practice learning activities.

Introduction: Pharmaceutical waste from unused or expired medications and supplies has environmental, economic, and social implications. Redistribution of these items from institutions to schools of pharmacy may contribute to global sustainability efforts.

Perspective: This commentary outlines the proposed call to action through the United Nation's five dimensions of sustainability: planet, prosperity, people, partnerships, and peace.

Teaching Independent Decision-Making Through a Computer-Based Drug Utilization Review Simulation.

Drug utilization review (DUR) skills are important for pharmacists across all settings. Computer-based DUR simulations to teach student pharmacists are currently scarce. This article describes a computer-based DUR simulation that required limited faculty and financial resources and was implemented in collaboration among 3 institutions.

Expansion of MyDispense: A Descriptive Report of Simulation Activities and Assessment in a Certified Pharmacy Technician Training Program.

Background: Yale New Haven Health (YNHH) implemented a pharmacy technician training program in 2016. The curriculum includes 14 weeks of combined didactic and simulation hours (280 h in total), followed by 360 h of experiential learning. MyDispense, an online pharmacy simulation, allows students to develop and practice their dispensing skills in a safe environment with minimal consequences for mistakes.

Applying Entrustable professional activities to prescription verification activities in two skills-based laboratory courses.

Background And Purpose: Prescription verification is a practice-ready expectation for pharmacy graduates. Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) should be applied to practice-ready skills-based assessments. This manuscript describes the technique of two different institutions in assessing prescription verification aligned to the Practice Manager domain of the Core EPAs as defined by the Academic Affairs Standing Committee 2015-2016 report.

An intensive summer pipeline program for pre-pharmacy students to increase underrepresented minority matriculation to pharmacy school.

Background And Purpose: To describe the Summer Academic Enrichment Program (SAEP) for underrepresented minority (URM) matriculants at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Pharmacy.

Educational Activity And Setting: The SAEP is a six-week summer pipeline program at VCU for undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students interested in applying to medical, dental, physical therapy, or pharmacy school, divided into school tracks. Demographic and matriculation information about the pharmacy track program participants was obtained from the program and school administration from inception in 2012 through 2019.

An Introductory Over-the-Counter Simulation for First-Year Pharmacy Students Using a Virtual Pharmacy.

First-year pharmacy students at two institutions were required to complete a virtual over-the-counter (OTC) simulation during their community pharmacy practice skills laboratory course. The simulation was designed to introduce first-year pharmacy students to OTC product selection and consultation prior to didactic coursework and community introductory pharmacy practice experiences. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of the OTC simulation on students' knowledge and confidence of OTC medications and overall perceptions of the activity.

Medicinal chemistry: The key to critical thinking in pharmacotherapy.

Introduction: Medicinal chemistry is a polarizing subject for pharmacy students where, if not embraced, future pharmacists may be limited in their role as drug experts. An understanding of medicinal chemistry and its structure-activity relationships creates a strong foundation upon which our knowledge of pharmacotherapy is built.

Perspective: As the field of pharmacy has shifted to an increasingly clinical role, with an emphasis on patient care as a member of the interprofessional team, pharmacy has also seen an increase in postgraduate training, specifically residencies and fellowships.

Implementing interactive hiring activity in pharmacy management education.

Background And Purpose: A major element of management is the process of hiring employees. The purpose of this brief is to describe the implementation of a human resources learning activity asking students to choose an employee to hire, describe student responses, and explore student perspectives of the activity.

Educational Activity And Setting: An interactive hiring activity was presented to third-year students (n = 386) at two different institutions, with varied classroom settings.

Lessons learned: Assessing team creation by personality inventories in pharmacy students.

Background: Proper team formation is critical for team performance and dynamics in the setting of team-based learning (TBL). Faculty should stratify students to ensure an even allocation of learner resources; however, the ideal method of team creation for TBL in pharmacy education has yet to be determined. A study aimed to assess team formation stratified by personality strengths on student performance for graded team activities, peer evaluations, and student perceptions of team dynamics compared to randomization of teams the previous semester with the same cohort.

Insurance Adjudication Simulation Across Multiple Institutions and Levels of Learners.

A virtual educational innovation was designed and implemented to have student pharmacists simulate insurance processing. This article describes the impact of this third-party payer simulation on student knowledge and confidence and reports student perceptions of the activity. First-, second-, and third-year pharmacy students (P1, P2, and P3 students, respectively) at four institutions completed the self-paced simulation.

Introducing LGBTQIA+ Patient Care to Pharmacy Students Through Laboratory-Based Exercises.

To assess the impact of novel skills-based laboratory exercises on first-, second-, and third-year pharmacy students' confidence and knowledge regarding care for people identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and other (LGBTQIA+). An LGBTQIA+ lecture discussing pronouns, common terminology, health disparities, health screenings, and gender-affirming hormone therapy was presented to students. During laboratory sessions, students applied lecture topics via a learning level-specific activity.

A call to action: Pharmacy students as leaders in encouraging physical activity as a coping strategy to combat student stress.

Introduction: Pharmacy students share a prevailing sense of stress. Many methods to increase student wellness are pharmacy program specific and faculty driven. This commentary is a call to action for student pharmacists to take shared ownership over improving the current crisis of student well-being.

Could recruiting former college athletes be the answer to less pharmacy student burnout?

Introduction: Student pharmacists are in a notable wellness deficit. Pharmacy organizations are issuing statements and providing resources addressing efforts to increase student wellness. This commentary suggests that institutions refocus recruiting efforts on students with experience balancing the demands of school, wellness, and mental health.

Team teaching with pharmacy practice and pharmaceutics faculty in a nonsterile compounding laboratory course to increase student problem-solving skills.

Background And Purpose: Combining pharmaceutics and pharmacy practice into nonsterile compounding is ideal to increase problem-solving skills. The objectives of this activity were to: (1) create a nonsterile compounding activity through a team-teaching collaboration, (2) increase students' independent problem-solving skills to compound a nonsterile natural product, and (3) assess student and faculty perceptions of the learning activity.

Educational Activity And Setting: The activity was created, implemented, and assessed using a team-teaching technique between pharmacy practice and pharmaceutics faculty.

Using immersive simulation to engage student learners in a nonsterile compounding skills laboratory course.

Background And Purpose: Although immersive simulation has been applied successfully in multiple pharmacy education settings, none have been used thus far in nonsterile compounding. The objective of this study was to increase student knowledge and confidence when compounding a natural nonsterile product during an immersive simulation.

Educational Activity And Setting: The immersive simulation activity was taught over two weeks in a third year advanced nonsterile compounding elective.

Strategies for inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) education throughout pharmacy school curricula.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and others (LGBTQIA+) patients face stigma and barriers to health care, including a lack of health care professionals' knowledge and confidence in treating this patient population. Pharmacists are in prime position to decrease this health disparity. United States pharmacy schools have limited LGBTQIA+ content, continuing the concern of recent graduates without knowledge and confidence.

Combination therapy with once-weekly glucagon like peptide-1 receptor agonists and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors in type 2 diabetes: a case series.

Background: National treatment guidelines recommend glucagon-like peptide receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) as add-on therapy to oral agents. However, GLP-1 RAs in combination with dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors is not recommended due to a lack of evidence.

Objective: This case series aims to describe the efficacy and safety of once-weekly GLP-1 RAs administered concomitantly with DPP-4 inhibitors in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Applying educational gaming success to a nonsterile compounding escape room.

Background And Purpose: Serious educational gaming success has not been replicated in a nonsterile compounding practical skill-based course. The objective of this study was to create a nonsterile compounding escape room to evaluate third-year professional pharmacy students' (1) knowledge of nonsterile compounding and (2) perceptions of educational escape room gaming utilized in nonsterile compounding.

Educational Activity And Setting: The escape room gaming environment used puzzles focused on advanced topics of nonsterile compounding.

Identifying Core Content for Electrocardiogram Instruction in Doctor of Pharmacy Curricula.

Minimum competencies for diagnostic tools, such as the electrocardiogram, are not well-defined in current standards or publications. The electrocardiogram has significant pharmacotherapeutic implications that pharmacists should have an adequate understanding of. This commentary highlights the importance of pharmacists' understanding of key elements of the electrocardiogram and drafts a set of recommended minimum competencies for graduating pharmacy students.