Pharmacy technician education and training: Highlighting the partnership among a state pharmacy association, local community college, and healthcare system.

Disclaimer: In an effort to expedite the publication of articles, AJHP is posting manuscripts online as soon as possible after acceptance. Accepted manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and copyedited, but are posted online before technical formatting and author proofing. These manuscripts are not the final version of record and will be replaced with the final article (formatted per AJHP style and proofed by the authors) at a later time.

Prescription for Curricular Revision: Application of Design Thinking Principles.

Continuous quality improvement of the professional curriculum can present as a series of complex problems to solve. Schools and colleges of pharmacy would benefit from a structured framework to approach complex problem-solving while engaging faculty and students throughout the process. Design thinking is a framework that promotes creative problem-solving while using techniques that make ambiguity and failure more comfortable during the iterative process.

Why get involved? A cross-sectional survey of factors that influence student pharmacist membership in professional organizations.

Introduction: Understanding factors that motivate and deter student pharmacists from joining professional pharmacy organizations may assist schools and organizations in determining ways to recruit, engage, and support the next generation of pharmacy professionals. The objective is to identify motivating and hindering factors related to student pharmacist membership in professional pharmacy organizations.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was sent to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Student Services Personnel community members for distribution to student pharmacists at their respective schools.

Finerenone: A Novel Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonist for Cardiorenal Protection in CKD and T2DM.

Objective: To describe the pharmacology, clinical and safety evidence, and relevance to clinical practice of finerenone.

Data Sources: A literature search was conducted utilizing PubMed, MEDLINE, and clinicaltrials.gov with search terms of "finerenone" and "BAY94-8862.

A call for student pharmacist education on vaping and vaping device use.

Introduction: The use of vaping devices, including e-cigarettes, has been steadily increasing in recent years, especially among younger populations.

Commentary: With many vaping devices on the market and misconceptions about the safety of vaping, there is a substantial amount of information that healthcare professionals need to know. As a response to this growing public health concern, doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) curricula should include opportunities for students to learn more about vaping, vaping devices, associated health outcomes, and role in smoking cessation.

ACCP Template for Evaluating a Clinical Pharmacist.

ACCP is committed to ensuring that clinical pharmacists possess the competencies necessary to deliver comprehensive medication management in team-based, direct patient care environments. These competencies are divided into six essential domains: direct patient care, pharmacotherapy knowledge, systems-based care and population health, communication, professionalism, and continuing professional development. The 2016 ACCP Clinical Practice Affairs Committee has developed an evaluation tool that includes the assessable tasks of today's clinical pharmacists that fall within each domain.

Utilization and Safety of Common Over-the-Counter Dietary/Nutritional Supplements, Herbal Agents, and Homeopathic Compounds for Disease Prevention.

Dietary supplements are commonly used by patients as part of their medical care plan. Often clinicians may not be aware of their use, because patients do not always consider these to be medications. All clinicians need to continually ask patients about their use of dietary supplements when collecting a medication history.

Motivational interviewing for medication adherence.

Objective: To familiarize pharmacists with motivational interviewing as a way to engage patients in discussions about medication adherence.

Summary: Motivational interviewing is a collaborative, patient-centered communications skill set that can increase behavior change by stimulating a patient's own internal motivation for change. Pharmacists using motivational interviewing can explore factors associated with medication nonadherence, assess patient ambivalence and/or resistance, and educate a patient to promote medication-adherent behaviors.

Reconciling Multiple Hypertension Guidelines to Promote Effective Clinical Practice.

The new Joint National Committee 8 (JNC-8) blood pressure guidelines were recently published, and there are some major changes from JNC-7. There are also differences between JNC-8 and hypertension guidelines created by major organizations in North America and around the world published from 2013 to the present. In the face of conflicting evidence, it is difficult for practicing clinicians to reconcile these differences and to incorporate new guidance into their practice.

Patient considerations in the management of type 2 diabetes - critical appraisal of dapagliflozin.

Type 2 diabetes affects more than 350 million people worldwide, and its prevalence is increasing. Many patients with diabetes do not achieve and/or maintain glycemic targets, despite therapy implementation and escalation. Multiple therapeutic classes of agents are available for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, and the armamentarium has expanded significantly in the past decade.

Assessment and revision of clinical pharmacy practice internet web sites.

Background: Health care professionals, trainees, and patients use the Internet extensively. Editable Web sites may contain inaccurate, incomplete, and/or outdated information that may mislead the public's perception of the topic.

Objective: To evaluate the editable, online descriptions of clinical pharmacy and pharmacist and attempt to improve their accuracy.

Pharmacist-generated electronic consults to improve hypertension management in a multisite health centre: pilot study.

Background: Utilisation of the electronic medical record (EMR) is believed to facilitate timely access to patient information, enhance communication between care team members and further promote clinical decision support.

Objective: To determine if pharmacist-generated electronic consults (e-consults) improve blood pressure control among patients with uncontrolled hypertension in a multisite health centre.

Methods: Pharmacists generated hypertension medication e-consults with review by primary care provider (PCP) during the patient appointment.

Glycemic control and preventive care measures of indigent diabetes patients within a pharmacist-managed insulin titration program vs standard care.

Background: Studies assessing pharmacist-led services have noted positive clinical diabetes outcomes; however, studies assessing pharmacist impact on glycemic control through insulin titration and adherence to American Diabetes Association (ADA) preventive care measures in an indigent population are limited.

Objective: To assess the impact of a pharmacist-managed insulin titration program compared to standard medical care on glycemic control and preventive care measures in an indigent population with diabetes.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study compared pharmacist-managed insulin titration to standard care; all patients received primary care services through a county-funded health center serving a low-income minority population.