Hypoglycemia: A closer look at a community pharmacist's impact in optimizing diabetes care.

Background: Hypoglycemia is a complication of diabetes and can have considerable clinical impact on mortality, morbidity, and quality of life. Certain patient populations with diabetes are at an increased risk of experiencing hypoglycemia, posing as a safety concern and may have possible negative affect(s) on diabetes if not appropriately managed. With community pharmacies often being an accessible means of health care, there is potential for widespread diabetes education in this setting.

Efficacy of an over-the-counter intervention follow-up program in community pharmacies.

Objective: To evaluate whether patient adherence to appropriate self-care advice from a pharmacist or professional year 4 (PY4) advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) student provides satisfactory symptom relief.

Setting: Two community pharmacies in the same chain in Massachusetts from mid-December 2009 to June 2010.

Practice Description: Pharmacists and PY4 APPE students offered a follow-up phone call to patients who were seeking or had accepted the offer for self-care advice for themselves or others for whom they are primary caregivers.

An advanced professional pharmacy experience in a community setting using an experiential manual.

Objectives: To determine the usefulness of a teaching and learning tool used to create structure for advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) in community pharmacy settings, and to identify differences between respondents' perspectives on the relevance and practicality of implementing specific community pharmacy-related topics during the experience.

Design: Community practice faculty members designed a manual that outlined a week-by-week schedule of student activities, consistent with the Center for the Advancement of Pharmaceutical Education (CAPE) outcome-based goals, and included associated teaching, documentation, and assessment tools. The manual was distributed to site preceptors and students.