Enhancing generational change in patient safety attitudes through peer leadership.

Background: Despite peer-led teaching demonstrating benefits in patient safety education, few studies have evaluated these programmes from the perspective of peer leaders.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of peer leader participation in a patient safety education workshop in improving their patient safety attitudes.

Participants: 34 final year pharmacy student peer leaders.

These terrifying three words: A qualitative, mixed methods study of students' and mentors' understandings of 'fitness to practise'.

Background: There is little empirical published research pertaining to fitness to practise and pre-registration nursing students. Much of the existing fitness to practise literature focuses on medical students and there is a preponderance of literature reviews and descriptive or discursive papers.

Objectives: The multicentre study aimed to explore students' and mentor's understandings of fitness to practise processes in pre-registration nursing programmes.

Review article: acute severe ulcerative colitis - evidence-based consensus statements.

Background: Acute severe ulcerative colitis (ASUC) is a potentially life-threatening complication of ulcerative colitis.

Aim: To develop consensus statements based on a systematic review of the literature of the management of ASUC to improve patient outcome.

Methods: Following a literature review, the Delphi method was used to develop the consensus statements.

Efficacy, Tolerability, and Dose-Dependent Effects of Opioid Analgesics for Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Importance: Opioid analgesics are commonly used for low back pain, however, to our knowledge there has been no systematic evaluation of the effect of opioid dose and use of enrichment study design on estimates of treatment effect.

Objective: To evaluate efficacy and tolerability of opioids in the management of back pain; and investigate the effect of opioid dose and use of an enrichment study design on treatment effect.

Data Sources: Medline, EMBASE, CENTRAL, CINAHL, and PsycINFO (inception to September 2015) with citation tracking from eligible randomized clinical trials (RCTs).

Grape cluster microclimate influences the aroma composition of Sauvignon blanc wine.

New Zealand Sauvignon blanc (SB) wines are characterised by a distinctive combination of tropical-fruity and green-herbaceous aromatic compounds. The influence of sunlight exposure of grape clusters on juice and wine composition was investigated, with the aim of manipulating aromatic compounds in SB wine. In the absence of basal leaf removal SB clusters naturally exposed to sunlight were riper than shaded clusters, evidenced by higher total soluble solids (TSS) and proline, and lower malic acid, 3-isobutyl-2-methoxypyrazine (IBMP) and arginine.

Consumer perspectives of medication-related problems following discharge from hospital in Australia: a quantitative study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the consumer's perspectives and experiences regarding medication related problems (MRPs) following discharge from hospital.

Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online 80-question survey.

Setting: Survey participants were recruited through an online market research company.

Timing of Administration: For Commonly-Prescribed Medicines in Australia.

Chronotherapy involves the administration of medication in coordination with the body's circadian rhythms to maximise therapeutic effectiveness and minimise/avoid adverse effects. The aim of this study is to investigate the "time of administration" recommendations on chronotherapy for commonly-prescribed medicines in Australia. This study also aimed to explore the quality of information on the timing of administration presented in drug information sources, such as consumer medicine information (CMI) and approved product information (PI).

Herbal medicines: challenges in the modern world. Part 1. Australia and New Zealand.

As in many developed countries, herbal medicines (HMs) are widely used in Australia and New Zealand (NZ). The popularity of HM continues to rise. Western, Asian and indigenous HMs are used, reflecting the cultural diversity of people in this region.

Abdominal functional electrical stimulation to improve respiratory function after spinal cord injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objectives: Abdominal functional electrical stimulation (abdominal FES) is the application of a train of electrical pulses to the abdominal muscles, causing them to contract. Abdominal FES has been used as a neuroprosthesis to acutely augment respiratory function and as a rehabilitation tool to achieve a chronic increase in respiratory function after abdominal FES training, primarily focusing on patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). This study aimed to review the evidence surrounding the use of abdominal FES to improve respiratory function in both an acute and chronic manner after SCI.

Pharmacy-led medication reconciliation programmes at hospital transitions: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

What Is Known And Objective: Medication reconciliation is recognized as an important tool for the prevention of medication discrepancies and subsequent patient harm at care transitions. However, there is inconclusive evidence as to the impact of medication reconciliation at hospital transitions overall, as well as pharmacy-led medication reconciliation services. This review sought to evaluate the impact of pharmacy-led medication reconciliation interventions on medication discrepancies at hospital transitions and to categorize these interventions as single transition interventions or multiple transitions interventions.

Effectiveness of pharmacist-led medication reconciliation programmes on clinical outcomes at hospital transitions: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objectives: Pharmacists play a role in providing medication reconciliation. However, data on effectiveness on patients' clinical outcomes appear inconclusive. Thus, the aim of this study was to systematically investigate the effect of pharmacist-led medication reconciliation programmes on clinical outcomes at hospital transitions.

High melphalan exposure is associated with improved overall survival in myeloma patients receiving high dose melphalan and autologous transplantation.

Aim: High dose melphalan (HDM) and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) retains a central role in the treatment of myeloma. The aim of this study was to determine whether HDM exposure (area under the concentration vs. time curve, AUC), is significantly associated with transplant outcomes.

PRECISE--pregabalin in addition to usual care: statistical analysis plan.

Background: Sciatica is a severe, disabling condition that lacks high quality evidence for effective treatment strategies. This a priori statistical analysis plan describes the methodology of analysis for the PRECISE study.

Methods/design: PRECISE is a prospectively registered, double blind, randomised placebo controlled trial of pregabalin compared to placebo, in addition to usual care in patients with sciatica.

Evaluating the effectiveness of a peer-led education intervention to improve the patient safety attitudes of junior pharmacy students: a cross-sectional study using a latent growth curve modelling approach.

Objective: Despite the recognition that educating healthcare students in patient safety is essential, changing already full curricula can be challenging. Furthermore, institutions may lack the capacity and capability to deliver patient safety education, particularly from the start of professional practice studies. Using senior students as peer educators to deliver practice-based education can potentially overcome some of the contextual barriers in training junior students.

Understanding pre-registration nursing fitness to practise processes.

Background: Protection of the public is a key aspect of pre-registration nursing education and UK Nursing and Midwifery Council monitoring processes. Universities must ensure that nursing students are "fit to practise" both during their programme and at the point of registration. However, current evidence suggests that institutional fitness to practise policies and processes can be inconsistent, lacking in clarity, and open to legal challenge.

Investigating the Primary Care Management of Low Back Pain: A Simulated Patient Study.

Unlabelled: A limitation of existing studies of primary care for low back pain (LBP) is that they are not based on direct observation of the clinical encounter and so may underestimate or overestimate the extent of evidence-practice gaps. This was a cross-sectional observational study that observed the management recommendations for LBP provided in primary care using a simulated patient approach. Trained actors requested an over-the-counter medicine or asked for management advice for 1 of 2 simulated patient scenarios: nonspecific LBP (NSLBP) or vertebral compression fracture.

Statin Therapy and Cognition in Older People: What is the Evidence?

Whether to start, continue or discontinue statins in older people remains a clinical and ethical dilemma. While there is clinical trial evidence that statins reduce cardiovascular morbidity in older people, recently concerns have been raised about side effects in this population. Adverse effects of statins reported in older people include muscle-related symptoms, diabetes, impaired physical function and cognitive impairment.

In Vitro Characterization of the Human Liver Microsomal Kinetics and Reaction Phenotyping of Olanzapine Metabolism.

Olanzapine (OLZ) is an atypical antipsychotic used in the treatment of schizophrenia and related psychoses. The metabolism of OLZ is complex and incompletely characterized. This study aimed to elucidate the enzymes and pathways involved in the metabolism of OLZ and to determine the kinetics of OLZ oxidation and glucuronidation by human liver microsomes, recombinant cytochrome P450 (rP450) enzymes, and recombinant UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (rUGT) enzymes.

Relationships Between Pharmacovigilance, Molecular, Structural, and Pathway Data: Revealing Mechanisms for Immune-Mediated Drug-Induced Liver Injury.

Immune-mediated drug-induced liver injury (IMDILI) can be devastating, irreversible, and fatal in the absence of successful transplantation surgery. We present a novel approach that combines the methods of pharmacoepidemiology with in silico molecular modeling to identify specific features in toxic ligands that are associated with clinical features of IMDILI. Specifically, from pharmacovigilance data multivariate logistic regression identified 18 drugs associated with IMDILI (P < 0.

Prescribing for Australians living with dementia: study protocol using the Delphi technique.

Introduction: Prescribing is complicated for people living with dementia, and careful consideration should be given to continuing and initiating all medicines. This study aims to elicit opinion and gain consensus on appropriate medicine use for people living with dementia in Australia to create a consensus-based list of explicit prescribing criteria.

Methods And Analysis: A Delphi technique will be used to develop explicit criteria of medication use in adults aged 65 years and above.

Staying green postharvest: how three mutations in the Arabidopsis chlorophyll b reductase gene NYC1 delay degreening by distinct mechanisms.

Stresses such as energy deprivation, wounding and water-supply disruption often contribute to rapid deterioration of harvested tissues. To uncover the genetic regulation behind such stresses, a simple assessment system was used to detect senescence mutants in conjunction with two rapid mapping techniques to identify the causal mutations. To demonstrate the power of this approach, immature inflorescences of Arabidopsis plants that contained ethyl methanesulfonate-induced lesions were detached and screened for altered timing of dark-induced senescence.