Age, gender, and setting's effect on community pharmacists' stress and confidence in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Reports of increased stress among healthcare workers were commonplace during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, but little is known about community pharmacists' experiences.

Objective: To characterize community pharmacists' stress and confidence during the early COVID-19 pandemic and identify associated factors.

Methods: Pharmacists who worked in a brick-and-mortar community pharmacy (e.

A systematic review of primary care-focused, self-reported medication adherence tools.

Background: Clinician recognition of nonadherence is generally low. Tools that clinicians have used to assess medication adherence are self-reported adherence instruments that ask patients questions about their medication use experience. There is a need for more structured reviews that help clinicians comprehensively distinguish which tool might be most useful and valuable for their clinical setting and patient populations.

Building Implementation Science Capacity in Academic Pharmacy: Report of the 2020-2021 AACP Research and Graduate Affairs Committee.

The 2020-2021 AACP Research and Graduate Affairs Committee (RGAC) continued the work begun by the 2019-2020 RGAC to increase awareness of and capacity for implementation research to advance practice transformation in academic pharmacy. AACP President Anne Lin charged the RGAC with developing resources and programs for training faculty and graduate students in implementation science. The committee was further charged with developing a mechanism to pair pharmacy faculty and implementation experts on practice advancement projects.

The use of an integrated opioid and medical marijuana prescription drug monitoring program.

Objectives: To (1) identify the reasons for which pharmacists in Connecticut use the CPMRS when dispensing opioid medications and medical marijuana products, (2) determine pharmacists' perceived value of the CPMRS when dispensing opioids or medical marijuana, and (3) compare practices and the perceived value of the CPMRS among community-based pharmacists (CBPs) and medical marijuana dispensary pharmacists (MMDPs).

Methods: An online survey was administered from May 2019 to June 2019 to CBPs (n = 178) and MMDPs (n = 12). The survey included items about background, use, and attitudes about current and future use of the CPMRS.

Pharmacist Identification of Medication Therapy Problems Involving Cognition Among Older Adults Followed by a Home-Based Care Team.

Background: Dementia, depression, and delirium alone or in combination (3Ds) can threaten independence among older adults, and polypharmacy may further accelerate decline. Clinical pharmacists can play an important role on multidisciplinary home-based care teams by identifying medication therapy problems (MTPs) involving cognition. Within a larger ongoing clinical trial, this paper describes cognition-related MTPs and pharmacist recommendations among older adults with 3Ds followed by a home-based care team.

Use of the Jung/Myers Model of Personality Types to Identify and Engage with Individuals at Greatest Risk of Experiencing Depression and Anxiety.

Depression is the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide. Objectives were (1) to determine the strength of the association between personality type with depression and anxiety using the Preferred Communication Style Questionnaire (PCSQ©) and the Four-Item Patient Health Questionnaire for Depression and Anxiety (PHQ-4) and (2) evaluate the extent to which severity of depression and anxiety is associated with personality type. Data were collected via a self-administered online survey of 10,500.

Prescription drug monitoring programs in community pharmacy: An exploration of pharmacist time requirements and labor cost.

Objective: To (1) measure the average time community pharmacists require to query prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) reports, and (2) estimate pharmacist labor costs associated with PDMP use.

Design: This exploratory project consisted of an observational time study followed by analysis of existing PDMP data sets. Data collected included time spent by pharmacists in Final Verification of controlled substance prescriptions (CSPs), and whether or not they queried the PDMP.

Three opportunities for standardization: A literature review of the variation among pharmacists' patient care services terminology.

Background: Variation describing pharmacists' patient care services exist, and this variation contributes to the prevalent misunderstanding of pharmacists' roles. In contrast, standard phraseology is a critical practice among highly reliable organizations and a way to reduce variation and confusion.

Objective: This work aims to identify and define pharmacists' patient care service terms to identify redundancies and opportunities for standardization.

Training Community Pharmacy Staff How to Help Manage Urgent Mental Health Crises.

Nearly 44 million Americans are affected by mental illness every year. Many individuals, however, are not diagnosed and/or do not receive treatment. The present manuscript reviews the incidence of mental illness, the continuum from mental wellness to mental illness, and the role of the pharmacy staff in helping individuals manage different mental health needs.

The role of chain pharmacies to promote healthy food retail: Current trends, legal limits, and policy opportunities.

Chain drug stores have increased their health care role through expanded pharmacy services and retail health clinics. They also are major food retailers. This creates a tension between health promotion and sales of unhealthy foods and beverages to pharmacy customers.

An opioid dispensing and misuse prevention algorithm for community pharmacy practice.

Background: Prescription opioid abuse has rapidly increased in recent years and is now considered a national epidemic by the United States government. Community pharmacies are at the forefront of opioid abuse, given their role in dispensing opioid prescriptions. Despite this role, however, there are few known guidelines to help community pharmacists navigate the process of detecting and managing prescription opioid abuse.

Organizational Characteristics of Veterans Affairs Clinics With High and Low Utilization of Clozapine.

Objective: Twenty to thirty percent of patients with schizophrenia experience treatment resistance. Clozapine is the only medication proven effective for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. However, in most settings less than 25% of patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia receive clozapine.

Management of Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans and Medication Adherence: A Conceptual Framework and Empirical Analysis.

Background: Although contractors that offer prescription drug plans through the Medicare Part D program are evaluated in part on enrollees' medication adherence scores, little evidence addresses contractors' ability to influence these scores.

Objective: We used data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and US Census to investigate contractors' ability to influence their medication adherence scores. In accordance with a conceptual model, we hypothesized that contractors can directly and indirectly influence their medication adherence scores based on how effectively they manage prescription drug benefits for enrollees.

Pharmacy Student Attitudes and Willingness to Engage in Care with People Living with HIV/AIDS.

Objective. To describe the extent to which pharmacy students hold negative attitudes toward people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and to determine whether background variables, student knowledge, and professional attitudes may affect willingness to care for PLWHA. Methods.

A consumer-led intervention to improve pharmacists' attitudes toward mental illness.

Introduction: Individuals with a severe and persistent mental illness often manage complex medication regimens and would benefit from support and education from their pharmacist. Past research has shown that community pharmacists have negative attitudes toward mental illnesses, and these attitudes affect willingness to provide services to patients with mental illnesses. Consumer-led interventions have shown benefit to improve student attitudes toward mental illness.

Medication adherence communications in community pharmacies: A naturalistic investigation.

Objective: To describe the extent of pharmacy detection and monitoring of medication non-adherence, and solutions offered to improve adherence.

Methods: Participants were 60 residents of the Boston area who had a generic chronic medication with 30 day supplies from their usual pharmacy. Participants received a duplicate prescription which they filled at a different pharmacy.

Socioeconomic characteristics of enrollees appear to influence performance scores for medicare part D contractors.

More than 150 private companies contract with the federal government to provide Part D prescription drug benefits to Medicare beneficiaries, either through stand-alone drug plans or as part of Medicare Advantage plans. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) evaluates these companies on a set of performance measures, including plan enrollees' medication adherence. We used 2012 data from CMS and data from the US Census Bureau to investigate whether these performance ratings are influenced by the socioeconomic characteristics of enrollee populations.