Assessing community antibiotic usage and adherence as per standard treatment guidelines: A potential area to enhance awareness at community pharmacy settings.

Background: Antibiotic nonadherence significantly contributes to poor treatment outcomes and antimicrobial resistance. In Southeast Asia, including Bangladesh, community pharmacies are crucial in primary healthcare, and are key sources of over-the-counter antibiotics. However, understanding of adherence to the full course of community-dispensed antibiotics is limited.

The impact of fluconazole use on the fungal and bacterial microbiomes in recurrent Vulvovaginal Candidiasis (RVVC): a pilot study of vaginal and gastrointestinal site interplay.

Purpose: Recurrent Vulvovaginal Candidiasis (RVVC) is a problematic clinical condition for which fluconazole treatment is commonly prescribed. This study investigated the interkingdom vaginal and gastrointestinal microbiomes of RVVC patients who use fluconazole intermittently or as longer-term maintenance therapy for symptom management and compared them to healthy controls.

Methods: Vaginal swabs and fecal samples were collected.

Creating safer cancer care with ethnic minority patients: A qualitative analysis of the experiences of cancer service staff.

Introduction: Effective consumer engagement practices can enhance patient safety. This is important for consumers from ethnic minority backgrounds who are exposed to increased risk of patient safety events. Using the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety model, this study explored staff experiences of creating opportunities for engagement with consumers from ethnic minority backgrounds to contribute to their cancer care safety.

The accessibility of pharmacist prescribing and impacts on medicines access: A systematic review.

Background: Pharmacist prescribing has been introduced in several countries as a strategy to improve access to health care and medicines. However, the direct impacts of pharmacist prescribing on medicines access, and the overall accessibility of pharmacist prescribing services, are not well known.

Objectives: This systematic review aimed to assess the direct impacts of pharmacist prescribing on medicines access, and the accessibility of pharmacist prescribing services, in community and primary care settings.

Intravaginal Combination Therapy of Acetic and Lactic Acid in premenopausal women with recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis: A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled feasibility trial.

Background: Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis management primarily entails azole therapy used as required or as an extended daily or weekly maintenance therapy for 6 months or more. Unfortunately, relapse within 3-6 months of ceasing maintenance therapy is experienced for more than half the patients, for whom indefinite treatment is required.

Objectives: To explore the feasibility of trial design examining a prophylaxis treatment to prevent recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis symptomatic episodes and reduce adverse effects.

Experience-based codesign approach to improve care in Australian emergency departments for complex consumer cohorts: the MyED project protocol, Stages 1.1-1.3.

Introduction: Emergency department (ED) care must adapt to meet current and future demands. In Australia, ED quality measures (eg, prolonged length of stay, re-presentations or patient experience) are worse for older adults with multiple comorbidities, people who have a disability, those who present with a mental health condition, Indigenous Australians, and those with a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background. Strengthened ED performance relies on understanding the social and systemic barriers and preferences for care of these different cohorts, and identifying viable solutions that may result in sustained improvement by service providers.

Interplay of the microbiome and antifungal therapy in recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC): A narrative review.

Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) is a microbial, immune and sexual health disorder impacting up to 10 % of the adult female population. Fluconazole is a well-established antifungal drug commonly utilized for acute and long-term RVVC treatment. This insight review provides an overview of known vaginal and gastrointestinal microbiota characteristics in RVVC, presents the potential impacts of fluconazole therapy on multi-microbiome relationships and discusses implications for future research and clinical practice.

Assessing the environment for engagement in health services: The Audit for Consumer Engagement (ACE) tool.

Introduction: Although it is widely accepted that the physical environment can impact health quality and care outcomes, its impact on consumer engagement with health services has not been examined. Currently, no tools exist that assess the opportunities for consumer engagement offered within the physical environment. We aimed to develop and validate an environmental audit tool to assist health services and researchers to assess the extent to which the physical environment in health services creates and supports opportunities for consumer engagement.

Lived experience of medical management in recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis: a qualitative study of an uncertain journey.

Background: Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) is experienced by up to 10% of pre-menopausal women globally, yet there is limited research exploring the perspective of women living with this challenging condition.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews with Australian women experiencing RVVC were conducted between April-July 2021. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and qualitative interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was conducted.

Ensuring medication safety for consumers from ethnic minority backgrounds: The need to address unconscious bias within health systems.

Medication safety remains a pertinent issue for health systems internationally, with patients from ethnic minority backgrounds recognized at increased risk of exposure to harm resulting from unsafe medication practices. While language and communication barriers remain a central issue for medication safety for patients from ethnic minority backgrounds, increasing evidence suggests that unconscious bias can alter practitioner behaviours, attitudes and decision-making leading to unsafe medication practices for this population. Systemwide, service and individual level approaches such as cultural competency training and self-reflections are used to address this issue, however, the effectiveness of these strategies is not known.

How do health services engage culturally and linguistically diverse consumers? An analysis of consumer engagement frameworks in Australia.

Background: Engagement frameworks provide the conceptual structure for consumer engagement in healthcare decision making, but the level to which these frameworks support culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) consumer engagement is not known.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate how consumer engagement is conceptualised and operationalized and to determine the implications of current consumer engagement frameworks for engagement with CALD consumers.

Method: Altheide's document analysis approach was used to guide a systematic search, selection and analytic process.

Preparing for partnerships in cancer care: an explorative analysis of the role of family-based caregivers.

Background: Family-based 'informal' caregivers are critical to enable sustainable cancer care that produces optimal health outcomes but also gives rise to psychological burdens on caregivers. Evidence of psychosocial support for caregivers does not currently address the impacts of their role in providing clinical and health-related care for their loved ones. The present study sought to address this gap including with those from priority populations.

Evidence-based update on Australasian pharmaceutical prescribing approaches for recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis.

Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) is a subtype of vulvovaginal candidiasis, with debilitating effects on physical and emotional well-being affecting up to 10% of Australian women. Current evidence suggests that the induction and maintenance approach for RVVC is not particularly effective with post-treatment relapse rates as high as 57%. Frequently accessed Australasian RVVC prescribing resources and guidelines were examined showing a variety of adaptations of current evidence-based induction and maintenance therapies, making it difficult to select best treatment in clinical practice.

The nature, severity and causes of medication incidents from an Australian community pharmacy incident reporting system: The QUMwatch study.

Aims: Most research into medication safety has been conducted in hospital settings with less known about primary care. The aim of this study was to characterise the nature and causes of medication incidents (MIs) in the community using a pharmacy incident reporting programme.

Methods: Thirty community pharmacies participated in an anonymous or confidential MI spontaneous reporting programme in Sydney, Australia.

Where Do Models for Change Management, Improvement and Implementation Meet? A Systematic Review of the Applications of Change Management Models in Healthcare.

Background: The increasing prioritisation of healthcare quality across the six domains of efficiency, safety, patient-centredness, effectiveness, timeliness and accessibility has given rise to accelerated change both in the uptake of initiatives and the realisation of their outcomes to meet external targets. Whilst a multitude of change management methodologies exist, their application in complex healthcare contexts remains unclear. Our review sought to establish the methodologies applied, and the nature and effectiveness of their application in the context of healthcare.

The safety of health care for ethnic minority patients: a systematic review.

Introduction: Evidence to date indicates that patients from ethnic minority backgrounds may experience disparity in the quality and safety of health care they receive due to a range of socio-cultural factors. Although heightened risk of patient safety events is of key concern, there is a dearth of evidence regarding the nature and rate of patient safety events occurring amongst ethnic minority consumers, which is critical for the development of relevant intervention approaches to enhance the safety of their care.

Objectives: To establish how ethnic minority populations are conceptualised in the international literature, and the implications of this in shaping of our findings; the evidence of patient safety events arising among ethnic minority healthcare consumers internationally; and the individual, service and system factors that contribute to unsafe care.

Community, hospital and industry preceptor perceptions of their role in experiential placements- the need for standardization of preceptor responsibilities and evaluations on students.

Introduction: Appropriate evaluation processes are important in experiential placements. With the growing diversity between placements, consideration for standardization of some of these processes would be beneficial, particularly for those skills that are transferable regardless of the placement type. The objectives of this study was: (1) to explore the experiences, evaluation strategies, and feedback processes of Australian preceptor pharmacists from three primary experiential areas (community, hospital, and industry) in providing student placements; and (2) to inform the future development of the current local experiential program and future extended international experiential programs.

A Scoping Review of Peer-led Education in Patient Safety Training.

To examine the literature pertaining to the use of peer-led education in patient safety. Four studies met the inclusion criteria: two were conducted in health care students and two in medical practitioners. Three studies used pre-post evaluation, with one containing a comparator group.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention to Improve the Patient Safety Attitudes of Intern Pharmacists.

To evaluate the effectiveness of a face-to-face educational intervention in improving the patient safety attitudes of intern pharmacists. A patient safety education program was delivered to intern pharmacists undertaking The University of Sydney Intern Training Program in 2014. Their patient safety attitudes were evaluated immediately prior to, immediately after, and three-months post-intervention.

Evaluation of a survey tool to measure safety climate in Australian hospital pharmacy staff.

Background: Safety climate evaluation is increasingly used by hospitals as part of quality improvement initiatives. Consequently, it is necessary to have validated tools to measure changes.

Objective: To evaluate the construct validity and internal consistency of a survey tool to measure Australian hospital pharmacy patient safety climate.

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.