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.

Medication incident recovery and prevention utilising an Australian community pharmacy incident reporting system: the QUMwatch study.

Purpose: To identify factors in community pharmacy that facilitate error recovery from medication incidents (MIs) and explore medication safety prevention strategies from the pharmacist perspective.

Methods: Thirty community pharmacies in Sydney, Australia, participated in a 30-month prospective incident reporting program of MIs classified in the Advanced Incident Management System (AIMS) and the analysis triangulated with case studies. The main outcome measures were the relative frequencies and patterns in MI detection, minimisation, restorative actions and prevention recommendations of community pharmacists.

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.

Spontaneous Adverse Event Reports Associated with Zolpidem in the United States 2003-2012.

Study Objectives: Stimulated reporting occurs when patients and healthcare professionals are influenced or "stimulated" by media publicity to report specific drug-related adverse reactions, significantly biasing pharmacovigilance analyses. Among countries where the non-benzodiazepine hypnotic drug zolpidem is marketed, the United States experienced a comparable surge of media reporting during 2006-2009 linking the above drug with the development of complex neuropsychiatric sleep-related behaviors. However, the effect of this stimulated reporting in the United States Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System has not been explored.

Exploring the link between organizational climate and the use of psychotropic medicines in nursing homes: A qualitative study.

Background: Research concerning the overprescribing of psychotropic medicines in nursing homes suggests that organizational climate plays a significant role in the use of psychotropic medicines. Organizational climate refers to how members of the organization perceive their work environment as well as interactions with each other or outsiders.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the key dimensions of organizational climate and their subsequent influence on the use of psychotropic medicines.

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.

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.

Standardisation of the FAERS database: a systematic approach to manually recoding drug name variants.

Purpose: The US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), one of the world's largest spontaneous reporting systems, is difficult to use because of report duplication and a lack of standardisation in the recording of drug names. Unresolved data quality issues may distort statistical analyses, rendering the results difficult to interpret when detecting and monitoring adverse effects of pharmaceutical products. The aim of this study was to develop and implement a data cleaning protocol to identify and resolve drug nomenclature issues.

An exploration of Australian hospital pharmacists' attitudes to patient safety.

Objectives: To explore the attitudes of Australian hospital pharmacists towards patient safety in their work settings.

Methods: A safety climate questionnaire was administered to all 2347 active members of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia in 2010. Part of the survey elicited free-text comments about patient safety, error and incident reporting.

Primary health care practitioner perspectives on the management of insomnia: a pilot study.

This paper reports a qualitative pilot study exploring primary care health practitioners' perspectives on the management of insomnia following the extensive media coverage on the adverse effects of zolpidem in 2007-08. General practitioners and community pharmacists were recruited throughout metropolitan Sydney, New South Wales using a convenience sampling and snowballing technique. Demographic information was collected from each participant followed by a semistructured interview.

Anticholinergic activity of commonly prescribed medications and neuropsychiatric adverse events in older people.

This study sought to determine whether the presence of in vitro anticholinergic activity (AA) among different drugs is associated with reporting of neuropsychiatric adverse events (NPAEs) and whether age affects this relationship. Retrospective case/noncase analyses using Australia's spontaneous Adverse Drug Reaction System (ADRS) database containing 150 475 reports determined crude and adjusted reporting odds ratios (RORs) for NPAEs for 23 drugs with various reported in vitro AA. Covariates were age (treated as a dichotomous variable [> or =65 years]), gender, and concomitant use of antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants, and drugs with recognized inherent anticholinergic properties (anticholinergic drugs).

Compounded medicines and 'off label' prescribing - a case for more guidance.

Background: Interest by prescribers and pharmacists in the provision of individualised pharmaceutical therapy in the form of compounded medicines has grown in recent times. However, there have also been a number of case reports of patient harm associated with these medicines.

Objective: To highlight areas for clinicians and pharmacists to consider when prescribing or dispensing compounded medicines, which are consistent with quality use of medicines principles.