Implementing absolute cardiovascular disease risk assessment into pathology collection services.

Background: Pathology services represent an ideal setting to integrate absolute cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk estimation when patients attend for routine cholesterol testing. This study aimed to explore the process of implementing CVD risk estimation into point-of-care service delivery by pathology staff to inform future implementation and sustainability.

Methods: A new service for CVD risk estimation via a self-directed screening station was implemented into 14 pathology service sites across Tasmania, Australia.

The imperative to develop health literacy: An ethical evaluation of HealthLit4Kids.

An imperative exists to promote health literacy (HL) development in today's young people. Included in curricula worldwide, health literacy has been recognised as a social determinant in its own right, which has the potential to redress inequity and positively impact health and educational outcomes. While it has been shown that schools provide an ideal setting to support HL development, available evidence suggests that health may be undertaught in primary schools, and further resources are required to support educators' inclusion of HL in their lessons.

HealthLit4Kids: teacher experiences of health literacy professional development in an Australian primary school setting.

Health literacy (HL) is a critical asset for 21st century learners to possess given its positive impact on health outcomes and educational attainment. Concerningly, HL is an area that primary school teachers report having a lack of understanding, confidence, and ability to teach. The HealthLit4Kids initiative aimed to address this issue through a series of teacher professional development (PD) workshops.

Dad taught me nothing about relationships and sexuality: how contemporary Australian fathers became sex ed dads.

This mixed methods study explored Australian fathers' views about relationships and sexuality education (RSE) and their role within it. In the article we examine contemporary fathers' engagement with discussing relationships and sexuality with their children, compared to their recollections of their own fathers' involvement. We draw on survey data from 612 diverse Australian fathers of children aged 3-12 years and interview data from 10 fathers.

HealthLit4Kids: Supporting schools to be health literacy responsive organisations.

Issue Addressed: To reduce inequity, services and community organisations must respond to the health literacy needs and strengths of each individual accessing their services. As a social determinant, health literacy is compounded by interactions between the service provider, the individual, and their wider community. Schools provide a critical nexus between the teacher (as service provider), the student (as learner) and their family (carers and wider community) to support the development of children's health literacy.

HealthLit4Kids study protocol; crossing boundaries for positive health literacy outcomes.

Background: Health attitudes and behaviours formed during childhood greatly influence adult health patterns. This paper describes the research and development protocol for a school-based health literacy program. The program, entitled HealthLit4Kids, provides teachers with the resources and supports them to explore the concept of health literacy within their school community, through classroom activities and family and community engagement.

How Two Small Pharmacy Schools' Competency Standards Compare with an International Competency Framework and How Well These Schools Prepare Students for International Placements.

International standards of pharmacy curricula are necessary to ensure student readiness for international placements. This paper explores whether curricula from two pharmacy programs, in Australia and Canada, are congruent with international standards and if students feel prepared for international placements. Nationally prescribed educational standards for the two schools were compared to each other and then against the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Global Competency Framework.

CPD Aligned to Competency Standards to Support Quality Practice.

As medication experts, pharmacists are key members of the patient's healthcare team. Pharmacists must maintain their competence to practice to remain responsive to the increasingly complex healthcare sector. This paper seeks to determine how competence training for pharmacists may enhance quality in their professional development.

A Shared Focus: Comparing the Australian, Canadian, United Kingdom and United States Pharmacy Learning Outcome Frameworks and the Global Competency Framework.

This paper presents an analysis of the end of degree expectations, expressed as learning outcomes, for pharmacy graduates from Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and United States. The authors compare the end of degree expectations, through mapping these requirements to the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Global Competency Framework (GbCF). The anticipated end of degree expectations are similar but also reveal some individual characteristics.

Knowledge, use and perceived relevance of a profession's Competency Standards; implications for Pharmacy Education.

Objectives: To determine the extent of use and perceived relevance of the National Competency Standards Framework for Pharmacists in Australia (NCS). Based on these findings, to suggest approaches for the enhancement of pharmacy education for the profession locally and globally.

Methods: Convenience sampling techniques were employed between November 2013 and June 2014 in conducting an online survey with Australian pharmacy students, interns, pharmacists and educators.