Publications by authors named "Zubin Austin"

Background: Climate change remains a significant challenge to global health. The health care system is a major contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While pharmacists are aware of climate change as an important societal issue, there is little known about the level of implementation of climate-conscious practices in community pharmacies throughout Ontario.

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Canada's 50,000+ pharmacists play a crucial role in the comprehensive delivery of primary care. Recognizing this, a program in alignment with the Team Primary Care national initiative was developed to enhance their skills and knowledge in collaborative care, aiming to cultivate advanced primary care pharmacist leaders. The curriculum development involved aligning activities with pharmacist roles and competencies, emphasizing interprofessional teamwork.

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Background: The quality of the learning environment significantly impacts student engagement and professional identity formation in health professions education. Despite global recognition of its importance, research on student perceptions of learning environments across different health education programs is scarce. This study aimed to explore how health professional students perceive their learning environment and its influence on their professional identity development.

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Background: Professional identity and its development is a focus of research, education, and practice. But, there is a lack of how professional identity impacts changes in pharmacists' roles in practice, which are particularly prevalent in primary care teams.

Objectives: This research uses Goffmanian theory, micro-sociologic interactional theory, to describe the outcomes of role negotiation in integrated primary care teams.

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Climate breakdown continues to occur at an alarming pace, and the need for all citizens and professionals to respond has never been so urgent. Healthcare work contributes significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, representing an opportunity and responsibility for pharmacists to engage in more climate-conscious practices. A key informant interview-based qualitative research method was undertaken to identify options and strategies for community pharmacists to contribute positively to achieving climate-related carbon footprint reduction goals.

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Competency-based education is rapidly emerging as a paradigmatic shift in health professions education, as we grapple with the realities of ever-changing and increasing demands of society and health systems. While pharmacy educators are becoming more familiar with this paradigm, colleagues in medical education have been exploring models and methods of competency-based education for many years, and their experiences can be illuminating for us. The persistent question that drives continuous quality improvement in pharmacy education and the development of initiatives within American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy might be stated as "Is there a better (more effective, more efficient) way to prepare pharmacists (future and current) to meet the medication-related needs of the public?"

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Objective: This study aims to determine the reasons for disciplinary action, the consequences and any associations with demographic factors for Canadian dentists.

Methods: Publicly available regulatory body disciplinary action cases from 10 Canadian provinces were coded. Demographic factors were also coded.

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Objective: This study aims to determine the reasons for disciplinary action and resultant consequences for Canadian pharmacists and any associations with demographic factors.

Methods: Regulatory body disciplinary action cases from 10 Canadian provinces were coded. Demographic information was coded.

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Background: There has been considerable discussion regarding the "leadership crisis" in pharmacy, with concerns that insufficient numbers of pharmacists want to take on leadership roles in their own profession. This exploratory study of leaders and influencers in pharmacy was undertaken to characterize the motivations for and behaviours of titled and untitled leaders, in order to help other pharmacists learn from their experiences.

Methods: Interviews with 28 individuals who self-identified or were described by others as leaders (with or without formal titles) and influencers in pharmacy were conducted using online platforms (e.

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Background: The Peel region in Southern Ontario is among the most ethnoculturally diverse and fastest growing areas in Canada. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the multicultural community of Brampton suffered one of the highest infection rates in Canada, in part because of the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the community. The role of pharmacists in supporting vaccine uptake in this linguistically, ethnically and religiously diverse community has not been adequately characterized.

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To explore the key factors that influence professional identity construction in fourth-year pharmacy students enrolled in a Doctor of Pharmacy program. A single-site instrumental case study of current fourth-year pharmacy students from the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, was used. Thirteen students participated in semistructured interviews.

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Pharmacists were integral to the vaccine administration process during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, they encountered a variety of different forms of vaccine resistance. This qualitative study explored 33 community pharmacists (from varying geographical and practice types) responses to vaccine resistance and tactics utilized to support vaccination amongst diverse community members.

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Background: The prevalence of cigarette smoking continues to be a major public health problem In the United Arab Emirates (UAE); the government has recently implemented policies to reduce smoking prevalence. Innovative strategies to support cessation are needed. Community pharmacies are vital venues to extend the reach and effectiveness of smoking cessation support.

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Workforce resilience in pharmacy is required to ensure the practice, education, and administrative systems remain viable and sustainable over time and when facing challenges. Whether it is addressing burnout of pharmacists or students, or the structure and policies/procedures of employment and professional organizations, working to increase resilience across all individuals and sectors is essential to relieve pressure and promote better well-being, especially during the recent pandemic. The purpose of this article is to describe the development of a community of practice global group focused on development of resilience within the pharmacy workforce that is inclusive of students, pharmacy interns/preregistration and registered pharmacists.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study looked at how pharmacists view their jobs and what affects their professional identities.
  • Researchers searched through a lot of articles and found 23 studies from 11 countries that showed different themes of pharmacist identities, like being a clinician or a dispenser.
  • Many pharmacists want to be seen as clinicians, but most still mainly identify as dispensers, which creates a gap between what they want to be and how they're seen in their roles.
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Background: Pharmacists need patients to trust them in order to support best possible health outcomes. There has been little empirical work to test the widely stated claim that pharmacists are the "most trusted" health care professional. This study was undertaken to characterize the factors that shape public trust of individual pharmacists and the profession as a whole.

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