Precepting: a win-win for students and pharmacists.

The education of pharmacy students includes hundreds of hours of experiential education under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist called a preceptor. While this real-world education is instrumental in preparing students for their pharmacy career, many experienced pharmacists are hesitant to commit to becoming a preceptor. By addressing some of their fears about precepting and becoming knowledgeable about the available resources, pharmacists can embrace the opportunity to become preceptors as a mutual learning experience between pharmacist and student.

Aspirin for CV prevention -- for which patients?

Put your patient on aspirin? Take him off? Here's what you need to know to get it right.

Using facebook within a geriatric pharmacotherapy course.

Objective: To evaluate using an Internet-based social networking site within an elective geriatric pharmacotherapy course.

Design: Thirty pharmacy students enrolled in a geriatric pharmacotherapy elective course were invited to join a closed Facebook (Facebook Inc, Palo Alto, CA) group to enhance communication among students and faculty members within the course. Creating a discussion board was the primary activity in the course.

An active-learning course model to teach pharmacotherapy in geriatrics.

Objective: To describe the development, implementation, and assessment of a geriatric pharmacotherapy elective course emphasizing a patient-centered approach and active, self-directed learning strategies.

Design: The course content included fundamental concepts in aging, geriatric syndromes, activities involving assessment of medically complex older adults, presentation of controversies in clinical geriatrics, book and film clubs, an Adopt-a-Patient project, and scientific and reflective writing. Students participated in site visits to interview and interact with older adults.

Integrating virtual patients into a self-care course.

Objective: To develop, implement, and evaluate the use of virtual patients as a teaching tool for third-professional year PharmD students within an advanced elective self-care course.

Design: Practicing community pharmacists, faculty members, and pharmacy residents with alias e-mail accounts served as virtual patients and corresponded on a weekly basis via e-mail with pharmacy students regarding an assortment of fictional health concerns. Self-care inquiries were e-mailed to the students who replied and then forwarded their response to the course coordinator for evaluation and class discussion.

Evidence-based practices for the fetal to newborn transition.

Many common care practices during labor, birth, and the immediate postpartum period impact the fetal to neonatal transition, including medication used during labor, suctioning protocols, strategies to prevent heat loss, umbilical cord clamping, and use of 100% oxygen for resuscitation. Many of the care practices used to assess and manage a newborn immediately after birth have not proven efficacious. No definitive outcomes have been obtained from studies on maternal analgesia effects on the newborn.

Electrocardiographic and blood pressure effects of the ephedra-containing TrimSpa thermogenic herbal compound in healthy volunteers.

Study Objective: To determine the effect of an ephedra-containing thermogenic herbal compound (TrimSpa) on rate-corrected QT (QTc) interval duration and systolic blood pressure.

Design: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover, intent-to-treat study.

Setting: Student laboratory at a college of pharmacy.

Nuchal cord management and nurse-midwifery practice.

Nuchal cord, or cord around the neck of an infant at birth, is a common finding that has implications for labor, management at birth, and subsequent neonatal status. A nuchal cord occurs in 20% to 30% of births. All obstetric providers need to learn management techniques to handle the birth of an infant with a nuchal cord.

Bivalirudin in percutaneous coronary intervention.

The chemistry and pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, adverse effects, drug interactions, dosing and administration, and pharmacoeconomics of bivalirudin are reviewed; clinical trials of bivalirudin's application in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are also discussed. Bivalirudin is a direct thrombin inhibitor approved for use in PCI. It reversibly binds to thrombin's catalytic site and substrate recognition site and blocks both circulating and fibrin-bound thrombin.

A Program of Research Evaluating the Effects of a Collaborative Research Utilization Model.

Advances in research are meaningless unless they reach clinicians at the point of care. This article describes a program of research in which a collaborative research utilization (CRU) model was developed and tested in four clinical studies in the context of pain management. The overall aim of the research program was to decrease the long lag time from when research innovations are developed to when they appear in clinicians' day-to-day caregiving activities.

An exploration of health concerns & health-promotion behaviors in pregnant women over age 35.

Purpose: To explore the specific health concerns and health-promotion behaviors of childbearing women 35 years of age or older.

Study Design And Methods: Semistructured interviews with women ( = 50) ages > or =35 in their third trimester of pregnancy. Interviews lasted approximately 1 hour, were conducted by two nursing faculty, and were scheduled to accommodate participant needs.