ABSTRACT
During the global COVID pandemic, the importance of professionals in the health care sector has been put in a new light, including pharmacists. In this context, the focus is also on how pharmacists are trained in different countries. Through an exchange of pharmacy teaching staff from a German to a Vietnamese university, the pharmacy education programs in both countries were compared. Aspects such as access to studies, structure of studies, and further training opportunities were considered. Differences and similarities emerged. In both countries, students first acquire basic knowledge and then delve deeper into pharmaceutical content in main studies. There is, expectedly, a great overlap in the content of the courses. Overall, the education at Vietnamese universities seems to be more practice-oriented due to a large number of placements. This also allows a specialization, which can be pursued in Germany with self-interest after graduation. There, the preparation for everyday work in the community pharmacy is separated from the university by a mandatory practical year. For the future, efforts are being made in both countries to strengthen the importance of clinical pharmacy in the curriculum. To this end, the Vietnamese are taking their inspiration from abroad in many cases, including Germany.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To assess changes in the mobility of staff between nursing homes in Ontario, Canada, before and after enactment of public policy restricting staff from working at multiple homes. DESIGN: Pre-post observational study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: 623 nursing homes in Ontario, Canada, between March 2020 and June 2020. METHODS: We used GPS location data from mobile devices to approximate connectivity between all 623 nursing homes in Ontario during the 7 weeks before (March 1-April 21) and after (April 22-June 13) the policy restricting staff movement was implemented. We constructed a network diagram visualizing connectivity between nursing homes in Ontario and calculated the number of homes that had a connection with another nursing home and the average number of connections per home in each period. We calculated the relative difference in these mobility metrics between the 2 time periods and compared within-home changes using McNemar test and the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. RESULTS: In the period preceding restrictions, 266 (42.7%) nursing homes had a connection with at least 1 other home, compared with 79 (12.7%) homes during the period after restrictions, a drop of 70.3% (P < .001). Including all homes, the average number of connections in the before period was 3.90 compared to 0.77 in the after period, a drop of 80.3% (P < .001). In both periods, mobility between nursing homes was higher in homes located in larger communities, those with higher bed counts, and those part of a large chain. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Mobility between nursing homes in Ontario fell sharply after an emergency order by the Ontario government limiting long-term care staff to a single home, though some mobility persisted. Reducing this residual mobility should be a focus of efforts to reduce risk within the long-term care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.