The opinion of preceptors and students of very early IPPE rotations delivered concurrently with didactic courses.

INTRODUCTION: The Marshall University School of Pharmacy had the opportunity to create an experiential education program where IPPE education was introduced in their P1 year and was concurrent with didactic coursework. The School begins the delivery of experiential education as soon as the sixth week of the first professional year. OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the opinion of institutional preceptors, community preceptors, and students after the first academic year to discern viewpoints on the effectiveness and value of very early P1 experiential rotations. METHODS: Institutional and community preceptors and students were assessed by anonymous survey in order to ascertain their respective opinions regarding early P1 experiential education. The results of the preceptors were further divided into institutional and community practice sites. This study was approved by the Marshall University Institutional Review Board. RESULTS: Key findings demonstrated that early rotations were perceived as beneficial to the student by both community and institutional preceptors, as well as, the students themselves. CONCLUSIONS: Most, but not all, preceptors felt early rotations were beneficial to their practice and the student. Institutional preceptors were less likely to perceive a benefit to their practice or to the student than were community preceptors. Students were positive about the early experience. The results of these surveys regarding early experiential rotations should help minimize concerns of both preceptors and those assigned responsibility for constructing experiential programs about implementing early experiential rotations in the curriculum.

Comparison of Pharmaceutical Calculations Learning Outcomes Achieved Within a Traditional Lecture or Flipped Classroom Andragogy.

Objective. To compare learning outcomes achieved from a pharmaceutical calculations course taught in a traditional lecture (lecture model) and a flipped classroom (flipped model). Methods. Students were randomly assigned to the lecture model and the flipped model. Course instructors, content, assessments, and instructional time for both models were equivalent. Overall group performance and pass rates on a standardized assessment (Pcalc OSCE) were compared at six weeks and at six months post-course completion. Results. Student mean exam scores in the flipped model were higher than those in the lecture model at six weeks and six months later. Significantly more students passed the OSCE the first time in the flipped model at six weeks; however, this effect was not maintained at six months. Conclusion. Within a 6 week course of study, use of a flipped classroom improves student pharmacy calculation skill achievement relative to a traditional lecture andragogy. Further study is needed to determine if the effect is maintained over time.

The cultural grounding of personal relationship: the importance of attractiveness in everyday life.

Previous research has suggested that physically attractive people experience more positive life outcomes than do unattractive people. However, the importance of physical attractiveness in everyday life may vary depending on the extent to which different cultural worlds afford or require individual choice in the construction and maintenance of personal relationships. The authors hypothesized that attractiveness matters more for life outcomes in settings that promote voluntaristic-independent constructions of relationship as the product of personal choice than it does in settings that promote embedded-interdependent constructions of relationship as an environmental affordance. Study 1 examined self-reported outcomes of attractive and unattractive persons. Study 2 examined expectations about attractive and unattractive targets. Results provide support for the hypothesis along four dimensions: national context, relationship context, rural-urban context, and experimental manipulation of relationship constructions. These patterns suggest that the importance of physical attractiveness documented by psychological research is the product of particular constructions of reality.

A retrospective cohort analysis of the clinical effectiveness of a physician-pharmacist collaborative drug therapy management diabetes clinic.

The glycemic control of patients with diabetes in a physician-supervised, pharmacist-managed primary care clinic was compared with that of patients receiving standard care in the same health care system. We retrospectively analyzed the glycemic control of 87 men with type 1 or type 2 diabetes whose diabetes-related drug therapy was managed by clinical pharmacists compared with a control group of 85 similar patients whose care was not augmented by clinical pharmacists. Primary outcomes were differences in fasting blood glucose (FBG) and glycosylated hemoglobin (A1C) levels between groups. Secondary outcomes were relative risk (RR) for achieving an A1C of 7% or below, frequency of diabetes-related scheduled and unscheduled clinic visits, and frequency of hypoglycemic events. The study group had 864 clinic visits and the control group had 712 between October 1997 and June 2000. No statistical differences were noted in FBG or A1C between groups. The RR of achieving an A1C of 7% or below was significantly higher in the study cohort (RR 5.19, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.62-10.26). The frequency of hypoglycemic events did not differ between groups. The mean +/- SD frequency of unscheduled diabetes-related clinic visits/patient/year was higher in the control group (1.33 +/- 3.74) than in the study group (0.11 +/- 0.46, p = 0.003). Pharmacist-managed diabetes care was effective in improving glycemic control and was not associated with an increased risk for hypoglycemic events or unscheduled diabetes-related clinic visits.