ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Pharmacists, regardless of practice setting, will be called to provide education to patients, healthcare professionals, students, and the community. In an effort to increase students' exposure to the knowledge, skills, and responsibilities of a pharmacist in academia, an introductory healthcare academia elective was created. The purpose of this article is to describe the implementation and assessment of this elective course. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: The course was offered to students in spring 2021 and focused on exposing students to academia aspects, including curriculum design, pillars of academia, and roles of assessment and feedback. The largest project was a student created and delivered Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education-accredited continuing education presentation. FINDINGS: The twelve students completed pre- and post-surveys regarding their perceived knowledge and personal abilities in select areas. Overall, students' perceived knowledge and abilities increased in each area at the end of the course. Additionally, a total of four continuing education presentations were delivered to students, faculty, and practicing pharmacists. SUMMARY: One semester of a unique healthcare academia elective increased students' perceived confidence in their knowledge and application of academia-related tasks.
Subject(s)
Education, Pharmacy , Pharmacists , Humans , Curriculum , Delivery of Health Care , StudentsABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The University of North Carolina's (UNC) Pediatric Sedation Service adopted a noninvasive procedural sedation protocol that uses dexmedetomidine in children based on review of literature that reported fast recovery times and low morbidity. This study aimed to compare dexmedetomidine discharge readiness times observed at UNC with those previously published with a hypothesis that the discharge times at UNC are longer than those previously published. A secondary aim was to evaluate the safety profile of the protocol. METHODS: Pediatric outpatients (6 months-18 years) who received dexmedetomidine per protocol for a noninvasive procedure or study from January 2011 through April 2012 were included in this retrospective chart review. A total of 615 patient encounters were evaluated. Patients received bolus doses of 2 µg·kg(-1) over 10 min for up to three doses followed by a 1 µg·kg(-1) ·h(-1) infusion (group 1) or a 1.5 µg·kg(-1) ·h(-1) infusion (group 2). Primary outcomes included time to sedation, time to arousal, and time to discharge. RESULTS: No significant differences between the dosing groups were noted. Time to discharge was significantly shorter for group 1 (79 min) than for group 2 (101 min). The range of discharge times at UNC was 78.7-100.9 min compared to previous studies that report recovery times of 24.8-35.2 min. CONCLUSION: Dexmedetomidine arousal and discharge times observed at UNC were longer than anticipated when compared to literature. The safety profile of the drug was comparable to prior studies.
