From clinical assistant to clinical associate professor: Examination of a sample of promotion guidelines.

INTRODUCTION: As accreditation standards for doctor of pharmacy programs have placed a greater emphasis on practice experiences, programs have a need for more clinical faculty. While clinical faculty are expected to achieve success in teaching, scholarly activity, and service, they tend to hold lower academic ranks and take more time to achieve promotion. This may be especially true when promotion guidelines lack clarity. METHODS: Guidelines for promotion of clinical faculty from assistant to associate rank for 10, research-intensive pharmacy programs were reviewed for predetermined factors in the areas of teaching, scholarly activity, and service using the following scale: required, desired, considered, not considered, or not specified. Some factors reviewed included: classroom teaching hours, number of clerkship students, types of scholarly activity considered, grantsmanship, and patient care services. RESULTS: There is significant variation in criteria utilized when considering promotion of clinical faculty from assistant to associate rank; few programs provide quantifiable requirements. All programs expect clinical faculty to participate in teaching. Only one program quantifies the amount of teaching expected. One program does not describe types of scholarly activity considered for promotion. No programs expect salary support from grants for clinical faculty. All programs consider direct patient care activities. CONCLUSIONS: A wide variety of criteria are considered when evaluating a clinical faculty member for promotion to the rank of associate professor. Clearly defined promotion criteria may help faculty direct their efforts toward activities that are recognized to ensure timely promotion.

Identifying Opportunities for Improvement in Safety and Efficacy of Community Pharmacy Immunization Programs.

OBJECTIVE: To identify opportunities to improve safe and effective immunization delivery in community pharmacies. METHODS: Pharmacy managers from chains in Michigan were interviewed about their company's immunizations programs. A survey regarding immunization training, quality assurance measures, pharmacist comfort level immunizing different patient populations, and resources used in practice was distributed to community pharmacists throughout Michigan. RESULTS: Most pharmacists (88.8%) confirmed they received American Pharmacists Association immunization training and felt they followed the guidelines outlined in that training course very well. No routine reassessment of immunization technique was reported. In a minority of respondents, some issues were identified: (1) not being up-to-date on cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification as required by state law (7.1%), (2) lack of awareness of location of emergency kit (4.2% for epinephrine, 13.5% for diphenhydramine), and (3) feeling uncomfortable immunizing children (51% for children <7 years). CONCLUSION: To address quality control issues identified in the survey, we recommend chain pharmacies incorporate credential checks into annual pharmacy training requirements. Pharmacists may benefit from immunization-related continuing education requirements. State pharmacy organizations may want to take the lead in developing the material to ensure that it is timely and abides by state and federal laws.

Virtual simulation to personalize student learning in a required pharmacy course.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Virtual simulation is used to provide a realistic and safe environment for student pharmacists to learn and practice a variety of skills in the didactic and experiential settings. EDUCATION ACTIVITY AND SETTING: The simulation program, MyDispense, that is used to teach medication dispensing in the outpatient setting was incorporated into a 2-credit hour required first-year pharmacy practice skills course. A total of 30 optional and 16 required exercises were completed by students. FINDINGS: There was a total of 2,457 attempts (mean = 28.9 attempts per student) at optional practice exercises and students completed an average of 16.6 ±â€¯7.9 (range 1-30). While variation in the number of optional practice exercises completed was observed between students with varying levels of pharmacy experience, the difference was not statistically significant. A component of the final exam utilized the virtual simulation program and all students passed this portion of the exam based on a minimum requirement of 70.0% (mean 92.9%, range 74.5-100%). DISCUSSION: Students generally identified that the use of virtual simulation was an effective tool to learn medication dispensing skills in a classroom setting. Furthermore, this created an opportunity for pharmacy practice residents to develop teaching skills. The biggest barrier to implementation was the amount of time required to create and test each exercise. SUMMARY: The virtual simulation program allowed students to self-identify the amount of practice they thought was necessary in order to gain specific skills related to medication dispensing.

Quality assurance processes for standardized patient programs.

OUR PROBLEM: As the pharmacy profession evolves to include non-dispensing services and collaborative care, greater emphasis is placed on communication skills building through standardized patient programs. Best practices for assuring the quality of standardized patient (SP) programs, however, remains unclear. The objective of this manuscript is to summarize quality assurance processes for standardized patient programs from health professions education literature. METHODOLOGICAL LITERATURE REVIEW: A search of PubMed and Scopus between 2011 and 2016 was conducted and 22 articles were retained for thematic analysis. Articles were screened for relevance to quality assurance. OUR RECOMMENDATIONS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS: The thematic analysis revealed four themes: (1) enhanced SP training programs, (2) structured feedback to students, (3) statistical measurements to ensure inter-rater reliability, and (4) observation and evaluation of the SP to improve SP performance. Specific methods to assure the quality of an SP program were identified, including training program content and feedback techniques. POTENTIAL IMPACT: Although SP programs varied widely in their implementation, there were several common strategies used to evaluate the consistency of performance, effectiveness of feedback to students, and reliability of grading. Additional research is necessary to establish standards for SP programs across professional healthcare disciplines.

Review of Community Based Organization and Community Pharmacy Partnerships for Preventive Care Services.

Collaborative care has been widely recognized as being critical to promoting the health of individuals and populations. It is hypothesized that the development of partnerships between community-based organizations and community pharmacies may result in increased access to preventive care services for community members with the goal of improving health outcomes. The purpose of this review was to identify and describe partnerships between community-based organizations and community pharmacies. A literature search was conducted for all articles in the English language published through January 2018 that included these types of partnerships offering preventive care services. A total of seven articles were included in the review, of which the majority were conducted in the United States (n=5). Community-based organizations included businesses, community health centers, local associations, public health departments, schools, and workplaces. Preventive care services that were offered included blood pressure and cardiovascular risk assessment, diabetes management, flu ready card and HIV self-test kit voucher distribution and education, and bone mineral density screenings. The limited literature suggests that additional opportunities should be explored in order for community-based organizations and community pharmacies to partner in order to provide and evaluate the impact of preventive care services in the community setting.

Incorporation of a community pharmacy-based heart failure assessment tool by advanced pharmacy practice experience students.

OBJECTIVES: To incorporate a published clinical tool related to heart failure (HF) assessment into advanced pharmacy practice experiences in the community pharmacy setting to provide a meaningful and innovative learning experience for students. SETTING: Sixteen independent and chain community pharmacies that served as advanced pharmacy practice experience locations. PRACTICE DESCRIPTION: Sixteen community pharmacy locations served as rotation sites and participated in data collection (8 chain and 8 independent). PRACTICE INNOVATION: This was the first study in which pharmacy students used The One-Minute Clinic for Heart Failure (TOM-C HF) tool to assess HF within the community pharmacy setting. INTERVENTIONS: Trained student pharmacists identified patients who may have heart failure by evaluating medication dispensing records, interviewed the patient using the TOM-C HF tool, and made interventions as clinically appropriate. EVALUATION: The number of students using the TOM-C HF tool, the number and types of interventions made, and student perceptions about the educational and professional value of the patient interaction. RESULTS: Thirty-three of 83 (40%) students completed 63 patient assessments. Thirty-five percent of patients (22/63) were candidates for an intervention. Interventions were performed in 9 of 22 patients (41%). More than 65% of students found the patient interaction to have educational and professional value. CONCLUSION: Students were able to assess HF patients and make interventions in a community pharmacy setting. The majority of students also perceived some value in these assessments. The incorporation of a clinical tool in the community setting driven by fourth-year pharmacy students has been shown to be feasible and to provide both a novel advanced practice experience. In addition, it may be expandable to the services offered at community pharmacies.

Provision of Clinical Preventive Services by Community Pharmacists.

Community pharmacists are highly accessible health care professionals, providing opportunities for partnerships with other health care and public health professionals to expand the population's access to clinical preventive services. To document examples of the community pharmacist's role in providing clinical preventive services to the general population, we conducted PubMed searches using the key word "community pharmacy" and key words from the US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations rated A or B. We present 4 descriptive summaries of clinical preventive services that can be offered by community pharmacists. Community pharmacists can provide clinical preventive services such as providing education, conducting screenings, and making referrals to improve population health.

Cross-Sectional Survey of Perceived Barriers Among Community Pharmacists Who Do Not Immunize, in Wayne County, Michigan.

INTRODUCTION: The goal of the study was to identify perceived barriers to implementation of vaccination services encountered by independent and small-chain community pharmacies in an urban setting. METHODS: Pharmacists in independent and small-chain pharmacies located in 29 Michigan ZIP codes were visited and asked to complete a 5- to 10-min semi-structured interview. RESULTS: A total of 93 independent and 12 small-chain pharmacies participated (n = 105; 61%). The pharmacies filled an average of 700 prescriptions each week with 1.1 pharmacist full-time equivalents and 57 h of technician time. The most common services that participating pharmacies provided were dispensing outpatient medication (99%), medication therapy management (MTM, 65.7%), disease management or coaching (54.3%), point-of-care testing (34.3%), and dispensing medications to inpatient facilities (16.2%). Only seven pharmacies (6.7%) administered vaccinations. When pharmacists were asked to identify what it would take to start to administer vaccines, the most common responses were increased demand from patients (37.1%), adequate time (19%), appropriate space (17.1%), appropriate amount of staff (14.3%), change in attitudes or beliefs of the owner or pharmacists at that pharmacy (13.3%), increased profit related to vaccines (11.4%), and increased awareness among patients about the importance of vaccines (11.4%). The majority of pharmacies (65.3%) reported that only one factor would need to change to start to administer vaccines. CONCLUSION: Independent and small-chain community pharmacies in an urban, primarily low-income area identified several barriers that have prevented implementation of vaccination services. However, the majority of pharmacies reported that only one factor would need to change in order to begin to administer vaccines. Interventional efforts necessary to address commonly cited barriers may include providing education to pharmacists about the need for community pharmacy-based immunization programs in addition to services provided by physician offices, as well as the importance of proactively providing immunization-related recommendations to patients.

The Redesign of a Community Pharmacy Internship Program.

BACKGROUND: Pharmacy internships provide students with practical experiences that lead to enhancement of clinical skills and personal growth. OBJECTIVE: To describe the design and implementation of a structured 10-week summer pharmacy internship program in a supermarket chain pharmacy. METHODS: The pharmacy leadership team developed and piloted a new format of the pharmacy internship during the summer of 2013. Pharmacy students in professional year 1 (P1), 2 (P2), and 4 (P4) were invited to apply for a paid internship. Pharmacy students were recruited from all colleges of pharmacy in the state of Michigan. The goal of the new program was to create a focused learning opportunity that encouraged students to develop knowledge, skills, and abilities about patient care, pharmacy management, and working within a team. RESULTS: A total of 19 interns were recruited (P1 = 7, P2 = 7, and P4 = 5). Students practiced 40 hours per week and participated in the medication dispensing process and employee biometrics screening program. Interns provided approximately 500 assessments on pharmacy employees and all P1 and P2 interns completed a patient care project. CONCLUSIONS: The restructured internship program provided pharmacy students with a 10-week program that exposed them to many aspects of community pharmacy practice. The program needs future refinement and assessment measures to verify interns improve skills throughout the program.

Enhancing Practice Efficiency and Patient Care by Sharing Electronic Health Records.

One primary function of community pharmacies is to dispense medications to patients. In doing so, pharmacists frequently communicate with physicians' offices to clarify prescription orders and obtain additional information to ensure the safe and accurate dispensing of medications. Such communication is often done by telephone or fax, which is inefficient for both the pharmacy and the physician's office. This problem was highlighted in a recent American Medical Association resolution defining certain pharmacy inquiries as "interference with the practice of medicine and unwarranted." As a result, many are seeking to understand how to balance the needs of the patient care process with the need for operational efficiency in the physician's office and pharmacy. This study presents one example of a health information technology-based solution involving shared access to an electronic health record (EHR), and describes a case in which a physician's office and a community pharmacy experimented with this model to promote practice efficiency while also providing enhanced access to clinical information in both directions. The rationale behind the process change, a brief description of how the new process came into existence, and a description of how information sharing can be helpful in related clinical situations are provided. Similar models that involve sharing of EHRs may create valuable opportunities for collaboration between physicians and pharmacists to enhance patient care and improve workflow efficiency.

Pharmacy Technicians and Point of Care Testing.

Objective: As the practice of pharmacy continues to advance and involve nondispensing pharmacy services, point-of-care testing (POCT) has continued to demonstrate its usefulness as a tool and service in pharmacy. Of particular significance is the ability of POCT to assist clinical practice related to diabetes, cholesterol management, and anticoagulation. POCT can allow for certain laboratory results to be obtained within seconds to minutes, which can help direct care. Many components of POCT programs can involve pharmacy technicians to help enhance practice efficiency. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of POCT devices commonly used in nondispensing pharmacy services and to describe the roles that pharmacy technicians may have in the POCT process. Data Sources: PubMed (1946-2014) was reviewed for relevant literature using terms such as "pharmacy technician" and "point of care testing." Additionally, manufacturer information/websites of POCT products were reviewed for approval information and instructions for use. Study Selection and Data Extraction: Articles describing POCT completed in a pharmacy setting and/or roles of pharmacy technicians and related support staff in the POCT process were considered for inclusion. Data Synthesis: Several types of POCT devices for different uses common to the practice of pharmacy are reviewed. Additionally, strategies for collaboration between pharmacy technicians and pharmacists in the execution of a POCT program are described. Conclusion: Pharmacy technicians are well suited to participate in portions of the POCT process, and the involvement of pharmacy technicians may improve POCT efficiency.