Integrating Board-Certified Psychiatric Pharmacists in a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic.

Demand for mental health services has dramatically increased in recent years, raising concerns about the availability of service providers to meet these increased needs. One approach to expanding access to care is the use of highly qualified board-certified psychiatric pharmacists (BCPPs). However, the implementation of programs for integrating BCPPs has not been well characterized in community mental health settings. This column describes the development and implementation of a comprehensive practice model to incorporate BCPPs in a certified community behavioral health clinic. The authors report the results from the first 14 months of BCPP integration (based on 3,221 direct patient care interventions), offer recommendations, and highlight lessons learned.

Effect of Perioperative Ketamine on Postoperative Mood and Depression: A Review of the Literature.

Introduction: Ketamine is being increasingly utilized in a variety of patient care settings, ranging from high acuity inpatient scenarios to the outpatient management of select mental health diagnoses. Postoperative patients are at an increased risk of developing a depressed state, and though ketamine's ability to improve mood is well documented in the literature, the relationship between perioperative ketamine and postoperative mood has not been fully elucidated. Areas covered: The purpose of this review was to determine ketamine's ability to improve mood and depression scores in the perioperative setting. A comprehensive literature review was conducted using PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, ProQuest, Web of Science, and CINAHL using the following search terminology: 'ketamine' AND 'perioperative' OR 'surgery' AND 'mood' OR 'depression.' Seven clinical trials are evaluated in this review. Expert opinion: As the use of ketamine continues to expand, clinicians must be cognizant of the fact that many of its desired effects are likely to overlap. Patients outside of the perioperative setting may benefit from using ketamine as an analgesic or sedative, as appropriate, to mitigate mood and depression. Ketamine, when administered as an anesthetic in the perioperative setting, seemingly has effect on postoperative mood and depression. Further studies that are sufficient.

Acute Care Pharmacy Practice: A Perspective for Pharmacy Students, Residents, and Other Health-Care Providers.

PURPOSE: To describe the acute care setting with a specific focus on acute care pharmacy practices. SUMMARY: Acute care is the sector of health care where time-sensitive episodes of illness are managed. Acute care pharmacy practice includes both hospital and clinical pharmacists serving, in a variety of domains, as medication experts and authority on patient-centered medication therapy. Pharmacists serving in this area can have a beneficial impact on patient care and the health-care system. CONCLUSION: The demand for acute care services is likely to grow as the population continues to grow and age. Pharmacists are key members of interdisciplinary teams in the acute care setting.

The Past, Present, and Future of Virtual Reality in Pharmacy Education.

Objective. To characterize how virtual reality (VR) has been and is being used in pharmacy education, and evaluate the projected utility of VR technology in pharmacy education in the future. Findings. Virtual reality technology has been used in pharmacy education for many years to provide engaging learning experiences. Although these learning experiences were not available in the three-dimensional digital environments provided by current VR, they demonstrated improvements in learning. Recent technological advancements have substantially increased the potential usefulness of VR for pharmacy education by providing immersive educational activities that mimic real world experiences to reinforce didactic and laboratory concepts. Virtual reality training that uses head-mounted displays is just beginning in pharmacy education, but more educational VR programs are becoming available. Further research will be necessary to fully understand the potential impact of VR on pharmacy education. Summary. Virtual reality technology can provide an immersive and interactive learning environment, overcoming many of the early challenges faced by instructors who used virtual activities for pharmacy education. With further technological and software development, VR has the potential to become an integral part of pharmacy education.

Exploring virtual reality as a platform for distance team-based learning.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Online distance education has become popular in pharmacy education, but it can be challenging to provide engaging experiences such as team-based learning (TBL) in this format. This study explored the utility of virtual reality (VR) as a platform to provide the engaging elements of TBL, without students needing to be physically present in the same room. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: Volunteers participated in a modified TBL exercise in VR, followed by a survey of the experience. The survey included Likert-type questions to evaluate the level of immersion and perceived engagement, comfort and desirability of VR-TBL experiences. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION: The majority of the responses to the 14-question survey were 'agree' or 'strongly agree'. Ninety-four percent (94.4%) of participants strongly agreed that this was a fun experience, and 94.4% of participants strongly agreed that they would take a course in this format if it was offered. Although none of the questions received a majority of 'disagree' or 'strongly disagree' responses, areas for improvement included ease of use of the technology, comfort and improving the learning activity. SUMMARY: The response of participants to this study was positive and the overall conclusion was that VR has the potential to be a useful tool for online, distance TBL, and should be explored further.