In-Person or Online? Exploring Student Pharmacists' Perceived Change in Interprofessional Skills between Two Delivery Formats.

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed how education is delivered. Many academic programs quickly transformed their curriculum to online distance learning. This rapid transition may have compromised the rigor and fidelity of these activities. The Interprofessional Standardized Patient Experience (ISPE) is an interprofessional education activity (IPE) involving a team of students from six different healthcare professions that switched to an online delivery format. This manuscript compares pharmacy students' perceived change in interprofessional skills between the two formats. Following the ISPE, second-year pharmacy students completed the revised Interprofessional Collaborative Competencies Attainment Survey (ICCAS-R). The ICCAS-R assesses the change in interprofessional collaboration-related competencies in healthcare students before and after IPE training using a retrospective pre-post approach. For each ICCAS-R item and each delivery format (44 in-person and 51 online), paired Student's t-test on pre- and post-ISPE scores, and Cohen's d were calculated. Every item of the ICCAS-R was significant (p < 0.001), regardless of delivery format. Nearly all ICCAS-R items had a large effect size, and the remaining items had a medium effect size. The amount of change pre- and post-ISPE for each ICCAS-R item was calculated. Student's t-test was used to compare the magnitude of change in interprofessional skills between the two delivery formats. Only one difference was noted between the two delivery formats-ICCAS-R item 16, which measured actively listening to interprofessional team members (p = 0.0321). When switching to an online format, the high-fidelity dimension of the ISPE was retained. The ISPE is an effective IPE activity at increasing pharmacy students' self-perceived interprofessional collaboration skills regardless of delivery format. Even though students reported the ISPE increased their ability to actively listen to the perspectives of interprofessional team members in both formats, the magnitude of the benefit was more profound in the in-person group.

Assessing pharmacy students' baseline tolerance for ambiguity, burnout, empathy, quality of life, and stress.

INTRODUCTION: Several factors may affect student wellbeing, including tolerance for ambiguity, burnout, empathy, quality of life, and stress. A better understanding of how pharmacy students score on these scales relative to other health professional students could help educators and schools address and improve student wellbeing. The study objective was to determine a baseline measure of pharmacy student tolerance for ambiguity, burnout, empathy, quality of life, and stress. METHODS: A voluntary survey including several assessment scales (Tolerance for Ambiguity, Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, Interpersonal Reactivity Index [empathy], Quality of Life Scale, and Perceived Stress Scale) was sent by email to all pharmacy students within a standalone college of pharmacy. RESULTS: Two hundred thirty-one pharmacy students completed all aspects of the survey. Comparing each scale with sex, female students trended higher in Interpersonal Reactivity Index and scored significantly higher on the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (disengagement), while male students scored significantly higher for Quality of Life. Fourth-year students scored significantly higher on the Tolerance for Ambiguity scale as compared to first- and second-year students and on the Quality of Life scale as compared with third-year students. Third-year students experienced the greatest levels of burnout. Differences were also noted based on students' anticipated area of practice (empathy) and desire to work with an underserved population (empathy and stress). CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacy students' responses to the included scales varied greatly when considering various demographic parameters. The significant differences identified are illuminating and represent potential areas for curricular improvement, student support, and further study within pharmacy school curricula.

Improving the Remediation Process for Skills-based Laboratory Courses in the Doctor of Pharmacy Curriculum.

When students fail to meet minimum competence standards on summative pharmacy skills-based assessments, remediation can be used to ensure student readiness for progression. Skills-based remediation is challenging as a high volume of resources is required to develop an action plan that addresses the heterogeneity in student needs and to create and execute another assessment equivalent to the initial assessment. Although many Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programs face these same challenges, there is no consensus on how to best address them. Recently, faculty from six PharmD programs convened to share ideas and approaches to overcoming these challenges. This commentary aims to define remediation as it pertains to summative skills-based assessments, share our consensus views regarding remediation best practices, and highlight areas where there is more work to be done. Our intent is to advance the ongoing conversation and empower institutions to develop their own effective and impactful skills-based remediation policies, procedures, and activities.

Changes to summative skills-based assessments within the Big Ten Academic Alliance Performance-Based Assessment Collaborative (BTAA-PBAC) due to COVID-19.

Background: In Spring 2020 many academic institutions transitioned to remote learning in response to the developing COVID-19 pandemic. These changes affected skills-based training, as schools of pharmacy were forced to transition traditionally in-person assessments to a remote setting. The purpose of this article is to describe the experience of pharmacy skills lab coordinators when transitioning summative skills-based assessments (SSBA). Methods: A web-based survey instrument administered through QualtricsXM was sent to all institutions in the Big Ten Academic Alliance-Performance Based Assessment Collaborative. Only one member from each institution completed the survey on behalf of the institution. The survey consisted of four sections: changes made to skills evaluated; changes made to the delivery of those evaluations; challenges to and strategies used by the skills lab program when switching to remote learning; and recommendations for incorporating remote learning within future SSBAs. Survey respondents were invited to participate in an optional unstructured interview regarding survey answers. Results: Nine of ten invited institutions responded to the survey. Of the nine respondents, three participated in the post-survey interview. Overall, 79.5% (93/117) of skills planned to be assessed were assessed with or without modification, with 8.5% (10/117) of skills canceled and 10.3% (12/117) of skills assessments postponed. The most common challenges mentioned were the lack of preparation time, inability to assess certain skills virtually, and student barriers. The most common recommendations made were to prioritize lab components and incorporate flexibility in planning and scheduling. Discussion: The results indicate that most skills were still assessed during the Spring 2020 semester. Though the transition to remote learning was challenging and unique for each institution, common strategies and recommendations identified here provide opportunities for academics to analyze and prioritize learning objectives and to rethink how to develop and deliver SSBAs as remote assessments.

Seeing the Elephant: A Systematic Scoping Review and Comparison of Patient-Centeredness Conceptualizations from Three Seminal Perspectives.

"Patient-Centeredness" (PC) is a theoretical construct made up of a diverse constellation of distinct concepts, processes, practices, and outcomes that have been developed, arranged, and prioritized heterogeneously by different communities of professional healthcare practice, research, and policy. It is bound together by a common ethos that puts the holistic individual at the functional and symbolic center of their care, a quality deemed essential for chronic disease management and health promotion. Several important contributions to the PC research space have adeptly integrated seminal PC conceptualizations to improve conceptual clarity, measurement, implementation, and evaluation in research and practice. This systematic scoping review builds on that work, but with a purpose to explicitly identify, compare, and contrast the seminal PC conceptualizations arising from the different healthcare professional groups. The rationale for this work is that a deeper examination of the underlying development and corresponding assumptions from each respective conceptualization will lead to a more informed understanding of and meaningful contributions to PC research and practice, especially for healthcare professional groups newer to the topic area like pharmacy. The literature search identified four seminal conceptualizations from the healthcare professions of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Policy. A compositional comparison across the seminal conceptualizations revealed a shared ethos but also six distinguishing features: (1) organizational structure; (2) predominant level of care; (3) methodological approach; (4) care setting origin; (5) outcomes of interest; and (6) language. The findings illuminate PC's stable theoretical foundations and distinctive nuances needed to appropriately understand, apply, and evaluate the construct's operationalization in contemporary healthcare research and practice. These considerations hold important implications for future research into the fundamental aims of healthcare, how it should look when practiced, and what should reasonably be required of it.

Knowledge of heart attack and stroke symptoms among US Native American Adults: a cross-sectional population-based study analyzing a multi-year BRFSS database.

BACKGROUND: Heart disease and stroke are among the leading causes of death in Native Americans. Knowledge of heart attack and stroke symptomology are essential for prompt identification of symptoms and for appropriate action in seeking care. Knowledge of heart attack and stroke symptoms among US Native American adults was this study's focus. METHODS: Multivariate techniques were used to analyze national surveillance data. Native American adults comprised the study population. Low heart attack and stroke knowledge score was the dependent variable. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis yielded that Native American adults with low heart attack and stroke composite knowledge scores were more likely to be: older, less educated, poorer, uninsured, a rural resident, male, without a primary health care provider, and lacking a recent medical checkup. CONCLUSIONS: The identified characteristics of Native American adults with heart attack and stroke knowledge deficits or disparities should guide educational initiatives by health care providers focusing on improving such knowledge.