Factors influencing future career interests of pharmacy interns in Saudi Arabia: a survey from 25 colleges of pharmacy.

BACKGROUND: Hundreds of pharmacists graduate from pharmacy colleges in Saudi Arabia, and various factors influence their choice of career pathway. Very few single-institution studies assessed career choices of pharmacy students with or without evaluating the influencing factors. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate career choices and the associating factors of pharmacy interns from multiple colleges in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study that surveyed pharmacy interns from 25 pharmacy colleges in Saudi Arabia using an online questionnaire. The survey was sent during the last rotation month in the internship year (May-June 2022). RESULTS: Of 454 participants, 411 (90.5%) were enrolled in Doctor of Pharmacy programs. While most participants were interested in becoming clinical pharmacists (n = 183; 40.3%), a considerable number were also interested in working in different sectors of pharmaceutical companies and industry (n = 127; 28%). Internship training significantly correlated with selecting clinical pharmacy specialist career (r = 0.19; P = 0.0001), whereas salary/financial incentives significantly influenced the choice of working as sales and marketing representatives and pharmacy product specialists in pharmaceutical companies (r = 0.29 and 0.24; P < 0.0001 for both). College courses correlated with choosing academia in pharmaceutical sciences (r = 0.20; P < 0.0001), whereas summer training correlated with the community pharmacy career (r = 0.11; P = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Pharmacy colleges should utilize results from this study to enhance the exposure of pharmacy students during their academic years to different pharmacy career pathways by allowing the opportunity to shadow pharmacists from different sectors as part of college courses, inviting previous graduates, and activating the role of academic advisors in career orientation.

The Overriding of Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) Drug Safety Alerts Fired by the Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Tool: Evaluation of Appropriate Responses and Alert Fatigue Solutions.

Introduction Most computerized physician order entry (CPOE) software come with clinical decision-support components (CDS) that provide prescribers assistance and notify them about adverse drug reactions. An excessive number of alerts in a repeated and non-relevant manner leads to alert fatigue and enforces physicians and pharmacists to alert overrides. King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC) in Jeddah still reports a higher percentage of drug alerts overridden by clinicians and pharmacists. Thus, this study was conducted to evaluate CDS alerts overriding and to determine which alerts are clinically irrelevant and need modifications. Methods The study was carried out in the inpatient setting at KAMC in Jeddah, from September 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020. It was designed as a retrospective chart review study that included all red alerts that required comments and were overridden by a physician and pharmacist. Results Among 11350 red alerts, potential drug-drug interaction (pDDI), dose, and allergy alerts represent 57%, 41%, and 2%, respectively, of the total alerts. The most common drug-drug interactions (DDIs) in category X were proton pump inhibitors and clopidogrel (9.9%). The appropriate response by prescribers and pharmacists toward allergy alerts was associated with the highest odds compared with the other alerts (p < 0.05) while there is a significant decrease in the odds of appropriate action being taken by both prescribers and pharmacists in the dose screen alerts (p < 0.05). Among all clinical specialties, there is an increased odds of appropriate action being taken by residents and fellows for allergy and dose alerts, respectively, compared to other groups (p < 0.05). For diminishing the unnecessary alerts, we provided 14 alert refinements strategies and advised turning off four alerts. Applying this will terminate 32% of irrelevant alerts. Conclusion Our study's findings indicated that a substantial number of alerts are ignored, and the rate of appropriateness varies significantly by alert type and prescriber level.