A pharmaceutical industry elective course on practice experience selection and fellowship pursuit by pharmacy students.

OBJECTIVE: To design and implement 2 pharmaceutical industry elective courses and assess their impact on students' selection of advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) and pursuit of pharmaceutical industry fellowships. METHODS: Two 2-credit-hour elective courses that explored careers within the prescription and nonprescription pharmaceutical drug industries were offered for second- and third-year pharmacy students in a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) degree program. RESULTS: The impact of the courses on pharmacy students' pursuit of a pharmaceutical industry fellowship was evaluated based on responses to annual graduating students' exit surveys. A greater percentage (17.9%) of students who had taken a pharmaceutical industry elective course pursued a pharmaceutical industry fellowship compared to all PharmD graduates (4.8%). Of the students who enrolled in pharmaceutical industry APPEs, 31% had taken 1 of the 2 elective courses. CONCLUSION: Exposure to a pharmaceutical industry elective course within a college or school of pharmacy curriculum may increase students' interest in pursuing pharmaceutical industry fellowships and enrolling in pharmaceutical industry APPEs.

Communicating doses of pediatric liquid medicines to parents/caregivers: a comparison of written dosing directions on prescriptions with labels applied by dispensed pharmacy.

OBJECTIVE: To identify and compare volumetric measures used by healthcare providers in communicating dosing instructions for pediatric liquid prescriptions to parents/caregivers. STUDY DESIGN: Dosing instructions were retrospectively reviewed for the 10 most frequently prescribed liquid medications dispensed from 4 community pharmacies for patients aged ≤ 12 years during a 3-month period. Volumetric measures on original prescriptions (ie, milliliters, teaspoons) were compared with those utilized by the pharmacist on the pharmacy label dispensed to the parent/caregiver. RESULTS: Of 649 prescriptions and corresponding pharmacy labels evaluated, 68% of prescriptions and 62% of pharmacy labels communicated dosing in milliliters, 24% of prescriptions and 29% of pharmacy labels communicated dosing in teaspoonfuls, 7% of prescriptions and 0% of pharmacy labels communicated dosing in other measures (ie, milligrams, cubic centimeters, "dose"), and 25% of dispensed pharmacy labels did not reflect units as written in the prescription. CONCLUSION: Volumetric measures utilized by healthcare professionals in dosing instructions for prescription pediatric oral liquid medications are not consistent. Healthcare professionals and parents/caregivers should be educated on safe dosing practices for liquid pediatric medications. Generalizability to the larger pediatric population may vary depending on pharmacy chain, location, and medications evaluated.