Interventions involving spiritual and religious themes in pharmacy student patient encounters during advanced practice rotations.

INTRODUCTION: Patient spiritual and religious beliefs can impact their health care choices and outcomes. Pharmacists and other health care providers need to be prepared when these beliefs present changes from usual medical care. The objective of this research brief was to describe interventions related to spirituality and/or religion that are encountered by students during advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) patient care activities. METHODS: Fourth-year pharmacy students were asked to complete a web-based questionnaire defining the frequency and setting of patient care activities that incorporated spiritual beliefs during APPEs. Data analysis utilized descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Sixty-three students completed the questionnaire. The most common theme encountered was that of patient refusal of specific therapy based on patient's spiritual or religious beliefs. This result remained consistent across multiple practice settings, except in the community practice setting, where product substitution due to a religious forbidden ingredient was the most common theme encountered. CONCLUSIONS: Training for future and current pharmacists should provide them with the tools needed to navigate spiritual and religious-focused barriers, such as patient refusal of care and substitutes for religiously forbidden ingredients.

Frequency, setting and influential factors associated with pharmacy student-patient encounters involving spirituality and religiosity during advanced practice rotations.

INTRODUCTION: To identify (1) how often and in what settings pharmacy students include spirituality and religion and (2) what factors may influence how often students incorporate spirituality in patient care plans. METHODS: Fourth-year pharmacy students completed a questionnaire defining the frequency and setting of patient care activities that incorporated spiritual beliefs during advanced pharmacy practice experiences. Demographics, prior spirituality and health coursework, and self-identified measures of religiosity and spirituality were collected. Data analysis utilized descriptive statistics with nonparametric exploratory analysis. RESULTS: Sixty-three students completed the survey (31.7% response rate). While 11% of students asked patients about spiritual needs, 25.4% reported inclusion of spiritual factors in therapeutic plan creation. The general medicine rotation was the most common setting identified. Student frequency of religious service attendance, self-identified religiosity, and self-reported spirituality were associated with perceived importance of asking patients about spiritual needs (P < .05 for all). This did not impact whether students asked about or incorporated these topics (P > .05 for all). Students who did ask about or incorporate spiritual and religious issues had significantly greater comfort in discussing these and referring patients to a chaplain (P < .05 for all). CONCLUSIONS: Students are considering patients' spiritual needs in patient care activities. Greater student spiritual and religious practices positively influenced attitudes toward importance of asking about patient needs but did not influence student-reported behavior in patient care. Results highlight the need for instructors to consider how students' comfort levels and patient care setting influence addressing spiritual concerns.

Transformation of an Online Multidisciplinary Course into a Live Interprofessional Experience.

Objective. To design, implement, and assess an interprofessional education (IPE) course in the first professional year of students enrolled in eight different health professions programs. Design. An interprofessional faculty committee created a 1-credit hour required IPE course to not only teach students about the roles and responsibilities of each discipline and how they may contribute to an interprofessional team, but to also improve collaboration and team-based communication skills among health care professions students. Students were placed in interprofessional groups and met weekly to participate in didactic lectures, discussion sessions, and a standardized patient encounter. Assessment. Seven hundred and eighty-three health professions students were enrolled in the course, of which 130 students completed questionnaires at all three time points. Students were neutral about the course and found it moderately valuable (Mean 6.23 [on a scale from 1 to 10], interesting (Mean 5.61), and enjoyable (Mean 5.57). Written feedback from the course indicated that the majority of students enjoyed the standardized patient encounter and thought the course provided a valuable opportunity to interact with other students in other health professions programs. Conclusion. This required course served as an introductory interprofessional approach in preparing health professions students to learn from each other about their various roles and responsibilities and how each can contribute to the health care team.

Self-Perceived Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, and Use of Evidence-Based Dentistry Among Practitioners Transitioning to Dental Educators.

Dental practitioners transitioning to dental educators (PTEs) have an integral role in dental education. While PTEs intrinsically apply some form of evidence-based dentistry (EBD) in patient care, it may not be a standardized, systematic approach. The aims of this study were to determine the self-perceived knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors of PTEs regarding EBD at one U.S. dental school and to identify areas where formal calibration may be warranted to facilitate their competence and confidence as dental educators. Participants voluntarily completed a 32-question survey regarding their EBD training and self-perceived EBD skills in several areas: use of the clinical evidence pyramid; systematic, objective, and critical appraisal of the evidence; application of the evidence to patient care; and integrating clinical expertise, scientific evidence, and patient's preferences to formulate a treatment plan. The PTEs were invited to participate in the anonymous survey during regularly scheduled calibration sessions held between May and July 2014. After study information was distributed, 100% of the attendees (n=43) completed the survey. The percentage of total PTEs at the school could not be calculated. Of the responding PTEs, 69% rated themselves better than satisfactory (70% proficiency) in their knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding EBD skills application. However, only 33-42% of the respondents indicated that they frequently used the evidence pyramid and systematically, objectively, and critically appraised the evidence, even though 65% indicated they applied the evidence to improve patient care over 70% of the time. In addition, the participating PTEs identified a need for more frequent use of formal EBD skills. Providing case-based EBD projects involving PTEs as mentors may provide more opportunities for the judicious and effective use of these important skills and may improve PTEs' self-perceived confidence.

Professionalism in Physician Assistant, Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Clinical Psychology, and Biomedical Sciences Students.

UNLABELLED: Interprofessional collaboration for healthcare requires a better understanding of the commonalities and differences in student perceptions of professionalism. METHODS: 217 students in five programs (PA 71, PT 46, OT 29, CP 12, and BMS 59) completed a 22-item survey (response rate 79.5%). A Likert scale grading from 1 (hardly ever) to 5 (always) was used to assess professional attitudes and behaviors. RESULTS: A mixed-model MANOVA, supplemented with post-hoc analyses, showed significant group by time interactions for 5 items. Sensitivity to differences and diversity of other people increased for BMS students, but decreased for PT students. Timeliness increased for BMS students, but did not change for PA students. Seeking out new learning experiences increased for BMS students, but did not change for PA or PT students. Taking a group leadership role increased for BMS students, decreased for PT students, while PA and OT students showed no change. Volunteering time to serve others decreased for OT and PA students, while BMS and BM students showed no change. CONCLUSION: It is plausible that these findings emerge from differences in program curricula and specific training objectives. The findings provide initial insight to educators on ways that attitudes and behaviors pertaining to professionalism sometimes vary among students in different health science programs.

National survey of occupational therapy practitioners' involvement in response to intervention.

OBJECTIVE. We sought to describe occupational therapy practitioners' perceived levels of preparedness for and involvement in school-based Response to Intervention (RtI) initiatives. METHOD. We mailed a survey to a random sample of 1,000 practitioners from the American Occupational Therapy Association's Early Intervention and School Systems Special Interest Section. RESULTS. Of 295 returned surveys (29.9% response rate), 19 were excluded because of missing or incomplete data. Three-quarters of respondents (77.6%) reported that their districts implemented RtI. Two-thirds of respondents (66.3%) indicated that lack of resources limited their involvement in RtI; two-thirds (67%) said that district guidelines that describe expectations for practitioners' involvement would help increase their participation. Many respondents cited the need for continuing education and supported moving from a caseload to a workload model. CONCLUSION. Occupational therapy practitioners would benefit from specific district guidelines outlining the services they are able to provide within the context of RtI.