Assessing the Impact of a Personal Finance Elective Course on Student Attitudes and Intentions.

Objective. To address the need for personal finance education in our school of pharmacy, a finance elective was developed to help students make well-informed choices related to student loan repayment, budgeting, and planning for retirement. Personal finance education could be beneficial to help students improve their future financial well-being.Methods. A mixed-methods research design was used to determine the impact of the course. Retrospective data were collected and analyzed. Data included pre- and post-assessments, assignments, posts from discussion boards, and a follow-up questionnaire. Qualitative data were analyzed through in vivo coding, and quantitative data were analyzed using dependent t tests.Results. Qualitative analysis revealed two themes: students came to feel that personal finance was something that could be managed proactively, and they felt empowered to create a financial plan that included strategies for budgeting, paying off student loans and other debt, saving, and investing. Quantitative analysis of five of the 10 assessment questions with matching counterparts in the pre- and post-assessment showed significant differences. Most students who responded to the follow-up questionnaire had completed activities or planned to complete activities related to making changes to their personal finance habits.Conclusion. Pharmacy students are entering the workforce with high incomes but saddled with debt. A personal finance elective course has the potential to equip students with the knowledge needed to be financially successful. Schools of pharmacy should work toward offering professional development to students to assist them in learning about personal finance due to the high cost of obtaining a pharmacy degree and likelihood of entering the workforce with debt.

Assessing student pharmacists' ability to recognize and categorize interventions during an introductory pharmacy practice experience.

INTRODUCTION: Introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs) prepare students for advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) by reinforcing patient care skills learned in the didactic curriculum. Current literature does not assess pharmacy students' abilities to accurately recognize and categorize interventions in IPPEs or APPEs. This study evaluated the impact of incorporating paper-based simulated encounters and video answer keys to train students to accurately recognize and categorize interventions during an IPPE. METHODS: During longitudinal IPPEs, first-, second-, and third-year students reviewed four patient case scenarios that mimicked authentic patient encounters. Students were tasked with recognizing and categorizing interventions and were provided answer key videos after each assignment. Total scores for the proportion of correct and incorrect intervention options selected were calculated and compared over time. Students and faculty mentors completed post-study questionnaires designed to assess perceived improvement in students' capability to recognize and categorize interventions. RESULTS: A series of repeated measures analyses of variance were statistically significant (P < .05) for total scores and proportion of correctly selected and incorrectly selected intervention options. Students' accuracy to correctly recognize and categorize interventions improved by 8% over four case scenarios. The proportion of correctly selected interventions increased by 65%, and the proportion of incorrectly selected intervention options decreased by 49% based on mean percent scores. CONCLUSIONS: Patient case scenario assignments and video recorded answer keys were useful tools to teach students how to document interventions. Exposure to documenting interventions during IPPEs helps prepare students for documenting interventions during APPEs.

Article Club to Encourage Meaningful and Impactful Conversations on Leadership Among Pharmacy Faculty and Staff.

Objective. To describe outcomes from an article club that was designed to foster leadership within a pharmacy school by informally gathering interested faculty and staff and providing a safe environment for discussion on leadership concepts.Methods. At each monthly meeting, participants discussed an article from Harvard Business Review's top 10 leadership articles. After 10 sessions, participants were asked to complete an electronic survey about their perspectives on the activities and invited to participate in an interview. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and qualitative software was used to analyze the interview transcripts. Videoconferencing allowed for off-campus faculty and staff participation. No direct programmatic costs were incurred.Results. Four to 24 participants attended each session. Sixteen participants completed the survey, and five volunteered to be interviewed. All participants strongly agreed that the sessions increased awareness of leadership concepts, and 15 strongly agreed or agreed that the activities influenced their leadership decision-making and facilitated building a culture of leadership at the school. Interviews revealed that mid-career faculty participated to learn about general leadership concepts from discussions and a few junior faculty participated to gain leadership skills to help with promotion. All participants noted they were exposed to novel leadership styles by participating in the article discussion sessions. Teaching and practice commitments were the two reasons most often given for not participating.Conclusion. Providing an interactive discussion forum for pharmacy education faculty and staff to learn and discuss leadership concepts and qualities is effective for personal growth and professional development. Other schools and institutions can implement similar activities to foster leadership.

Silver nanoparticles formulations for healing traumatic injuries in oral mucosa of rats.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate formulations of 1 % silver (Ag) nanoparticles for treating traumatic lesions induced in the oral mucosa of rats, because these lesions are commonly observed in the dental clinic, and their therapeutic forms are scarce. METHODS: Wistar rats were punch-injured (two circular fragments, 4.0 mm in diameter) in the oral mucosa (one on each side), and were treated topically (twice per week) with the treatments/groups including: no injury, control, vehicle, diluted Ag, soluble Ag, and solid Ag. On the 2nd, 7th, and 14th days postinjury, biopsies were collected for immunohistochemistry and biochemical analysis. RESULTS: The group diluted Ag revealed a higher level of inflammatory infiltrate on the 2nd day, whereas solid Ag presented lower levels. The Ag solid group presented higher IL-1ß on the 2nd day and increased IL-10 and TGF-ß1 throughout the follow-up. Moreover, all three Ag groups presented lower levels of oxidative stress markers and, on the 7th day, the diluted Ag and solid Ag groups revealed higher antioxidants. Diluted Ag and soluble Ag groups presented greater blood vessels proliferation, whereas soluble Ag and solid Ag groups revealed greater VEGF on the 2nd and 14th days. Furthermore, all three Ag groups were highlighted during fibroplasia, although collagenesis was similar to that observed in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Although diluted Ag was noticeable for its important angiogenesis and fibroplasia, solid Ag was the most suitable formulation in healing oral lesions as it efficiently controlled inflammation and oxidative stress, thus favoring angiogenesis and tissue formation.

Evaluation of the impact of enhanced virtual forms and gamification on intervention identification in a pharmacist-led ambulatory care clinic.

Background: Adoption of healthcare technology in the ambulatory care setting is nearly universal. Clinical decision support system (CDSS) technologies improve patient care through the identification of additional care opportunities. With the movement from paper-based to electronic clinical intake forms, the opportunity to improve identification of gaps in care utilizing CDSS in the ambulatory care setting exists. Objective: To evaluate the impact of CDSS-enhanced digital intake forms, with- and without aspects of gamification, on the identification of intervention opportunities in an ambulatory care pharmacy setting. Methods: Patients were invited to complete visit intake paperwork via virtual forms as part of a CDSS-enhanced mobile application designed to identify potential interventions based on patient age, sex, disease state(s), and user-provided information. Patients were randomized to receive optional patient-specific health questions 1) with or 2) without elements of gamification. Gamification elements included trivia questions, fun facts, and the chance to win a prize. A retrospective review was used to assess interventions identified for a random sample of patients seen within the same time frame who did not utilize the mobile application. Interventions were compared across groups utilizing ANOVA. t-tests were used for a subgroup analysis. Results: From January to May 2019, 353 potential interventions were identified for 220 study participants. 0.44 (±0.82), 1.8 (±2.0) and 2.1 (±1.8) interventions per participant were identified for the control, virtual forms, and virtual forms + gamification groups, respectively. Significant differences in intervention identification across groups were found using a one-way ANOVA (F = 17.46, p < .001). Post hoc analysis demonstrated a significant difference in interventions identified for those completing 50-100% (n = 32) and those completing less than 50% (n = 18; p < .001) of the optional health questions in the virtual forms + gamification group. Conclusions: Utilization of CDSS-enhanced clinical intake forms increased identification of potential interventions, though gamification did not significantly impact this identification.

Influência do pré-alargamento na escolha da lima patência e lima apical inicial / Influence of preflaring in the choice of patency and initial apical files

O presente estudo avaliou a influência do pré-alargamento na escolha das limas patência e apical inicial. Quarenta canais mesiais de molares inferiores foram divididos em dois grupos. No primeiro, não foi realizado pré-alargamento e no segundo o mesmo foi realizado com brocas Gates Glidden. A mensuração do diâmetro anatômico do forame apical e do canal no comprimento de trabalho foi realizada com o auxílio de microscópio de forma retrógada. A escolha das limas patência e apical inicial foi determinada via canal. Quando o pré-alargamento não foi realizado, a diferença entre os diâmetros das limas e anatômicos foi maior. O pré-alargamento mostrou ser essencial na determinação da escolha das limas patência e apical inicial.

The present study evaluated the influence of cervical preflaring in the choice of patency and initial apical files. Forty mesial canals of mandibular molars were divided into two groups. In the first, no cervical preflaring was performed while in the second it was performed with Gates Glidden drills. The measurement of the anatomic diameter of the apical foramen and of the working length was performed by the retrograde method with the aid of a microscope. The choice of patency and initial apical files was determined in the root canal. When the preflaring was not performed, the difference between the diameters of the files and the anatomic diameters was greater. Preflaring was shown to be essential for the determination of patency and initial apical files.