Jennifer L. Kirwin

Using Facebook to facilitate course-related discussion between students and faculty members

Objectives. To use Facebook to facilitate online discussion of the content of a Comprehensive Disease Management course and to evaluate student use and perceptions of this exercise. Design. A Facebook page was created and coordinators encouraged students to “like” the page and to post and view study tips, links, or questions. At the end of the course, students’ use and perceptions were evaluated using an anonymous survey tool. Assessment. At the end of week 1, there were 81 followers, 5 wall posts, and 474 visits to the course Facebook page. At peak use, the page had 117 followers, 18 wall posts, and 1,326 visits. One hundred nineteen students (97% of the class) completed the survey tool. Twenty-six percent of students contributed posts compared to 11% who posted on the course discussion board on Blackboard. Students were more likely to post and be exposed to posts on Facebook than on Blackboard. Students found Facebook helpful and 57% said they would miss Facebook if use was not continued in subsequent courses. Conclusions. Students in a Comprehensive Disease Management course found the addition of a Facebook page a valuable study tool and thought most posts added to their learning.

Duloxetine: A Dual Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor for Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder

The burden of mental illness has been underestimated worldwide. Depression was the fourth leading cause of disease burden in the world in 1990 and is projected to be the second leading cause of disability by 2020. It is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, costing billions of dollars annually in direct and indirect medical costs and losses in productivity. Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) may experience both psychological and medical complaints, including somatic sensations or pain. Some antidepressants have been shown to treat chronic pain syndromes, but despite the variety of antidepressants available in the United States, only 65–70% of patients respond to initial antidepressant treatment. Treatments are limited by delayed onset of antidepressant effects, side effects, partial response, and treatment resistance. Duloxetine, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of MDD, is a reuptake inhibitor at serotonergic and noradrenergic neurons and appears to have low affinity for other neurotransmitter systems. In clinical trials, duloxetine was effective for the treatment of MDD and was well tolerated. Further study is needed to compare its efficacy with that of other antidepressants, to clarify effects on somatic symptoms, and to assess potential adverse cardiovascular and sexual side effects. Duloxetine is also approved for the management of diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain and is under investigation for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence in women.

A Simulated Hospital Pharmacy Module Using an Electronic Medical Record in a Pharmaceutical Care Skills Laboratory Course

Objectives. To implement and evaluate the effects of a simulated hospital pharmacy module using an electronic medical record on student confidence and abilities to perform hospital pharmacist duties. Design. A module was developed that simulated typical hospital pharmacist tasks. Learning activities were modified based upon student feedback and instructor assessment. Assessments. Ninety-seven percent of respondents reported full-time hospital internship experience and 72% had electronic medical record experience prior to completing the module. Mean scores on confidence with performing typical hospital pharmacist tasks significantly increased from the pre-module survey to the post-module survey from 1.5-2.9 (low comfort/confidence) to 2.0-3.4 (moderate comfort/confidence). Course assessments confirmed student achievement of covered competencies. Conclusions. A simulated hospital pharmacy module improved pharmacy students’ hospital practice skills and their perceived comfort and confidence in completing the typical duties of a hospital pharmacist.

Interprofessional socialization as a way to introduce collaborative competencies to first-year health science students

Abstract Interprofessional education (IPE) is the cornerstone of preparing future health care providers but remains to be a challenge for many health science programs. We aimed to develop and evaluate an interprofessional conference for first-year health science students with goals to provide students with interprofessional socialization opportunity and introduce IPE principles. A half-day conference was based upon core competencies for health professionals and involved 277 first-year health sciences, nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, and speech language pathology and audiology students. Alcohol and substance misuse was chosen as a topic for its relevance to college students and health professionals. Results from program evaluation revealed that the conference was successful in exposing students to core interprofessional competencies and provided useful information about alcohol and substance misuse. This study advocates for early inclusion of IPE in the health professions curricula in the form of interprofessional socialization.

Helping patients articulate end-of-life wishes: a target for interprofessional participation

A recent publication in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital described the effect of timely e-mail prompts to improve documentation of outpatient code status in adult patients with advanced lung cancer (1). This work builds on a 2009 paper describing the initial design and implementation of the code status module within the electronic ambulatory medical record (2). The code status module is a feature in the hospital’s outpatient record that allows clinicians to document a patient’s preferences for end of life care (e.g., full code, DNR/DNI, or other resuscitation options). In the report describing that initial implementation, researchers assessed impact by extracting information from hospital’s clinical database to determine rates of documentation of electronic code status using the new module. In the 22-month period following introduction of the code status module, they found only 20% of patients with a documented outpatient code status (2).

Implementation of a research capstone course with expanded flexibility

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE A research-focused capstone course was designed to improve flexibility in the way pharmacy students meet the universitys capstone requirement. The requirement aims to integrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes from didactic coursework and to apply them in a scholarly way to improve critical and evidence-based thinking, communication skills, and professionalism. This report describes the capstone course and faculty and student perceptions after the first year of implementation. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING The course allows students to work with a faculty advisor on a four-semester hour research project of mutual interest that can be completed in any one of three semesters. After the first student cohort completed their projects, faculty and student perceptions were captured via electronic survey. FINDINGS A total of 38 students (36%) and 22 advisors (71%) responded to the survey. Approximately 90% of students and faculty agreed that student groups had achieved course objectives upon completion. Although faculty members felt that participating in the capstone course increased their workload and in some cases reduced their productivity, faculty members felt that the course had a beneficial impact for students. SUMMARY The new capstone course was well received. The flexibility of the course was both a strength and a limitation as most students wanted more structure in the expectations and grading of the project in the form of a rubric or other standardized assessments.

Assessment of SOAP note evaluation tools in colleges and schools of pharmacy

INTRODUCTION To describe current methods used to assess SOAP notes in colleges and schools of pharmacy. METHODS Members of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Laboratory Instructors Special Interest Group were invited to share assessment tools for SOAP notes. Content of submissions was evaluated to characterize overall qualities and how the tools assessed subjective, objective, assessment, and plan information. RESULTS Thirty-nine assessment tools from 25 schools were evaluated. Twenty-nine (74%) of the tools were rubrics and ten (26%) were checklists. All rubrics included analytic scoring elements, while two (7%) were mixed with holistic and analytic scoring elements. A majority of the rubrics (35%) used a four-item rating scale. Substantial variability existed in how tools evaluated subjective and objective sections. All tools included problem identification in the assessment section. Other assessment items included goals (82%) and rationale (69%). Seventy-seven percent assessed drug therapy; however, only 33% assessed non-drug therapy. Other plan items included education (59%) and follow-up (90%). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS There is a great deal of variation in the specific elements used to evaluate SOAP notes in colleges and schools of pharmacy. Improved consistency in assessment methods to evaluate SOAP notes may better prepare students to produce standardized documentation when entering practice.