A Deeper Reflection on the Integration of the Pharmacists' Patient Care Process.

OBJECTIVE: Given the importance of developing student understanding and application of the Pharmacists' Patient Care Process (PPCP), programs may be able to use successful approaches from other institutions to enhance their curricular and experiential learning and assessment of student outcomes. The study objective was to explore successful methods of integrating the PPCP and outline areas of challenge. METHODS: This study used a qualitative study design with semistructured interviews to gain insight from participants' lived experiences. Pharmacy faculty members participating in a national survey or who were authors of articles about PPCP initiatives were recruited to provide greater detail about building successful and innovative curricula. Thematic analysis identified commonalities and differences among the interviewed participants. RESULTS: A total of 10 interviews were conducted. The following 4 overarching themes arose from the data: discussions around intentional integration of the PPCP across multiple core courses may foster innovations in teaching strategies; intentional integration alone does not equate to PPCP integration across the curriculum; intentional integration may enhance program assessment; and PPCP data from experiential coursework may not be widely used in curricular continuous quality improvement. CONCLUSION: Pharmacy programs will ideally involve the entire faculty, including experiential and basic and social/administrative science members, in weaving the PPCP throughout the curriculum. Rigorous assessment can better inform interventions related to student competency in various steps of the PPCP. Pharmacy programs should also clarify how data obtained from preceptors observing student performance in each of the PPCP steps are used to assess student mastery of this critical skill.

Experimental data on power quality assessment at point of common coupling of a steel mill to an electric power grid.

With the proliferation of non-linear loads in electricity supply industry, interests in improving quality of electrical supply have increased significantly. Power quality challenges have generated disputes between customers, network operators and equipment manufacturers globally. Identification of the sources of harmonics, and the quantification of the identified variables at the points of common coupling (PCC) pose challenges in the electricity supply industry. Critical in the determination of the harmonic contributions are data for harmonic distortions in phase currents and voltages, power factor, apparent power, active power, reactive power, and frequency. The data were obtained at the PCC between 5 different arc furnace steel plant and the transmission network. The data were captured at 33kV and 132kV voltage level at the steel plant PCC using a Circuitor AR6 power analyser connected through incoming voltage transformers (VTs) and current transformers (CTs). Histograms and cumulative probability distribution plots present the harmonic contents of the data. This data can be reused for artificial intelligence and machine learning application in real-time monitoring of state of health at the PCC and design of filter networks to mitigate harmonics.

Invasive rhino-orbito-cerebral mucormycosis in a diabetic patient - the need for prompt treatment.

Mucormycosis is a rare life threatening fungal infection predominately seen in immunocompromised or diabetic patients. The following case is of a known type II diabetic patient who presented with sepsis and sudden unilateral loss of vision secondary to infective rhino-orbito-cerebral mucormycosis. Treatment of the condition required extensive surgical intervention and medical management for a life saving outcome.