Interprofessional pharmacotherapy workshop: intervention to improve health professionals' and students' attitudes towards collaboration between physicians and pharmacists.

Collaboration between physicians and pharmacists is recognized as an important factor for reducing medication errors and improving patient outcomes. Therefore, two pharmacotherapy workshops were delivered in Croatia - one for pre-registration medical (n=42, 4th-6th year) and pharmacy (n=38, 4th-5th year) students, and the other one for physicians (n=18) and pharmacists (n=23). The purpose of this study was to determine whether participation in common pharmacotherapy workshop could improve attitudes among participants towards interprofessional collaboration between pharmacists and physicians. Attitudes were measured by validated questionnaire "Scale of Attitudes Towards Collaboration Between Pharmacists and Physicians" at the beginning and at the end of the workshops. Three complex clinical scenarios were presented during the workshops. Participants were given general information about cases (all participants) and 2 groups of specific information (only for medical students/physicians and only for pharmacy students/pharmacists). For the first scenario, medical and pharmacy students/professionals were not allowed to exchange their specific information. However, participants collaborated for the 2nd and 3rd scenarios in order to achieve the hypothesized therapeutic goals. Before the workshops, pharmacists and pharmacy students showed more positive attitudes than physicians and medical students. However, the workshop contributed in closing the gap by equating health care professionals' attitudes. Additionally, students' attitudes were more positive after the workshop with an increase of 10% for medical and 2.2% for pharmacy students. This study indicates that interprofessional pharmacotherapy workshops could significantly improve attitudes toward collaboration between physicians and pharmacists for both students and practicing professionals.

Improving community pharmacists' clinical knowledge to detect and resolve drug-related problems in Croatia: a before/after survey study investigating the efficacy of an educational intervention.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to increase the knowledge level of community pharmacists in Croatia to identify and resolve drug-related problems (DRPs). DESIGN: Before/after survey study. SETTING: University of Split School of Medicine. PARTICIPANTS: 115 community pharmacists from all over the Croatia. INTERVENTIONS: An interactive 3-day clinical pharmacy workshop with the goal of increasing the knowledge level of community pharmacists in Croatia to identify and resolve DRPs in routine practice. Teaching methods were based on interactive clinical case solving. OUTCOME MEASURE: Change of the community pharmacists' knowledge based on preworkshop and postworkshop evaluation. A survey-based clinical knowledge measurement tool was used in order to evaluate the efficacy of the workshop. The lowest possible total score was 0 and the highest was 80. A higher survey score indicates a higher level of clinical knowledge to identify and resolve DRPs. RESULTS: Participating pharmacists had significantly higher postworkshop mean survey score (49.1±8.0) than the preworkshop mean survey score (42.9±8.2), with the mean score difference of 6.2 (95% CI 4.3 to 8.1). Furthermore, it was found that community pharmacists significantly increased their survey scores, regardless of their age. CONCLUSIONS: Interactive and case-based clinical pharmacy workshop could be a valuable tool to increase the knowledge of community pharmacists about identification and management of DRPs in routine practice. However, further studies are necessary to evaluate the long-term knowledge maintenance and the improvement in patients' clinical outcomes.

Differences among health care students' attitudes, knowledge and use of dietary supplements: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to evaluate the difference among pharmacy, dental and medical students' attitudes, knowledge and use of dietary supplements. Furthermore, factors likely to influence their personal use and willingness to recommend supplement to patient were investigated. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey study. SETTING: The study was carried out at a single university. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Survey gathered socio-demographic data and questioned students' attitudes, knowledge and use of dietary supplements. RESULTS: A total of 506 students were included in the study. Pharmacy students showed more positive attitudes about dietary supplements, and achieved higher knowledge scores when compared to dental or medical students (p < 0.001). Medical students were more likely to use evidence based sources of information about dietary supplements. There was no difference in supplements use across study programs (p = 0.177). As many as 59.7% of students that participated in the study reported using dietary supplements. Data analysis showed that the previous personal use supplements was a significant independent predictor whether students would recommend supplements to their patients (OR 27.03, 95% CI 14.08-50, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Students' education did not influence their personal use of dietary supplements. However, their personal experience seems to influence their willingness to recommend supplements to patients. Pharmacy students showed greater knowledge about supplements than their dental or medical colleagues. In future practice, health care students could benefit from collaboration with pharmacists when they provide care to patients seeking advice about the use of dietary supplements.

Clinical knowledge of community pharmacists in Croatia for detecting drug-related problems.

Background Drug-related problems (DRPs) interfere with patient's health outcomes and have a negative impact on healthcare resources. Successful management of DRPs is an essential part of pharmaceutical care. Pharmacists should have adequate clinical knowledge in order to effectively implement pharmaceutical care and manage DRPs. Objective To determine the clinical knowledge of community pharmacists in Croatia to detect and resolve DRPs. Method A sample of 302 community pharmacists have anonymously and voluntarily completed the validated survey-based clinical knowledge measurement tool. For each completed survey, all statements were scored individually, and a total score was calculated. The lowest possible total score was 0 and the highest was 80. Higher survey score indicates a higher level of clinical knowledge to detect and resolve a DRP. Results All community pharmacists had a mean score of 45.5 ± 8.6, while pharmacists from a pharmacy chain with mandatory education had a higher mean score of 50.2 ± 6.5. Multivariate linear regression revealed that only additional education (ß = 0.272, p < 0.001) is associated with a higher mean score, while age and gender have no influence on the survey score. Conclusion Additional education of community pharmacists could increase their clinical knowledge to detect and resolve DRPs.