A Cross-Sectional Survey Study of Student Pharmacists' Career Interests.

Background: Career planning is important to student pharmacists and pharmacy schools due to slower job growth for pharmacists over the last decade. Understanding students' career interests can help colleges and schools of pharmacy develop targeted career planning, as well as meaningful curricular and co-curricular activities. Objectives: This study aims to describe the career path interests of two doctor of pharmacy cohorts in each professional year (P1 through P4) during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic years. Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional survey study conducted at an Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education accredited college of pharmacy in the United States. Students were surveyed regarding their career interests in a mentorship program. Using frequencies and proportions we reported the pattern of students' career interests. Results: The top careers most frequently selected by students in the 2019-2020 cohort as their first choice were hospital (21.4% of P1s, 17.4% of P3s) and community (24.6% of P2s, 24.3% of P4s). Those career paths for the 2020-2021 cohort were hospital (21.4% of P1s), clinical specialty (19.2% of P2s, 21.9% of P4s), and community (22.9% of P3s). In both cohorts and all professional program years, students selected a broad range of first choice career interests and even broader range when indicating top 3 careers of interest. Conclusion: Overall, the most frequently selected career path interests were hospital, community, clinical specialty, and ambulatory care. However, there was broad variability in the career interests, accounting for a third to half of the students with interests different than the majority.

Knowledge, perceptions, and readiness of telepharmacy among community pharmacists.

Telepharmacy is a practical part of telemedicine that refers to providing pharmaceutical services within the scope of the pharmacist's obligations while maintaining a temporal and spatial distance between patients, users of health services, and healthcare professionals. The present study was a cross-sectional study conducted among community pharmacists in Saudi Arabia between March and May 2022 to assess their knowledge, perceptions, and readiness for telepharmacy. The survey was filled out by 404 respondents. The majority of respondents were male (59.90%) and the age of more than half of them was between 30 and 39 years old (54.46%). Most participants worked in urban areas (83.66%), and 42.57% had less than five years of experience in a pharmacy. Most participants agreed that telepharmacy is available in Saudi Arabia (82.67%). Approximately 70% of pharmacists felt that telepharmacy promotes patient medication adherence, and 77.72% agreed that telepharmacy increases patient access to pharmaceuticals in rural areas. More than 72% of pharmacists said they would work on telepharmacy initiatives in rural areas for free, and 74.26% said they would work outside of usual working hours if necessary. In the future, this research could aid in adopting full-fledged telepharmacy pharmaceutical care services in Saudi Arabia. It could also help academic initiatives by allowing telepharmacy practice models to be included as a topic course in the curriculum to prepare future pharmacists to deliver telepharmacy services.

Knowledge, Perceptions, and Readiness of Telepharmacy among Hospital Pharmacists in Saudi Arabia.

Telepharmacy is a technology-based service that provides promoted services such as counseling, medication administration and compounding, drug therapy monitoring, and prescription review. It is unclear whether hospital pharmacists possess the necessary knowledge, attitudes, and willingness to practice telepharmacy. The current study sought to investigate Saudi Arabian hospital pharmacists' understanding, attitudes, and level of preparedness for telepharmacy services. A total of 411 pharmacists responded to the survey. Only 43.33% of the respondents agreed that telepharmacy is available in Saudi Arabia and 36.67% of the respondents agreed that patients in rural areas can have more medication access and information via telepharmacy. Only 29.33% of pharmacists agreed that telepharmacy improves patient medication adherence, and about 34.00% of the pharmacists agreed that telepharmacy saves patients money and time by eliminating the need for them to travel to healthcare facilities. This research found that hospital pharmacists were unsure of their level of knowledge, their attitude toward telepharmacy, and their willingness to incorporate it into their future pharmacy practices. To ensure that tomorrow's pharmacists have the skills they need to provide telepharmacy services, telepharmacy practice models must be incorporated into the educational programs that prepare them.

A Survey of Arizona Pharmacists to Identify Opportunities to Enhance Pharmacists' Competitiveness in a Tightening Labor Market.

BACKGROUND: The pharmacy profession has experienced dramatic shifts in scopes of practice, services offered, and employment opportunities over the last couple decades. At the same time, the number of students graduating from pharmacy school each year has steadily increased. The combined effect of these factors is a tightening labor market. Identification of potential knowledge and skill deficits in the applicant pool will create opportunity for pharmacists to tailor their personal development and educators to design content to address contemporary needs. OBJECTIVE: To determine if the current pharmacist pool meets employment needs in Arizona with respect to specific skills and knowledge. METHODS: In a cross-sectional survey design, Arizona licensed pharmacists were asked to provide their perspective of the knowledge and skills of candidates for pharmacist positions within 8 skill & knowledge domains. Descriptive statistics were used for respondents' characteristics. A multivariate logistic regression was used for association between respondent characteristics and responses. Free responses were assessed using a qualitative thematic analysis. RESULTS: Among 685 respondents, 88% were employed, 48% had precepting experience, and 44% were involved with hiring. The majority were from chain community pharmacies (33%) and inpatient settings (22%). Management and conflict resolution skills were reported as lacking by 35% and 28% of respondents respectively; 24% reported insufficient compounding knowledge. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest knowledge deficits in management, conflict resolution, and compounding. This information can be used for career planning and for educational program development or curricular enhancements. Similar studies in other regions will provide data on national needs.

Mortality, Severity, and Hospital Admission among COVID-19 Patients with ACEI/ARB Use: A Meta-Analysis Stratifying Countries Based on Response to the First Wave of the Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) is controversial for treating COVID-19 patients. We aimed to estimate pooled risks of mortality, disease severity, and hospitalization associated with ACEI/ARB use and stratify them by country and country clusters. METHODS: We conducted a search in various databases through 4 July 2020 and then applied random-effects models to estimate pooled risks (ORp) across stratifications by country cluster. Clusters were chosen to reflect outbreak times (China followed by Korea/Italy, others subsequently) and mobility restrictions (China and Denmark/France/Spain with stricter lockdowns than the UK/US). RESULTS: Overall analysis showed no increase in mortality; however, a statistical increase in mortality was seen in the US/UK cluster with ORp = 1.28 [95% CI = 1.04; 1.56] and a decrease in China with ORp = 0.65 [95% CI = 0.43; 0.96] and France with OR = 0.31 [95% CI = 0.14; 0.69]. Severity and hospitalization were not statistically significant in the analysis; however, several associations were seen in specific countries but not in country clusters. CONCLUSION: The country-cluster meta-analysis provided a reasonable explanation for COVID-19 mortality among ACEI/ARB users. The analysis did not explain differences in severity and suggested the involvement of other factors. Hospitalization findings among ACEI/ARB users may be considered informative as they may have been subjected to clinical decisions and hospital-bed availability.

VALIDATION AND COMPARISON OF TWO 30-DAY RE-ADMISSION PREDICTION MODELS IN PATIENTS WITH DIABETES.

Objective: The objective was to evaluate the 30-day re-admission predictive performance of the HOSPITAL score and Diabetes Early Re-admission Risk Indicator (DERRI™) in hospitalized diabetes patients. Methods: This was a case-control study in an academic, tertiary center in the United States. Adult hospitalized diabetes patients were randomly identified between January 1, 2014, and September 30, 2017. Patients were categorized into two groups: (1) re-admitted within 30 days, and (2) not re-admitted within 30 days. Predictive performance of the HOSPITAL and DERRI™ scores was evaluated by calculating receiver operating characteristics curves (c-statistic), Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit tests, and Brier scores. Results: A total of 200 patients were included (100 re-admitted, 100 non-re-admitted). The HOSPITAL score had a c-statistic of 0.731 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.661 to 0.800), Hosmer-Lemeshow test P = .211, and Brier score 0.212. The DERRI™ score had a c-statistic of 0.796 (95% CI, 0.734 to 0.857), Hosmer-Lemeshow test P = .114, and Brier score 0.212. The difference in receiver operating characteristic curves was not statistically significant between the two scores but showed a higher c-statistic with the DERRI™ score (P = .055). Conclusion: Both HOSPITAL and DERRI™ scores showed good predictive performance in 30-day re-admission of adult hospitalized diabetes patients. There was no significant difference in discrimination and calibration between the scores. Abbreviations: CI = confidence interval; DERRI™ = Diabetes Early Re-admission Risk Indicator; IQR = interquartile range.