Assessment of Professionalism in Pharmacists and Pharmacy Students: Scoping Review of Instruments and Validity Evidence.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize which instruments have been developed to assess professionalism in the field of pharmacy. FINDINGS: A scoping review was conducted to answer which instruments have been developed to assess professionalism in the field of Pharmacy. The databases consulted were EMBASE, ERIC, PUBMED/Medline, Scopus, and Web of Science. No restrictions on language or year of publication were made. Only studies about development or translation of instruments for professionalism assessment were included. The methodological quality of studies was verified by the Questionnaire Cross-Cultural Adaptation Guideline and the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments. Seven studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in this scoping review. In general, the instruments were developed from ideological elements assigned to professionalism by pharmaceutical and medical entities, in addition to theoretical references that came from social sciences. Regarding the evaluation of validation and psychometric property evidence, the studies generally adopted distinct procedures which highlights some destandardization, although the methodological quality was accepted. SUMMARY: More studies on the professionalism field should be conducted to characterize professionalism and develop pharmaceutical practices in line with societal demands and expectations.

Teaching Strategies for Professional Identity Education in Pharmacy: A Scoping Review.

OBJECTIVES: To characterize which strategies of professional identity formation and professionalism are being used in Pharmacy. FINDINGS: We gathered 5004 articles from 5 databases with the descriptors "pharmacy" "professionalism," "professional identity" and their synonyms. The professional identity is a set of values and behaviors common among professionals. Professionalism is the moral compass of these values, used as a strategy to own social authenticity. After excluding duplicate texts, analyzing titles, abstracts, and full articles, 17 studies met the inclusion criteria and presented strategies for the formation of professional identity and professionalism in pharmacy students. We did not find studies with pharmacists. The quality of reports was assessed using 2 instruments recommended by the literature. All studies were conducted from 2007 onwards, and the United States is the country with the most publications. The identified strategies consisted of extracurricular activities, thematic courses, lectures, and counseling sessions and did not follow standards of theoretical reference, method, execution, duration, and effectiveness of evaluation. SUMMARY: The interest of Pharmacy about professional identity and professionalism has grown substantially in recent years. Teaching strategies are essential alternatives to improve professionalism, reinforce its importance, and acknowledge its heterogeneity and differences. For that, they must be in line with the aims of the profession in society. This review highlights the need to develop standardized and reproducible teaching strategies to guarantee the effectiveness of students' professional socialization during graduation, as well as to instruct professionals to deal with the changes in the profession, increasing the influence of Pharmacy in society.

Immunoinformatics-based characterization of immunogenic CD8 T-cell epitopes for a broad-spectrum cell-mediated immunity against high-risk human papillomavirus infection.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) represents the most prevalent sexually transmitted infectious agent worldwide. Vaccination has been an approach successfully used as a prophylactic measure against this infectious agent in patients without previous contact with the genotypes present in the vaccine. In this work, we use a computational approach to predict CD8 T cell epitopes from HPV proteins to promote cell-mediated immunity. We evaluated immunogenicity, conservation, toxicity, stability and population coverage of epitopes. Finally, a molecular docking analysis was performed to confirm the stability of the complexes formed. We identified 17 epitopes with affinity for several HLA alleles, covering 5 binding supermotifs (A2, A3, A24, B62 and B57). The analyses showed that these epitopes have a high population coverage and are highly conserved among several HPV genotypes. Seven of them (NWKNFFSTTWE1594-603, KVSAFQYRVFRVL163-74, LQFIFQLCKL1372-380, RVFRVQLPDPNKL170-81, FNKPYWLHRL1307-315, FITCVDTTRL1330-338 and HLRREQIFARL1248-257) were 100% conserved. Finally, molecular docking confirmed the stability of the complexes by means of a large network of hydrogen bonds formed and the calculated low bonding energy. The epitopes identified in this study are potential candidates as components of therapeutic vaccines and we suggest that these epitopes can be used in future studies aiming to activate antigen-specific CD8 T cells.

Collaborative attitudes between pharmacists and physicians in Brazil

Abstract Pharmacist-physician collaboration is a strategy for optimizing patient care and improving health outcomes. Nevertheless, there is a lack of information in Brazil about collaborative practices among these professionals. The aim of this study was to measure collaborative attitude of pharmacists and physicians who were working together in a teaching hospital. A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2018 to January 2019 with pharmacists and physicians working in a teaching hospital in Northeastern Brazil. These professionals were invited to provide responses to the Brazilian version of the "Scale of Attitudes Towards Pharmacist-Physician Collaboration" (SATP2C); their scores ranged between 16 and 64 points. The software Epi Info TM (version 3.5.4) was used for data analysis, and data were expressed in means. Forty-four professionals participated in this study. The mean age was 33.5 (DP = 7.1) years. More than half of participants were male (n = 25, 56.8%). The means from the SATP2C for pharmacists and physicians were 54.20 and 50.91, respectively, indicating good collaborative attitudes. There was no statistical difference between the mean scores of pharmacists and physicians. Participants showed a predisposition for collaborative teamwork. Future studies should focus on understanding the process by which collaboration translates into clinical practice

Evaluation of students' attitudes towards pharmacist-physician collaboration in Brazil

Objective: To measure undergraduate pharmacy and medical students' collaborative attitudes regarding Pharmacist-Physician collaboration. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from September 2016 to February 2017 in Northeast Brazil. Pharmacy and medical students from the first and the last year of courses were invited to complete Portuguese version of Scale of Attitudes Toward Pharmacist-Physician Collaboration (SATP2C). Descriptive and comparative analyses were performed using IBM SPSS (22 version). Differences were considered significant when p<0.05. Results: Three hundred seventy students completed the SATP2C. Overall, the students had positive attitudes towards physician-pharmacist collaboration. There was no significant correlation between age and score (p=0.79). Women showed a more positive collaborative attitude than men (53.1, SD=6.8 vs. 55.1, SD=6.3). Pharmacy students had a higher score than medical students (57.5, SD=4.7, vs. 51.1, SD=6.4). The first-year medical students had a higher score than last-year medical students (52.3, SD=6.0 vs. 49.5, SD=6.6; p<0.007). There was no significant difference in the attitudes between the first and last year pharmacy students (p<0.007). Conclusions: Pharmacy and medical students showed positive attitudes towards physician-pharmacist collaboration. However, pharmacy students presented more collaborative attitudes than medical ones. Additionally, the first-year medical students had more collaborative attitudes than last-year medical students. Studies should be conducted to provide recommendations to improve interprofessional education efforts to further enhance the positive attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaboration

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