Interprofessional education: definitions, student competencies, and guidelines for implementation.

Interprofessional education (IPE) is an important step in advancing health professional education for many years and has been endorsed by the Institute of Medicine as a mechanism to improve the overall quality of health care. IPE has also become an area of focus for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), with several groups, including these authors from the AACP Interprofessional Education Task Force, working on developing resources to promote and support IPE planning and development. This review provides background on the definition of IPE, evidence to support IPE, the need for IPE, student competencies and objectives for IPE, barriers to implementation of IPE, and elements critical for successfully implementing IPE.

A high-stakes assessment approach to applied pharmacokinetics instruction.

OBJECTIVES: To identify instructional and assessment problems leading to pharmacy students' failure to retain pharmacokinetics abilities into the experiential year and develop an instructional methodology and abilities-based assessment tool to address the problem. METHODS: Pharmacokinetic instructional methods were assessed and an abilities-based assessment tool was developed and utilized as a requirement for curricular progression. Both the instructional methodology and the assessment tool were evaluated using abilities-based outcomes and faculty surveys. ASSESSMENT: Both instructional methods and assessment methods improved student pharmacokinetic skill performance in the direct patient-care environment. CONCLUSIONS: Continual assessment, modification, and implementation of teaching methods and the adoption of a high-stakes abilities-based assessment impacted student learning in a problem-based, integrated course.

Medication therapy management: its relationship to patient counseling, disease management, and pharmaceutical care.

OBJECTIVE: To delineate the relationship, including similarities and differences, between medication therapy management (MTM) and contemporary pharmacist-provided services, including patient counseling, disease management, and pharmaceutical care, to facilitate the continued evolution of commonly used language and a standard of practice across geographic areas and practice environments. SUMMARY: Incorporation of MTM services into the array of Medicare-funded services affords an opportunity for pharmacists to develop direct patient care services in the community. Defining the role of MTM within the scope of pharmacist-provided patient care activities, including patient counseling, disease management, and all currently provided pharmacy services is essential to the delineation of a viable and sustainable practice model for pharmacists. The definitions of each of these services are offered, as well as comparisons and contrasts of the individual services. In addition to Medicare-eligible patients, MTM services are appropriate for anyone with medication-related needs. MTM is offered as an all-encompassing model that incorporates the philosophy of pharmaceutical care, techniques of patient counseling, and disease management in an environment that facilitates the direct collaboration of patients, pharmacists, and other health professionals. CONCLUSION: Defining the role of MTM within the current patient care models, including patient counseling, disease management, and all who provide pharmacy services, is essential in delineating a viable and sustainable practice model for pharmacists.

Development of an office of teaching, learning and assessment in a pharmacy school.

This article describes the background, development, and assessment of an Office of Teaching, Learning and Assessment at the Harrison School of Pharmacy, Auburn University. This case study is intended to provide other colleges and schools with insights that may facilitate the relatively unproblematic development of similar programs.