Review of Best Practices for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committees Within Colleges of Pharmacy.

Objective. To provide a review of best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) committees at United States colleges of pharmacy.Findings. In colleges of pharmacy, DEI committees can play a crucial role in promoting a culture change to ensure pharmacy graduates are equipped to provide equitable and representative care for the patients they serve. There is limited literature available on DEI committee composition, roles, and responsibilities, and their place within a college of pharmacy's organizational structure. A commitment to DEI should be part of the college's strategic plan and embedded and supported at all levels of the college and university to ensure success of DEI-related strategic initiatives. For a DEI committee to be effective, its composition should be intentional to include change agents, campus leaders, and members who are passionate and knowledgeable to execute the DEI goals. For sustainable change, involvement of the entire learning community and an organizational culture change is also important. Thus, DEI committees need to establish active bidirectional collaborations and communication with all key committees, offices, community leaders, and alumni to implement diversity goals.Summary. The DEI committee's established place in the organizational structure of the college is essential to ensure fair and appropriate representation of the community it serves. A clearly defined DEI committee with committee composition, roles, responsibilities, and its association with all constituents of the college and community can help achieve its intended strategic goals.

Reliability of peer assessment of patient education simulations.

BACKGROUND: At Belmont University College of Pharmacy, the final introductory pharmacy practice experience (IPPE) course in the IPPE series, IPPE V, is designed to assess readiness for advanced pharmacy practice experiences and includes three patient counseling simulations. These simulations have required greater resources. The objective of our study was to determine if student performance on patient counseling simulations can be accurately assessed by peers. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY: Students were required to participate in patient counseling simulations throughout the semester. For each simulation, students were assigned one role: pharmacist, patient, or peer-evaluator. Each pharmacist counseled the patient on a specific product while the peer-evaluator assessed the accuracy and completeness of the counseling using a detailed checklist. The patient used a checklist to assess the pharmacist's communication skills. Faculty assessed the student evaluators and the patients by counting the number of discrepancies between the student evaluator's and the live faculty checklists. Students were surveyed at the end of the semester regarding their beliefs and perceptions of peer assessment for the communication simulations. CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY: Of 65 students enrolled in the spring 2018 course, complete recordings and checklists were available for 54 simulations (83.1%). Interrater reliability was high with all correlation coefficients exceeding 0.86. Students agreed that they were comfortable assessing patient education content (82.14%) and communication skills (82.14%). Our results indicate that peer evaluation during patient education simulation is reliable and acceptable to students.

Pharmacologic Agents That Promote Airway Clearance in Hospitalized Subjects: A Systematic Review.

Pharmacologic agents to promote mucus clearance may reduce the sequelae of obstructive secretions. We systematically reviewed comparative studies of pharmacologic agents for mucus clearance in hospitalized or postoperative subjects without cystic fibrosis and over 12 months of age. We searched MEDLINE and other databases from January 1970 to July 2014 to identify relevant literature. Two reviewers independently assessed each study against predetermined inclusion/exclusion criteria. Two reviewers also independently extracted data regarding subject and intervention characteristics and outcomes and assigned overall quality ratings. The 9 studies meeting review criteria included 5 randomized controlled trials, 3 crossover randomized controlled trials, and one retrospective cohort study. Studies were small and together included a total of 379 subjects (mean of 42 subjects per study). N-acetylcysteine, heparin plus N-acetylcysteine, albuterol, ipratropium bromide, and saline were assessed. Studies reported no benefit of studied agents on expectoration, pulmonary function, and atelectasis and little effect on changes in sputum volume, weight, or viscosity. Adverse effects of agents were not consistently reported. Nausea was reported in 2 studies of N-acetylcysteine (one paper reported 2 experiments and did not clearly identify in which experiment adverse effects occurred), 3 studies reported that there were no adverse events, and 3 studies did not address adverse effects at all. Further research with clearly characterized populations and interventions is needed to understand the potential benefits and adverse effects of mucoactive agents.

Curriculum and instructional methods for drug information, literature evaluation, and biostatistics: survey of US pharmacy schools.

BACKGROUND: The drug information curriculum in US colleges of pharmacy continues to evolve. The American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Drug Information Practice and Research Network (DI PRN) published an opinion paper with specific recommendations regarding drug information education in 2009. Adoption of these recommendations has not been evaluated. OBJECTIVE: To assess which recommendations made in the ACCP DI PRN opinion paper are included in US pharmacy school curricula and characterize faculty qualifications, educational methods, and recent changes in drug information education. METHODS: An electronic survey was designed using the ACCP DI PRN opinion paper and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education standards and guidelines for accreditation of PharmD programs in the US. Survey questions addressed curricular content within the following categories: drug information, literature evaluation, and biostatistics. A letter including the online survey link was sent via email to the dean of each US college/school of pharmacy (N = 128). Recipients were instructed to forward the email to the individual at their institution who was the most knowledgeable about the content and methodology used for didactic drug information education. RESULTS: Sixty-four responses were included in the final analysis. Of the 19 ACCP DI PRN minimum core concepts, 9 (47%) were included in curricula of all responding institutions; 14 of 19 (74%) were included in curricula for all but 1 institution. In contrast, 5 of 16 concepts (31%) were not formally taught by a number of institutions. Many respondents noted an increased focus on evidence-based medicine, medication safety, and informatics. CONCLUSIONS: Although a survey of drug information curricula documented substantial inclusion of the essential concepts presented in the ACCP DI PRN opinion paper, room for improvement remains in drug information curricula in US colleges of pharmacy.