Large-Scale Asynchronous Online Interprofessional Learning Experience.

AIMS: As interprofessional education (IPE) grows, more health professions programs have begun promoting it in their accreditation standards. A frequent challenge of large universities is how to include the large set of diverse students in their foundational offerings. A potential way would be to implement an online IPE asynchronous experience with an optional synchronous discussion. The purpose of this study was to: 1) describe implementation of that approach at a large multi-campus university; 2) explore the associations between IPE activities and students' reported level of usefulness; and 3) provide recommendations for online IPE experiences. METHODS: An IPE Module was developed that had 4 sequential online learning activities. After finishing the module, participants completed a self-administered questionnaire that included questions about demographics, retrospective pre and post assessment of key IPE concepts, and rating of the usefulness of the learning based on the module activities. RESULTS: 1,017 participants, representing 8 different health professional programs, completed the survey. The numbers of students were evenly distributed, with dentistry representing the highest number (21%), and most participants were first-year students (71.9%). The learning activities "reading posts/messages of colleagues from other professions" and "watching the video" were reported useful or very useful by 77.4% and 71.4% of participants, respectively. The self-reflection writing activity (67.1%) and the "6-word message" (59.4%) were rated as useful or very useful by over half of participants. DISCUSSION: Most participants reported that the learning activities in the online asynchronous IPE module were useful or very useful in achieving the learning objectives. Thus, an introductory experience based on an online program combining both asynchronous and decentralized optional synchronous instruction might be a viable method of delivering foundational IPE information.

Preparing Pharmacists for Collaborative/Integrated Health Settings.

Pharmacy practice is changing to accommodate the need for pharmacists to be better team members in newly emerging collaborative care and integrated health systems. Pharmacy schools could lead this change by educating students to be effective participants in these relatively new models of care. Schools are encouraged to follow the approach outlined in the recent guidance published by the Health Professions Accreditors Collaborative (HPAC) for interprofessional practice and education ("the new IPE"). This approach includes articulating an IPE plan, establishing goals, assessing student achievement of the necessary IPE competencies, developing educational plans that are multi-faceted and longitudinal, and modifying the existing assessment/evaluation process to ensure the quality of the IPE effort. These curricular decisions should be based on existing and new research on the effectiveness of IPE on student's attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behavior. A key decision is how to create effective interactions between pharmacy students and those of other professions. Educational emphasis should be directed toward team building skills, not just individual competencies. The pharmacy faculty probably need to enhance their teaching abilities to accommodate this change, such as learning new technology (e.g., simulations, managing online exchanges) and demonstrating a willingness to teach students from other professions.

Inter-role relationships in hospital-based pharmacy and therapeutics committee decision making.

The interdependencies of Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee members in 222 teaching hospitals were studied by use of the social relations model. Cooperation, influence, frustration and enjoyment were studied among four-person subgroups chosen from the five roles recommended for hospitals by the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists: physician-chair, physician-nonchair, pharmacist, nurse and administrator. The results show that the elicitation and reception of cooperation, influence, frustration and enjoyment vary considerably by role (as manifest in actor and partner effects); small amounts of individual reciprocity (i.e. the association between actor and partner effects) were found for some measures of interdependence across roles, while small amounts of dyadic reciprocity (i.e. the association between reciprocal relationship effects) were found for many relationships. Significant group level (i.e. committee) effects were found as well.

A cross-media content analysis of motivational themes in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising.

BACKGROUND: Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs is a widely discussed issue in health care. However, little is known about the characteristics of the motivational themes used in this type of advertising. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the concurrent presentation of motivational themes in DTC print and television advertisements. METHODS: The content analyses focused on advertisements of 2 targeted drug classes (cyclooxygenase-2 enzyme inhibitors and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors) in magazines and on television. Targeted print advertisements (for celecoxib, rofecoxib, atorvastatin, pravastatin, and simvastatin) from September to December 2001 and targeted television advertisements (for celecoxib, rofecoxib, and simvastatin) from November 2001 were investigated. The motivational themes were assessed using a theoretical framework based on self-regulatory focus theory and cultural orientation. Self-regulatory focus was examined in terms of goal orientation (promotion vs prevention) and emotional aspects, (e.g., cheerfulness, dejection, quiescence, agitation). The cultural orientation was examined in terms of individualism versus collectivism. The visual-verbal match was categorized as direct if the audio and visual information was semantically redundant, as partial if it was partially related, and as no match at all if it was different or conflicting. RESULTS: Twelve print advertisements in 10 magazines and 4 television advertisements on 4 television networks were examined; the interrater reliability scores from 3 independent, trained judges ranged from 0.93 to 0.99. The score was low (0.57) in the visual-verbal match measurement for television advertisements. Products in the same category appeared to be promoted using different self-regulatory foci. For example, celecoxib and atorvastatin advertisements tended to be promotion oriented, whereas pravastatin advertisements tended to be prevention oriented. Motivational themes were found throughout the print advertisements (e.g., pictures, headlines, main text). Only a few advertisements illustrated factual information about a product in a pictorial format. The cultural orientation of the advertisements was similar across brands, with individualistic appeals being common. On television, visual-verbal matches (either direct or partial matches) were generally found, except in the section where risk information was presented. CONCLUSION: In this content analysis, prescription drugs in the same class appeared to be promoted using different self-regulatory foci, but individualistic appeals were found more often than collectivistic appeals across brands.