Pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and physician assistant professional students' perspectives on interprofessional roles and responsibilities.

Understanding roles and responsibilities within the interprofessional practice is a key competency of interprofessional education (IPE). Students in health professions programs can have limited understanding and perceptions of health professions, including their own and other professions. The purpose of this study was to understand students' perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of other health-care professionals. Students enrolled in occupational therapy, pharmacy, physical therapy, and physician assistant programs at a university participated in a three-hour IPE workshop. Throughout this workshop, they worked in small interprofessional teams to identify unique and shared roles and responsibilities of health professions. Students used a "dream catcher" graphic organizer to compare and contrast these roles and responsibilities. Researchers used thematic analysis of completed graphic organizers to identify themes in students' perceptions. Students identified many shared and unique characteristics about their professions' values and expertise, patient care process, practice settings, patient populations, education, and regulations. While students correctly identified many aspects of their professions, there were some inaccuracies that were addressed by small group faculty facilitators.

Faculty facilitators' and standardized family members (SFMs) perceptions of student teamwork during an interprofessional education simulation workshop.

Standardized patients can be trained to portray standardized family members (SFMs) for interprofessional education (IPE) initiatives to maximize student learning. To date, studies of IPE often focus on student learning outcomes rather than on the feedback and perspectives of SFMs and faculty facilitators (FFs), The purpose of our study was to examine SFMs' and FFs' perspectives immediately after participating in an IPE workshop. SFMs and FFs completed a semi-structured questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions to identify positive and challenging aspects of interactions with health professions students during an IPE workshop. A directed content analysis approach was used to assess written feedback (N = 29) from SFMs and FFs. Study findings highlight many similar themes between SFMs and FFs as well as minor differences regarding recognition of emotion and communication transitions. SFMs and FFs both agreed, however, that these are areas for further development by students to improve communication. Our study adds insight into SFMs' and FFs' feedback immediately after an IPE workshop.

Innovative Approaches to Teaching Dyslipidemia Management in a Required Pharmacy Therapeutics Sequence.

Objective. To describe a novel design on teaching dyslipidemia management that would help students compare and apply past and current clinical recommendations using a variety of new mechanisms. Methods. Didactic time consisted of three sections: lecture; faculty-led panel discussion; and interactive, progressive, student-driven patient case. The accompanying case studies course involved varying interactive student activities, including literature review, adverse event reporting, and immediate feedback assessment tools. Results. Students performed well on audience response questions, dyslipidemia examination questions, and in-class case studies activities. Subjective student and faculty feedback were positive for the entire innovation. Conclusion. The redesigned dyslipidemia module gives students exposure to overall management of this disease state through several innovative approaches that can be repeated in other courses to enhance learning.

A pilot IPE workshop integrating OT, pharmacy, PT, and PA programs.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of an interprofessional education (IPE) experience. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: The IPE experience included 53 student learners from occupational therapy, pharmacy, physical therapy, and physician assistant programs at the University of the Sciences (USciences). This experience used an icebreaker activity and a stroke case-based activity as the activities within the workshop. The core faculty utilized the jigsaw technique to increase student confidence with uni-profession and interprofessional discussions of the patient case. Learners were asked to evaluate their perceptions of the IPE learning experience. FINDINGS: Results from a summative quality improvement evaluation indicated that learners had positive perceptions of this curricular innovation. DISCUSSION: This pilot IPE workshop illustrates the possibilities for collaboration among health professional programs at USciences, a private health sciences university without an affiliated medical center. SUMMARY: Discussion of the process to create, implement, and evaluate this pilot IPE activity is imperative due to increased expectations within professional accrediting guidelines in regards to IPE.

Predictors of Hemoglobin A1c Goal Attainment in Patients Treated With Insulin at a VA Pharmacist-Managed Insulin Clinic.

Showing up to appointments and adherence to treatment recommendations correlated with glycemic goal attainment for patients.

Role of novel and emerging oral anticoagulants for secondary prevention of acute coronary syndromes.

Dual antiplatelet therapy has become a mainstay of long-term management of patients after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Mortality for these patients remains high despite current evidence-based treatment strategies. The coagulation cascade plays a role in the pathophysiology of ACS, and trials with warfarin in combination with dual antiplatelet therapy have found decreased rates of ischemic events at the expense of increased bleeding risk. Novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) in the direct factor Xa (FXa) inhibitor and direct thrombin inhibitor (DTI) categories have been evaluated in combination with standard post-ACS therapy. Rivaroxaban, a FXa inhibitor, reduced the rates of ischemic events but increased major bleeding rates. Apixaban did not decrease the rates of ischemic events and also increased major bleeding rates. Other FXa inhibitors have not been studied in the long-term management of ACS (e.g., otamixaban), are not currently being studied in ongoing phase III trials (e.g., TAK-442), or have been discontinued by the manufacturer (e.g., darexaban). The DTI dabigatran had a 2- to 4-fold increased risk of major bleeding with unclear benefit for reducing ischemic events. The factor IXa inhibitor pegnivacogin is an RNA-based aptamer that has been studied in patients undergoing cardiac catheterization but has not been studied for long-term post-ACS management. The European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Thrombosis recommends the use of newer antiplatelet agents over addition of NOACs. Additional guidelines are available to guide management in patients requiring triple antithrombotic therapy but do not provide definitive recommendations on NOACs. Many questions remain about the place of NOACs for long-term post-ACS management. Recent trials have evaluated double versus triple antithrombotic therapy to balance efficacy and bleeding risk, but they did not include NOACs. It also remains unclear if NOACs hold a place in post-ACS therapy in the era of more potent antiplatelet agents such as prasugrel and ticagrelor.