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Scholarly activities are essential for enhancing the pharmacy profession, as well as for personal career development. New practitioner pharmacists in academic or community medical center settings may hesitate to incorporate research into their practice if they feel that they do not have the appropriate resources and guidance. While residency provides structured support for research endeavors, new pharmacists may still find research activities daunting to initiate on their own. Many factors should be considered, including strategies for incorporating research into current roles, collaboration efforts, professional opportunities, and timeline considerations, to help pharmacists effectively implement research early in their careers. This article provides new practitioners with a roadmap to navigate challenges and achieve success when integrating scholarly activities into their practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with substance use disorders are often encountered in an acute care setting and withdrawal management is important. Available literature reveals inadequate acute management of substance withdrawal due to lack of experience and knowledge of medications. Methods: A quality improvement project was implemented to improve hospital pharmacists' knowledge, application, and practice of inpatient opioid and alcohol withdrawal management through provision of didactic and case-based education and implementation of practice based prospective drug utilization review (PDUR). Pharmacists' knowledge of the management of alcohol and opioid withdrawal was assessed by a 10-item survey pre-and post-intervention. Results: Twenty-one pharmacists completed the education and pre- and post-surveys. Scores for the 21 pharmacists improved significantly, with pre- and post-intervention scores of 7.33 ± 1.98 and 8.86 ± 0.91, respectively (P =.0035). Most pharmacists completed their required PDUR submission, and several pharmacist interventions were made and accepted post-education. Pharmacists indicated that the education increased their confidence and enabled them to learn new information that could be directly applied to their pharmacy practice. Conclusion: Providing education and requiring a PDUR improved pharmacists' knowledge, application, and practice of inpatient opioid and alcohol withdrawal management. Re-education or expanded education may be warranted to further increase pharmacists' competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]