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Interprofessional learning is a key component of today’s health sciences education. Within a two-course series in dental pharmacology and therapeutics, a dental curriculum was revised to provide an interprofessional activity to expose dental students to a community pharmacy setting. The objectives of this activity were to augment students’ learning about drug laws and prescription writing, as well as to foster interprofessional relationships and collaboration between pharmacists and dentists. Dental students were scheduled for one-hour observations at community pharmacies on campus. Learning objectives to guide this activity focused on demonstrating community pharmacy operating procedures, identifying ways to minimize prescribing and dosing errors, and understanding how pharmacists can assist dentists in prescribing. Following the observation, students were required to submit a written assignment, which accounted for 14 percent of their course grade. All 119 dental students (100 percent) enrolled in the course for the summers of 2012 and 2013 completed the activity. The average grade on the written assignment was 96.2 out of 100. At the end of the course, students were asked to participate in an online course evaluation survey, for which response rates were 37 percent and 43 percent for 2012 and 2013, respectively. The students rated the pharmacy observation activity favorably on this course evaluation. The pharmacy observation activity provided a successful interprofessional component to the didactic pharmacy course and was well received by the dental students as well as the community pharmacists.

OBJECTIVE. To describe the development, implementation, and assessment of an introductory and an advanced pharmacy practice experience (IPPE and APPE) integrated within campus-based influenza clinics. DESIGN. The influenza clinics were designed to incorporate the learning objectives for the IPPE and APPE, and included preparatory sessions, online learning, and direct patient interactions tailored to the appropriate education level of the learner. ASSESSMENT. The clinics provided influenza vaccinations to 2,292 and 2,877 individuals in 2010 and 2011, respectively. The clinics allowed for experiential education of 39 students earning a total of 467 IPPE and APPE hours in 2010 and 58 students earning a total of 656 IPPE and APPE hours in 2011. Third-year students were assessed before and after completing the IPPE, and improvement was seen in knowledge and self-ratings of perceptions and attitudes toward administering immunizations. CONCLUSIONS. Integrating pharmacy practice experiences within campus-based influenza clinics was an effective way to provide students with direct patient care experience and preventive health services knowledge.

To determine the amount and type of feedback needed to improve pharmacy students' problem-solving skills using team-based learning (TBL) and a problem-solving rubric.A problem-solving rubric was developed to assess the ability of pharmacy students' to prioritize, organize, and defend the best and alternative options on TBL cases The study involved 3 groups of pharmacy students: second-year students in a cardiology class who received no feedback (control group), third-year students in an endocrinology class who received written feedback only, and third-year students in an endocrinology class who received written and verbal feedback. Students worked in groups on all TBL cases except the first and last one (beginning and end of course), which students completed independently as it served as a pretest and posttest.Significant improvements were seen in the ability of the third-year students who received verbal and written feedback to prioritize the information presented in the case and in their total score on the problem-solving rubric.Providing pharmacy students with written and verbal explanations may help them improve their problem-solving skills overall. During verbal feedback, faculty members can provide more examples of how to improve and can field questions if needed.

Background Limited clinical documentation is suggestive of a drug interaction between warfarin and diuretics. Objective To evaluate the effect on international normalized ratio (INR) when a daily oral diuretic is started or increased in patients on chronic stable warfarin therapy. Methods The medical records of all active patients of two hospital-based anticoagulation clinics were retrospectively reviewed to identify patients who were started on or received a dose increase of a daily oral diuretic while on stable warfarin therapy. The primary endpoint was the mean difference between an INR recorded within 30 days prior to the diuretic initiation (pre-INR) and an INR recorded within 30 days after diuretic initiation (post-INR). Results A total of 1254 patient charts were screened and a total of 123 patients met the study criteria. The mean difference in pre-INR and post-INR was 0.09 (95% CI -0.03 to 0.21, p = 0.12). Post-INR values were outside of the patient's therapeutic range in 39 patients (32%), but no major bleeding or thromboembolic events were reported. Conclusion Based on this retrospective study, diuretics did not result in a significant change in the INR in patients on stable warfarin therapy.

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.

To continue efforts of quality assurance following a 5-year curricular mapping and course peer review process, 18 topics ("streams") of knowledge, skills, and attitudes were assessed across the doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum.The curriculum committee merged the 18 topics into 9 streams. Nine ad hoc committees ("stream teams") of faculty members and preceptors evaluated the content, integration, and assessment for their assigned streams across the 4 professional years. Committees used a reporting tool and curriculum database to complete their reviews.After each team presented their findings and recommendations at a faculty retreat, the 45 faculty members were asked to list their top priorities for curriculum improvement. The 5 top priorities identified were: redefinition and clarification of program outcomes; improved coordination of streams across the curriculum; consistent repetition and assessment of math skills throughout the curriculum; focused nonprescription and self-care teaching into an individual course; and improved development of problem solving.This comprehensive assessment enabled the college to identify areas for curriculum improvement that were not readily apparent to the faculty from prior reviews of individual courses.

To integrate components of team-based learning (TBL) into a cardiovascular module to increase students' responsibility for their own learning and actively engage students across 2 campuses in patient cases.An existing cardiovascular course module was modified by replacing 8 hours of lectures with self-directed learning (SDL) assignments and transforming case discussion sessions using TBL methodologies. Case discussions were delivered using TBL methods to increase engagement of all students across both campuses while maintaining a low faculty-to-student ratio in the classrooms. Readiness assurance quizzes were performed with each SDL assignment and TBL case session.Student and faculty satisfaction improved with the addition of SDL assignments and TBL cases without adverse effects on grades in the wake of the 14% decrease in lecture time. Total faculty time required increased primarily in the first year because of development of course materials.A modified TBL format was successfully integrated into a lecture-based cardiovascular module, resulting in improved student and faculty satisfaction with the course and no adverse effect on student performance.

Although there is evidence to support implementing interprofessional education (IPE) in the health sciences, widespread implementation in health professions education is not yet a reality. Challenges include the diversity in location and settings of schools and colleges, ie, many are not located within an academic health center. Faculty members may not have the necessary skill set for teaching in an IPE environment. Certain topics or themes in a pharmacy curriculum may be more appropriate than others for teaching in an IPE setting. This paper offers solutions to teaching IPE in diverse settings, the construct for implementing a faculty development program for IPE, and suggested curricular topics with their associated learning objectives, potential teaching methods, and timelines for implementation.