Search

Background: Most hospitalized patients experience Drug Therapy-Related Problems (DTRPs) resulting in morbidity, mortality, and an increase in the cost of treatment. DTRPs are an important issue and a serious yet preventable problem. Objective: To identify DTRPs in the department of critical care medicine of a tertiary care center in Nepal. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out at the department of critical care medicine in a tertiary care hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal from August to November 2021. All the patients admitted to ICU/ high care unit (HCU) for more than 48 hours during the study period were recruited in this study. Two clinical pharmacists visited the ICU/ HCU daily to identify any drug therapy-related problems. The Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe (PCNE) Classification system version 9.1 was referred for the classification of identified DTRPs. Descriptive statistics were applied for demographic variables. The Chi-square test was used for categorical variables. Pearson correlation was used to study the relationship between patient variables and the number and types of DTRPs. Results: DTRPs were identified in 74.2% (n=89) of patients. More than one DTRP was identified in 38.5% of patients. The identified DTRPs were primarily classified into two sections: Problems and Causes. A total of 106 problems were identified among which unnecessary drug treatment (40.5%, n=43) was the most common problem. For the causes: total of 137 were identified, out of which the drug and dose selection accounted for 44.5 and 16.8%, respectively. The average DTRP per patient was 1.5± 0.7. Antibiotics 30 (22%) and multivitamins, 10 (7%) were the maximal involved in DTRPs. More DTRPs were observed in male patients (n=60, 80%). The association between dose selection and gender was significant. Drug selection issues were observed more in patients prescribed multiple drugs and with a shorter hospital stay. Conclusion: Most DTRPs identified in the study were those tha

Background: Pharmacists involvement in disaster management has been acknowledged in the literature for their involvement in various clinical and non-clinical services. Future pharmacists are expected to be skill full in handling medicine disasters. This study aimed at investigating the knowledge, attitude, and readiness of pharmacy students to contribute to disasters in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Methods: A quantitative, descriptive, crosssectional study was conducted in two pharmacy colleges in the UAE using a pre-validated electronic questionnaire. Data were collected using simple random sampling from February 2021 to November 2021. The questionnaire consisted of five sections: demographic information, knowledge, attitude, and readiness to practice with perceived barriers. The Likert data were not normally distributed (Shapiro-Wilk test, p<0.05) and hence analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test at alpha=0.05. Results: A total of 258 pharmacy students were surveyed. The majority were fourthyear students (51.2%, n = 132) with a mean (SD) age of 20.46 [2.35] years. The average score for total knowledge was 155.3 (60.2%), with no statistical differences between groups. The median interquartile range (IQR) scores for total attitude, total readiness to practice, and barriers to disaster medicine were 4. Conclusions: Students exhibited varying levels of knowledge and expressed a positive attitude and willingness to practice disaster medicine. Inclusion of various educational modules in pharmacy curricula could help to better prepare students for the practice of disaster medicine.

Haya Yasin,1,2 Subish Palaian,3,4 Pathiyil Ravi Shankar,5 Sridevi Nallamilli6 1Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates; 2Discipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia; 3Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates; 4Center of Medical and Bio-Allied Health Sciences Research, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates; 5IMU Centre for Education, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 6Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medical Sciences, Bharatpur, Bagmati Province, NepalCorrespondence: Haya Yasin, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates, Tel +971557176919, Email Haya.yasin@gmail.com Subish Palaian, Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates, Tel +971551322957, Email subishpalaian@gmail.comIntroduction: Inter-Professional Education (IPE) is an educational engagement between students from two or more professions possibly leading to better collaboration among them in the future workplace. Several organizations have advocated, developed, and updated guidelines for IPE.Objective: This study was aimed at assessing the medical, dental, and pharmacy students’ readiness toward interprofessional education (IPE), and to identify the association between readiness and the demographic profile of students in a university in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based exploratory study involving 215 medical, dental, and pharmacy students at Ajman University, UAE, using convenience sampling. The survey questionnaire (Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale, RIPLS) had a total of 19 statements. The first 9 items were

Nisha Jha,1 Subish Palaian,2,3 Pathiyil Ravi Shankar,4 Sijan Poudyal5 1Department of Pharmacology, KIST Medical College, Lalitpur, Bagmati, Nepal; 2Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates; 3Center of Medical and Bio-Allied Health Sciences Research, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates; 4IMU Centre for Education, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 5Department of Community Dentistry, KIST Medical College, Lalitpur, Bagmati, NepalCorrespondence: Nisha Jha, Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, KIST Medical College, Imadol, Lalitpur, Bagmati, Nepal, Tel +977 9841 602 808, Email nishajha32@gmail.com Subish Palaian, Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates, Email subishpalaian@gmail.comIntroduction: Health professional education curricula in Nepal do not include interprofessional education (IPE). Though a previous study conducted in Nepal identified positive attitudes among medical and nursing students, so far there are no studies assessing the health professional students’ readiness toward IPE. The aim of the study was to assess the readiness for IPE among medical and dental students.Methods: The present cross-sectional study explored the readiness of conveniently selected first-year medical and dental students towards IPE and compared readiness among subgroups of respondents. The readiness was assessed through an online survey using the standard Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) during June 2021. The nineteen questions in RIPLS were categorized under four domains: teamwork and collaboration (items 1– 9), negative professional identity (items 10– 12), positive professional identity (items 13– 16), and roles and responsibilities (items 17– 19). The individual statements were scored and assessed as per the study objectives. The scores were

Muaed Alomar, Subish Palaian, Sawsan Shanableh Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab EmiratesCorrespondence: Subish PalaianDepartment of Clinical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab EmiratesTel +971 55 1322957Email subishpalaian@gmail.comBackground: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused huge disruptions worldwide affecting most people including university students. The impact of the pandemic lockdown on pharmacy students’ stress levels and quality of life (QoL) is not well studied. This study assessed the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on perceived stress levels and QoL among final-year undergraduate pharmacy students at Ajman University, United Arab Emirates (UAE).Methods: A cross-sectional electronic survey was conducted among final-year Bachelor of Pharmacy students at Ajman University during the COVID-19 lockdown period. The perceived stress scale and World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument (WHOQOL-BREF) were administered through Google Forms. The filled responses were exported to IBM SPSS statistics, Version 26, scored as per the standard scoring procedures, and analyzed to answer the study objectives. Since the data were not distributed normally (p=0.000, Kolmogorov–Smirnov test), non-parametric tests (Mann–Whitney test and Kruskal–Wallis test) were performed to compare the median (IQR) scores with demographic parameters at an alpha value of 0.05.Results: Of the eligible 94 students, 81 (male=16, 19.8%, female = 65, 80.2%) responded. The perceived stress level due to COVID-19 among the participants of a score of 24 suggests that the students suffered a “moderate” level of stress with no statistical significance between genders regardless of the place of residence in the seven Emirates (p=0.371) of the UAE. During the previous month of conducting the survey, 40.7% (n=33) of the respondents “very o

Sabita Paudel,1 Subish Palaian,2,3 Pathiyil Ravi Shankar,4 Nuwadatta Subedi5 1Department of Pharmacology, Gandaki Medical College, Pokhara, Gandaki, Nepal; 2Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates; 3Center of Medical and Bio-Allied Health Sciences Research, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates; 4IMU Center for Education, International Medical University, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 5Department of Forensic Medicine, Gandaki Medical College, Pokhara, Gandaki, NepalCorrespondence: Sabita PaudelGandaki Medical College, Rithepani, Pokhara, Gandaki, NepalTel +977 61 538595, 550253, 534657Fax +977 61 550254Email drsabitapaudel@gmail.comPurpose: The study was conducted to explore the perception of healthcare workers and staff towards the risk of COVID-19 vaccination and to study vaccine hesitancy amongst them.Methods: A total of 266 healthcare workers working in a medical college in Nepal were studied using a questionnaire consisting of three sections: demographics, experiences and perception of COVID-19, and COVID-19 vaccine safety. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 26. The total perception score was calculated by noting respondent’s agreement with a set of eleven statements using a Likert-type scale. Non-parametric tests (Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis) were used for analysis (p< 0.05).Results: Altogether, 13.9% of respondents had been diagnosed COVID-19 positive prior to the survey. Many considered themselves to be at increased risk of contracting COVID-19. Only over one third (38.3%) were willing to be vaccinated. The most common reason for refusal/hesitancy was concern about vaccine safety. The median (interquartile range) total perception score was 36 (4) (maximum possible score=55). The score was significantly higher among those who had been diagnosed COVID positive, those who perceived the pandemic as being moderate or sev