Opioid prescription underfilling among retail pharmacies

Consensus recommendations from the strategic planning summit for pain and palliative care pharmacy practice

Pain and symptoms related to palliative care (pain and palliative care [PPC]) are often undertreated. This is largely owing to the complexity in the provision of care and the potential discrepancy in education among the various health care professionals required to deliver care. Pharmacists are frequently involved in the care of PPC patients, although pharmacy education currently does not offer or require a strong curriculum commitment to this area of practice. The Strategic Planning Summit for the Advancement of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacy was convened to address opportunities to improve the education of pharmacists and pharmacy students on PPC. Six working groups were charged with objectives to address barriers and opportunities in the areas of student and professional assessment, model curricula, postgraduate training, professional education, and credentialing. Consensus was reached among the working groups and presented to the Summit Advisory Board for adoption. These recommendations will provide guidance on improving the care provided to PPC patients by pharmacists through integrating education at all points along the professional education continuum.

A mock "on-call" experience for pharmacy students in a pain and palliative care elective

A pain and palliative care pharmacotherapy elective with a culminating experience requiring students to be "on-call," make a pharmacotherapy or monitoring decision in a short, specified period of time, and return the call of the health care professional (HCP) with an appropriate answer is described. The changing roles of pharmacists in pain management and end- of-life care are addressed. The structure of the experience and results from the first 74 students to complete it are discussed.