Pharmacy Technicians' Perception About Symptoms and Concerns of Older Patients Visiting Pharmacies: A Cross-Sectional Study

Symptoms of older orthopedic and rheumatic patients : A telephone survey about symptoms, symptom communication, treatment and further support after hospital discharge

BACKGROUND

In older multimorbid orthopedic and rheumatic patients, data on symptoms besides pain or reduced mobility are rarely published.

OBJECTIVE

We investigated patients' perspectives on their symptoms after hospital discharge.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Orthopedic and rheumatic patients aged over 70 years were asked via telephone interviews about (i) their symptoms, (ii) communication, (iii) treatment, and (iv) support.

RESULTS

(i) The 60 participants (35 women and 25 men) reported a median of 6 (min-max: 1-14) different symptoms, of which 86% (356 of 415) had existed before hospitalization, (ii) patients did not communicate 28% (117) of symptoms to either healthcare professionals, family or friends and (iii) 52 (87%) patients desired improvement. Of the 280 most impairing symptoms, 19% (52) were not treated at all. (iv) Almost all patients (59; 98%) considered it easy to obtain support.

CONCLUSION

Remarkably, many symptoms were not communicated or treated despite the patients having been hospitalized.

Developing, Implementing, and Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Sleep Health Educational Module for Pharmacy Students

OBJECTIVE

Pharmacists need sleep health knowledge and management skills to deliver evidence-based treatments to patients with sleep disorders/disturbances. This study aimed to develop, implement, and evaluate a pedagogically informed, interactive sleep health educational module for pharmacy students.

METHODS

An educational module utilizing a flipped classroom approach, with an interactive lecture, student self-reflection of sleep patterns, case discussions, and pharmacist-patient role-play scenarios, was designed and implemented. A questionnaire assessing pre/post-module changes in knowledge about and attitudes toward sleep health as well as post-module learning satisfaction, was administered to all participating second-year pharmacy students at an Australian university.

RESULTS

Mean total knowledge scores for participating students (n = 125, 70.4% female) improved significantly, from a baseline of 11.1 ± 3.8 to 17.1 ± 3.5 post-module (range: 0-25). Attitudes toward sleep health were moderately high at baseline (28.8 ± 3.2) and improved marginally post-module (29.4 ± 3.8) (range: 10-50); however, this increase was insignificant. Participants expressed high satisfaction with the module through subjective feedback, and post-module reflective statements indicated plans for changing sleep behaviors.

CONCLUSION

The results of this study have shown that a targeted educational module for pharmacy students improved sleep health knowledge. It appeared that positive attitudes toward sleep health were not significantly increased which may reflect a ceiling effect. Future modules should focus on attitudinal aspects of positive sleep health to enhance pharmacists' skills in providing clinically related sleep health care to patients with sleep disturbance.

Hospital crowdedness evaluation and in-hospital resource allocation based on image recognition technology

How to allocate the existing medical resources reasonably, alleviate hospital congestion and improve the patient experience are problems faced by all hospitals. At present, the combination of artificial intelligence and the medical field is mainly in the field of disease diagnosis, but lacks successful application in medical management. We distinguish each area of the emergency department by the division of medical links. In the spatial dimension, in this study, the waitlist number in real-time is got by processing videos using image recognition via a convolutional neural network. The congestion rate based on psychology and architecture is defined for measuring crowdedness. In the time dimension, diagnosis time and time-consuming after diagnosis are calculated from visit records. Factors related to congestion are analyzed. A total of 4717 visit records from the emergency department and 1130 videos from five areas are collected in the study. Of these, the waiting list of the pediatric waiting area is the largest, including 10,436 (person-time) people, and its average congestion rate is 2.75, which is the highest in all areas. The utilization rate of pharmacy is low, with an average of only 3.8 people using it at the one time. Its average congestion rate is only 0.16, and there is obvious space waste. It has been found that the length of diagnosis time and the length of time after diagnosis are related to age, the number of diagnoses and disease type. The most common disease type comes from respiratory problems, accounting for 54.3%. This emergency department has congestion and waste of medical resources. People can use artificial intelligence to investigate the congestion in hospitals effectively. Using artificial intelligence methods and traditional statistics methods can lead to better research on healthcare resource allocation issues in hospitals.

Using normalisation process theory to understand implementation of integrated multi-sector pre-registration trainee pharmacy technician training

BACKGROUND

The pre-registration trainee pharmacy technician (PTPT) integrated training programme is a workforce intervention designed to train PTPTs in multiple sectors. The programme recruited 35 PTPTs to 2-year training posts which involved employment in one sector, and a minimum of 12 weeks' work-based training in ≥2 further settings each year.

AIM

To identify facilitating and inhibiting factors to implementation of the PTPT integrated training programme and make recommendations on ways to embed and maintain PTPT integrated training in routine practice.

METHODS

Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) constructs were used as a framework for analysis. Semi-structured interviews (14 PTPTs, 15 supervisors) explored PTPTs' learning and practice experiences over their 2-year training. A survey explored training outcomes (confidence and preparedness to practise) of integrated (n = 31) and single sector PTPTs (n = 39).

RESULTS

Whilst some understood the intervention well, others had differing understandings of its purpose and potential benefits (coherence). Educational and practice supervisors acknowledged the importance of regular communication but reported difficulties implementing this due to time constraints (cognitive participation). PTPTs benefitted from having an educational supervisor oversee learning and progress over 2-years, and a practice supervisor for their day-to-day learning. PTPTs' experiences of supervision were inconsistent due to variation in supervisors' availability, knowledge, experience, and level of support (collective action). Participants perceived the PTPT integrated training as supporting development of a flexible pharmacy technician workforce able to work across sectors. The survey found that integrated PTPTs felt significantly more prepared than single-sector PTPTs to work in different settings (reflective monitoring).

CONCLUSIONS

PTPTs on the programme had better ability to work in different sectors. Improving implementation requires clear understanding of the intervention's purpose by all stakeholders; clarity on supervisors' roles/contributions; and effective communication between supervisors to create effective learning opportunities. Findings can inform implementation of future multi-sector education and training globally.

Participation of pharmacy technicians in clinical and patient-centered care practices: A state-wide survey in Nigeria

BACKGROUND

Identifying the involvement of pharmacy technicians (PTs) in nonclinical and clinical duties will provide insight for improved pharmaceutical services.

OBJECTIVES

This study assessed the involvement of PTs in nonclinical tasks, patient-centered services, and more specialized patient care services and the difference in practice between hospital and community PTs.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a 5-point Likert scale, and an analysis of data was performed using IBM SPSS version 21.0 (IBM). Descriptive statistics was done, and P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The study was conducted in community and hospital pharmacies in Ogun State, Nigeria, among 100 PTs. Outcome measures were the involvement of PTs in clinical roles and other pharmaceutical care practices.

RESULTS

A total of 73 (73.0%) participated in the study, 45 (61.6%) and 28 (38.4%) practiced in hospital and community pharmacies, respectively. From the 11 listed nonclinical activities, only stocking of medications 61 (83.6%) and processing clients' or patient's charges 48 (65.8%) were often or very often performed. More than half of the participants often performed each of all 7 listed patient-centered activities, particularly empathy and confidentiality 62 (84.9%), providing information and referrals to patients or clients 56 (76.7%), and identifying patients or clients for counseling 51 (69.9%), respectively. No statistically significant difference was observed between the practice areas (P > 0.05). Only 2 of the 11 listed specialized clinical activities were performed by more than half of the respondents: screening prescriptions for completeness and authenticity 43 (58.9%) and alerting the pharmacist of drug therapy problems 46 (63.0%). Differences in the practice of specialized tasks was statistically significant for consultations (P = 0.002) and resolution of clinical conflict (P = 0.040) between the practice areas.

CONCLUSION

Study participants were less frequently involved in nonclinical activities but often involved in clinical activities. They also participated in specialized clinical tasks at lesser frequencies. Differences were observed between the practice areas in performance of nonclinical and specialized activities. Strategies to fill in the observed gaps should be explored for improved practice.