postgraduate pharmacy student perceptions and expectations of academic feedback
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e45Abstracts / Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy 10 (2014) e1–e64
Physicians’ Opinions on Collaboration with Pharmacistsin the United Arab EmiratesS. Hasan1, D.C.M. Kong2, K. Stewart3, 1College of
Pharmacy, Sharjah University, Sharjah, United Arab
Emirates, 2Centre for Medicine Use and Safety, Monash
University (Parkville Campus), Parkville, Victoria 3052,
Australia, 3Centre for Medicine Use and Safety, Monash
University (Parkville Campus), Parkville, Victoria 3052,
Australia
Interdisciplinary care has been shown to improve patient
outcomes. Physicians’ views on collaboration with
pharmacists give an insight into what contributes to a
well-functioning team. Little is known about these views
from developing countries and none from the UAE. The
purpose of this study was to investigate physicians’
opinions on collaborative relationships with community
pharmacists in the UAE.
Methods: Semi-structured individual interviews and
focus groups were conducted on a purposive sample of
physicians between October 2011 and February 2012.
An interview guide containing questions about possible
collaborations between pharmacists and physicians was
developed. Framework analysis was used to generate
themes. Ethical approval was obtained from the relevant
institutional review boards.
Results: A total of 53 physicians participated. Three
themes emerged: benefits, facilitators and barriers to
collaboration. Benefits included having the pharmacist
as an immediate source of information and as an extra
safety check within the system (leading to medication
error prevention) and having the pharmacist assist
patients to manage their medications; improving adher-
ence, coping with side effects and reduction of drug
waste. Facilitators included role definition of profes-
sionals, pharmacists’ access to patient records, need for
communication and trust building. Barriers included
pharmacists’ competence, territorial boundaries, patient
acceptance and administrative and technical matters.
Conclusions: This study, for the first time, provided vital
information that will help to inform the future develop-
ment of pharmacist-physician collaboration in the UAE
and other countries with similar healthcare systems.
Future work should focus on pharmacists’ perspectives
of collaboration with physicians and future initiatives
they are ready to explore to enhance collaboration.
Population, health and educational factors affectingantibiotic use: an observational study in PortugalA. Teixeira Rodrigues1,2, F. Roque1,3,4, S. Soares1, A.
Figueiras5,6, M.T. Herdeiro1,7,8, 1Center for Cell Biology,
University of Aveiro (CBC/UA), Portugal, 2Faculty of
Pharmacy, University of Coimbra (FFUC), Portugal,3Research Unit for Inland Development, Polytechnic
Institute of Guarda (UDI/IPG), Portugal, 4University of
Beira Interior (UBI),Portugal, 5University of Santiago de
Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain,6Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology &
Public Health (CIBER en Epidemiologıa y Salud Publica
- CIBERESP), Spain, 7Center for Health Technology &
Information Systems Research (CINTESIS/FMUP),
Portugal, 8CESPU-IPSN, Portugal
Considering that, in Portugal, antibiotic use varies a lot
between regions, revealing that this is a very complex
problem affected by several factors, our aim was to
assess how social, health, geographic and educational
factors affect antibiotic use.
Methods: Outpatient antibiotic consumption data (ATC:
J01) of the Centre Region Health of Portugal, provided
by IMS Health Portugal, was analyzed as DID –
Defined Daily Doses per 1000 inhabitants per day. We
analyzed the influence of education and learning in-
dicators, of health indicators and population indicators,
published in Statistics Portugal website – Instituto
Nacional de Estatıstica, www.ine.pt, in the antibiotic
consumption rates.
Results: Social, health, geographic and educational
indicators reveals the heterogeneity of Portugal in this
context. The healthcare system varies a lot from region
to region in several statistical indicators, namely in terms
of the number of health professionals per inhabitant or
academic qualifications of the population. The statistical
analysis revealed that several factors could influence
antibiotic consumption rates in Portugal, which could
help to explain the differences found between munici-
palities and regions. Results revealed statistical signifi-
cant relations between antibiotic consumption and
education indicators, as illiteracy rate, health indicators,
as performance and infra-structures health service char-
acteristics, and population indicators, as mean age.
Conclusions: Antibiotic use is a very complex process
that demands the evaluation of many factors which can
be affecting it. Our results revealed that to improve
antibiotic use, aiming to tackle the increasing rates of
antimicrobial resistances, healthcare providers and
health authorities must consider the influence of social,
geographic, economic, health and clinical factors.
Postgraduate pharmacy student perceptions andexpectations of academic feedbackC.S. Schneider, Faculty of Pharmacy, The University of
Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Academic feedback is commonly a poorly rated aspect
of the undergraduate student experience in the UK.
There is however little specific information on the
perceptions of postgraduate students regarding aca-
demic feedback. This study aimed to gather the percep-
tions of postgraduate pharmacy students regarding
feedback.
Methods: A previously developed questionnaire by
Beaumont and colleagues (2008) was delivered face-to-
face to 35 students at a UK university in May 2013 at the
end of their graduate diploma for overseas pharmacists.
The data was analysed descriptively for the quantitative
e46 Abstracts / Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy 10 (2014) e1–e64
component of the questionnaire and the qualitative data
was thematically analysed. Ethical approval was ob-
tained from the institution’s educational research ethics
committee.
Results: An overall response rate of 89% (N¼31) was
achieved for the quantitative section of the question-
naire. The open-ended section was completed by 29%
(N¼10) of the sample. The majority of respondents were
satisfied with their previous and current feedback
experiences, which differs to research measuring under-
graduate student satisfaction. However, some students
(38%) were often unclear what constituted good perfor-
mance after feedback was provided. A minority of
students (48%) agreed that peer feedback was useful.
Respondents described ideal feedback as detailed, indi-
vidual, timely and provided with grades in both written
and verbal formats.
Conclusions: Postgraduate pharmacy students have a
more positive opinion of their experience of feedback
than undergraduates. The feedback process may be
improved by including model answers alongside individ-
ual feedback. Feedback via multimedia may address
student preferences for multiple types of feedback
provision.
Reference:
Beaumont, C., O’Doherty, M. & Shannon, L. 2008.
Staff and student perceptions of feedback quality in the
context of widening participation. Higher Education.
Potentially Inappropriate Prescribing in Older PeopleDischarged to Residential Aged Care FacilitiesA. Poudel1, N.M. Peel2, L. Nissen1,3,4, C. Mitchell4, L.C.
Gray2, R.E. Hubbard2, 1School of Pharmacy, University
of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 2Centre for
Research in Geriatrics Medicine, The University of
Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 3School of
Clinical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology,
Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 4Centre for Safe and Effective
Prescribing, The University of Queensland, Brisbane,
QLD, Australia
The frequency of prescribing potentially inappropriate
medications (PIMs) in older patients remains high
despite evidence of adverse outcomes from their use.
This study aims to identify the prevalence and nature of
PIMs at admission to acute care and at discharge to
residential aged care facilities (RACFs) using the
recently updated Beers’ Criteria. We also aim to identify
if polypharmacy, age, gender and the frailty status of
patients are independent risk factors for receiving a
PIM.
Methods: This was a retrospective study of 206 patients
discharged to RACFs from acute care. All patients were
aged at least 70 years and were admitted between July
2005 and May 2010; their admission and discharge
medications were evaluated. Frailty status was measured
using a Frailty Index (FI) derived from the interRAI AC
assessment instrument.
Results: Mean patient age was 84.8 � 6.7 years; the
majority (57%) were older than 85 years and were frail.
Patients were prescribed a mean of 7.2 regular medica-
tions at admission and 8.1 on discharge. At least one
PIM was identified in 112 (54.4%) patients on admission
and 102 (49.5%) patients on discharge. Of all medica-
tions prescribed at admission (1728), 10.8% were PIMs
and at discharge of 1759 medications, 9.6% were PIMs.
Out of total 187 PIMs on admission, 56 (30%) were
stopped and 131 were continued; 32 new PIMs were
introduced. Commonly prescribed PIMs were central
nervous system, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal
drugs and analgesics. Frailty status was the only signif-
icant predictor of PIMs at both admission and discharge
(p ¼ 0.016).
Conclusions: A high prevalence of unnecessary drug use
was observed in frail older patients on admission to
acute care hospitals and on discharge to RACFs. The
only association with PIM use was the frailty status of
patients. Further studies are needed to further evaluate
this association.
Prescribing Patterns and Use of Pain Medications inWomen Following Orthopedic Surgical ProceduresL. Ochs1, G. Cattabriga2, C. Tu1, M.L. Pagnucco1, N.
Shah3, J. Bolinaga3, K. Endacot3, J. Kim3, V. Phan3,1Assistant Professor, University of New England (UNE),
College of Pharmacy, Portland, ME, 2Director,
Analytics, Center for Community and Public Health,
UNE, Portland, ME, 3Pharmacy Student, UNE, College
of Pharmacy, Portland, ME
For many common orthopedic surgical procedures,
post-operative pain is routinely managed by dispensing
a predetermined supply of opioids. Given the rapid
growth of these surgical procedures, this may result in
a large number of opioids entering the community
without proper instructions for use. For many patients
this may represent their first experience with opioids.
The risks of misuse, addiction and diversion associated
with opioid use for acute pain are not well described
nor understood. Gender differences are explored in
opioid prescribing patterns following total knee arthro-
plasty (TKA).
Methods: Maine’s All Payers Claims Data, a compre-
hensive medical and pharmacy claims database, was
examined. A retrospective cohort study design was used,
which included women who were opioid naıve post-
TKA from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2010.
Women, who underwent surgery 12 months prior to
TKA, with a previous cancer diagnosis or prescribed
methadone, were excluded. The number of pills pre-
scribed per initial prescription and for the following year
post-TKA was examined.
Results: Overall, 873 women underwent TKA with the
number of procedures nearly doubling between 2006 and
2010. Within the same time period, the mean number of
opioid tablets dispensed per initial prescription increased