Class of 2009 Abstract / OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to determine if a pharmacist run diabetes management clinic assists patients in the successful management of type 1 or type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Patients must have been enrolled and participated in at least one visit to the pharmacist run diabetes management program at North Country Health Care Clinic (“NCHCC”). A retrospective chart review was completed to determine patient outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 82 charts were reviewed and 49 patients were qualified for the study. A total of 19 men (mean age 42.1; SD 12.1) and 30 females (mean age 55.0; SD 14.4) completed at least one visit to the pharmacist run diabetes management program. HbA1c levels were significantly lower after one or more visits to the pharmacist run diabetes clinic (p=<0.001) for all patients. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who participate in the pharmacist run diabetes management clinic appear to successfully lower HbA1c values after at least one visit to the program.

The Southern Arizona Veterans Affairs Health Care System (SAVAHCS) Chronic Pain Rehabilitation Clinic (CPRC) is an interdisciplinary pain management team. The team consists of physicians, a psychologist, a kinesiotherapist, a nurse and a pharmacist, who work together, to manage pain. In order to monitor and improve the effectiveness of treatment at SAVAHCS CPRC, the team created a pain outcomes measure collection program. A pilot study of the pain outcomes data collection process was conducted. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the data collection procedure and identify areas for improvement. The program planned to collect outcomes data at a new patient education/orientation class using an intake questionnaire. After three months, a follow-up questionnaire was to be mailed to the patient. The patient would then return the questionnaire, by mail, to the clinic where responses would be entered into an electronic database. Eight items in the data collection process were recognized as needing improvement. Three of the most important items follow. (1) Mailing out questionnaires had a low response rate, which could be solved by administering the intake questionnaire during the pharmacist medication evaluation, and the follow-up questionnaire, 6 months later, during a provider appointment. (2) The investigational review board approval process took longer than anticipated but could be corrected through enforcement of a submission time line. (3) Data entry required a large amount of time but could be rectified through the use of volunteers. Overall, the data collection program could gather outcome measures, but procedural adjustments need to occur.

Pain is one of the first symptoms that alert you to the various diseases. It affects and reduces the quality of patient?s life and their physical, mental and emotional abilities. It depends on man how feels the pain, how succumbs to it or how much affects him. But the pain cannot be clearly quantified. The medical staffs often underestimate patient´s intensity, character and process of pain. As a result, the patients are more reserved in relation to the medical staffs. Unfortunately, there is an increase of dissatisfaction which is in conflict with the progress of their treatment. And there should be the nurses for contact with patients when they want it. Especially the nurses are the mediator between the patient and the doctor; thereby they perform the important roles in the health care centres. On the other hand, the patient care is very difficult. Therefore it was important to determine the quantity of nurse´s work in the pain management institutions, particularly the pain management clinics, an affect their psyche, an attitude to patients, their view of the pain management institutions, including information about the pain management clinics processing, the methods and the provided care. There were determined six aims: to find out the most common diagnosis and methods of pain treatment in the pain management institutions, as well as how nurses perceive the patients and care for their mental status in the pain management clinics, the daily routines which the nurses recommend to the patients and finally find out information about the pain management institutions in the Czech Republic. Based on the aims there were determined six research questions. Firstly, what is the most common diagnosis in the pain management clinic? Secondly, what are the most common methods for pain treatment? Thirdly, how are successful the methods of pain treatment by nurses? Fourth, how nurses perceive the patients of pain treatment clinics? Fifthly, how nurses care for patient´s mental status in the pain treatment clinic? Sixthly, what daily routine nurses recommend to the patients with pain treatment? The results showed that patients have often the chronic back pain in the pain management clinics in Pardubice region. In addition, there are the post-traumatic conditions, the pain associated with shingles, the post-operative pain, the joint pain and the pain associated with cancer.