Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: The purpose of this study was to assess the attitudes, beliefs and knowledge of pharmacy students regarding geriatric care. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to first, second and third year pharmacy students to assess the impact of geriatric curriculum on students at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy. The primary grouping variable was whether or not students had previously taken a course focused on geriatrics. Main Results: A total of 193 pharmacy students completed the questionnaire which resulted in a response rate of 64.33%. There is no comparison group for the first year class as all students in this class had never taken a geriatric-focused course. Therefore, no tests for statistical significance could be performed for this class. Students in the second year class who have taken a geriatrics-focused course scored higher than those without course experience on all four of the attitude and beliefs questions (p = 0.104, p = 0.042, p = 0.045, p = 0.025). The same held true for the third year class (p = 0.006, p <0.001, p = 0.050, p = 0.653). Both classes showed a statistically significant increase in knowledge of geriatric care in those students who have previously taken a geriatrics-focused course (p = 0.032 for second years, p = 0.022 for third years). Conclusions: This study showed that pharmacy students at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy who have previously taken a geriatrics-focused course have more positive attitudes and beliefs regarding geriatric care as well as a stronger knowledge base regarding geriatrics. With an aging population, it is important that pharmacists be knowledgeable and capable of caring for geriatric patients. Thus, we recommend that all pharmacy schools include a geriatrics-focused course as part of the standard curriculum for Pharm D. candidates.

Class of 2012 abstract / Specific Aims: To determine pharmacy students' knowledge and attitudes towards herbal medicine, and to identify factors that have the most influence on herbal knowledge. Subjects: Students in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th years of the Doctor of Pharmacy program at the University of Arizona. Methods: Questionnaires administered during regularly scheduled classes and email collected knowledge, attitudes, and demographic data. This included age, gender, highest level of education, completion of herbal medication/OTC course, practice site, availability of herbals and herbal information at the practice site, and use of herbal medication in a family member. Main Results: Questionnaires were completed by 270 out of the 395 students enrolled in pharmacy school. An average of 4.8 ± 3.02 out of the 14 questions (34%) were answered correctly on the knowledge section. Pharmacy students agreed that providing information about herbal medication is a pharmacist's professional responsibility and that an elective course on herbal medications would be useful (mean = 3.31 ± 1.52 and 3.73 ± 1.32 respectively on a scale of 0-5 where 5 = strongly agree and 0 = do not agree). Pharmacy school year and completion of an herbal/OTC course were the largest contributing factors to higher scores on the knowledge portion. Conclusions: With an average knowledge score of less than 50% and average rating of less than 2.5 out of 5, pharmacy students have a weak understanding and a low confidence level in recommending and counseling patients on herbal medications. Requiring a course that includes herbal medications may be beneficial.

Class of 2014 Abstract / Specific Aims: To identify the factors that affects the potency of pharmacists’ interventions. Methods: Literature search was based on keywords and Mesh terms in eight different databases. The inclusion criteria were evidence of pharmacist involvement in direct patient care, patient-related therapeutic outcomes, studies done in the United States, randomized controlled trials, studies with reported number of subjects in the intervention and control group and reported means and standard deviations of therapeutic outcomes. For the study selection and data extraction, two students independently reviewed each study and met to resolve any discrepancies. In addition, each study was assigned a potency score using the potency tool. Data extraction included: pharmacists’ interventions (technical, behavioral, educational, and affective), patient characteristics, and therapeutic outcomes. The standardized mean difference (SMD) was calculated; studies with SMD ≥ -0.3 formed the low impact group (controls) and studies with SMD  -0.8 formed the high impact group (cases). Main Results: The included randomized control trials (N=11) were conducted in a variety of settings from ambulatory clinics to hospital. The high impact group was favored in the educational category (ES=0.88, p=0.18) while the low impact group was favored in the behavioral category (ES=-0.19, p=0.81). In general, there was a difference between the high impact and low impact (ES=0.82, p=0.37) groups with the high impact group being favored. Conclusion: There is a difference between the low impact and high impact groups, but it is unclear which pharmacist interventions have a significant impact on therapeutic outcomes.

Class of 2015 Abstact / Objectives: The purpose of this study was to describe differences in pharmacists' children and personal skin cancer prevention strategies, clinical outcomes, knowledge and to determine if there were differences based on attending pharmacy school in Arizona or other states. The skin cancer prevention behaviours of pharmacists were also compared to the general public. Methods: Pharmacists registered and living in Arizona with an email address with the State Board of Pharmacy were eligible for the study. A questionnaire was developed based on questions from the NHIS survey. The questionnaire was administered by using an electronic, on-line survey form. Results: Graduates of non-Arizona schools were significantly more likely to have completed a CE course on skin cancer prevention than the Arizona group (16% vs. 6%). Both groups were not significantly different in gender and work sites. The knowledge of pharmacists in both groups were very similar (p > 0.1) except for knowledge of photosensitivity for certain drug classes (p = 0.043).Pharmacists were most knowledgeable on risk factors for melanoma (97%) Pharmacists were least knowledgeable on when sunscreen should be applied (20%) responded correctly and the minimum age for using sunscreen in children (26%) responded correctly. Pharmacists were more than twice as likely to use sunscreen as the general population (72% vs. 31%). Conclusions: Pharmacist graduates of non-Arizona schools (Non-Arizona group) used a similar number of skin cancer prevention strategies as graduates of Arizona schools (Arizona group). Sun protective measures utilized by parents for their children were superior to parents' own self-care sun protection measures.

Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: To determine the attitudes of medical students towards pharmacists and the roles they play on the healthcare team and how these views change after attending an inter-professional workshop with other University of Arizona healthcare students. Methods: Questionnaires administered during a regularly scheduled class collected rating of teamwork and collaboration, roles for pharmacists in health care settings, and medical student’s expectations of the pharmacist when they are practicing physicians. Previous inter-professional workshop experience, negative experience with a pharmacist, age and sex was also collected. Main Results: Medical students’ attitudes regarding the roles of pharmacist in health care settings became more positive after attending the IPE workshop compared to their attitudes before attending the IPE workshop (X2 = 7.671, p-value = 0.005) and was maintained 1 year after the workshop (X2 = 6.304, p-value = 0.012). Medical students expected pharmacists to be more capable and had higher expectations for them after attending the IPE workshop (X2 = 17.393, p-value = <0.001) and was maintained 1 year after the workshop (X2 = 5.955, p-value = 0.015). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the inter-professional workshop is successful in changing the attitudes of medical students towards pharmacists and the roles they play on the healthcare team. The medical students maintained this change in attitude one year after the inter- professional workshop.

Using the questionnaire method, data were collected on 1335 students, or 85 per cent of all students enrolled in Canadian schools of pharmacy during the 1961-62 academic year. The data are assembled in this presentation in an effort to provide (i) a general descriptive study of pharmacy students, and (ii) a detailed analysis of the factors leading to the choice of field within the profession. The descriptive portion of the study focuses on four sets of factors, those being: (i) social background factors, including ascribed characteristics (sex, socioeconomic status, religion, urban-rural residence, and geographic region) and achieved characteristics (practical experience, occupational inheritance, and high school grades), (ii) sources of information and influence, ranging from practice-oriented sources (those oriented to the practice of the profession) to ideology-oriented sources (those geared to the goals toward which the profession is striving), (iii) occupational values, including intrinsic-people-oriented-extrinsic values, business, entrepreneurial, and independence values, and (iv) the age at which a career in pharmacy is first considered and finally chosen. The findings show that students with different social backgrounds vary in the amount of contact with the profession; that practice-oriented sources of information and influence generally are more important than ideology-oriented sources; that pharmacy students hold positively values which, according to Rosenberg’s "continuum of psychological distance," are ambivalent; and that students who differ in the age of first considering and finally choosing pharmacy vary in social background, derive information and influence from different sources, and feel differently about their chosen profession. The choice of field is analysed in accordance with an analytic scheme which attributes independent causal significance to three sets of factors: social background factors, sources of information and influence, and occupational values. According to this scheme, the latter two sets of factors, although exerting some independent influence, are thought to be affected by the former. In a purposive sample achieved and ascribed social characteristics are expected to be related. The findings generally are consistent with the analytic scheme. Occupational alternatives within the profession are arranged along a continuum (B-P continuum) from retail pharmacy, the most business-like of the fields, to prescription pharmacy, to hospital pharmacy, to the residual fields, which are regarded as most profession-like. Students who choose a field at the business end of the B-P continuum, as compared with those who choose a field at the profession end, tend to enter pharmacy with more practical experience; to have parents and, to a lesser extent, relatives in the profession; to have lower high school grades; to utilize practice-oriented, as opposed to, ideology-oriented, sources of information and influence; and to hold positively extrinsic, as opposed to intrinsic, business, independence, and entrepreneurial values, together with the value, "meet the public and deal directly with people." The choice of field is independent of the factor of socio-economic status but varies with the factors of sex, religion, urban-rural residence, and geographic region. Although these findings may be explained partly by the intervening variables considered above, there is some evidence to support the view that social background factors play an independent part in the choice of field by affecting the visibility, accessibility, and "social appropriateness" of career alternatives. By juxtaposing ascribed social factors, achieved social factors, sources of information and influence, occupational values, and the choice of field, and by considering the relationships among these sets of factors, the author gives an account of the process by which pharmacy students choose a field within the profession. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

Class of 2006 Abstract / Objectives: To develop a glossary of words useful to pharmacists when counseling patients in Spanish and assess the usefulness of this glossary. Methods: This was a descriptive study using a questionnaire to assess the usefulness of a Spanish glossary developed to aid in counseling Spanish speaking patients. Pharmacy students from the College of Pharmacy were targeted to provide a formative evaluation by filling out a survey to evaluate the Spanish glossary. A mean usefulness score was calculated to determine if the Spanish glossary was useful. The data was divided into two groups based on the participants’ knowledge of the Spanish language to see if there was a difference between the groups. In addition, categorical descriptive data was analyzed. Results: The groups were very similar. There was no difference in how the groups rated the glossary. Over all, both groups liked rated the glossary highly. Most people had no suggestions for adding any vocabulary, and few changes were suggested. Conclusions: A Spanish glossary organized into sections on a single sheet of paper was found to be favorably rated in its usefulness by people with varying levels of Spanish knowledge.

An information processing model was developed to describe how information used by pharmacists in providing pharmacy services is processed. The process is hypothesized to be sequential and to consist of perception, recognition, judgment, decision making and response control components which continuously interact and are influenced by memory, particularly long term memory. Information in long term memory was hypothesized to be organized according to the perceived typicality of the stimulus. A laboratory methodology using a microcomputer was developed to test the effect of typicality on three of the process components, recognition, judgment and decision making. Three groups of ten subjects were tested, practicing pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and fourth year PharmD students. For the recognition task, subjects were shown a drug name on the computer screen then asked to indicate which of two drug names, one typical and one atypical, was shown. Pharmacists' responses were most likely to be biased toward the typical drug, technicians' responses were less likely to be biased and students' responses were least likely to be biased. For the judgment task, subjects were shown a drug name and a brief description of a typical or atypical patient; subjects were asked to indicate whether the drug was likely to be appropriate therapy for the patient. Pharmacists' responses were most likely to be biased by the perceived typicality of the patient, technicians, less likely and students, least likely. The decision task was identical to the judgment task except subjects were asked to indicate whether they would dispense the prescription as written or whether they would contact the prescriber. Pharmacists' choices were most likely to be influenced by the perceived typicality of the patient, and technicians were less likely to be influenced by typicality. Students' responses appeared not to be influenced at all. When between groups comparisons were made on difference scores, only the comparison between pharmacists and students on the decision task was significant. No statistically significant differences were found on the reaction time dependent variable for any of the subject groups.

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