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Introduction: The North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) is a critical assessment for pharmacy graduates. Declining first-time pass rates have led to increased focus on preparation strategies. This study evaluates a year-long NAPLEX preparation curriculum integrated into the fourth-year PharmD program, focusing on student perceptions, engagement, and performance., Methods: A longitudinal, structured NAPLEX preparation curriculum was implemented for 151 fourth-year pharmacy students. The curriculum included mandatory assessments aligned with the NAPLEX blueprint and a self-directed study component using the UWorld Pharmacy RxPrep platform. Student engagement was quantified using a Usage Index derived from platform activity logs. A post-curriculum survey assessed students' perceptions of the program, which was analyzed using Principal Components Analysis (PCA)., Results: Variability in student engagement was observed, with the Usage Index showing a moderate correlation with performance on NAPLEX-style assessments. PCA identified four key components influencing students' NAPLEX preparation: Perceived Usefulness, Curriculum Effectiveness, Temporal Utilization, and Strategic Preparedness. Temporal Utilization was the only component strongly correlated with assessment outcomes, highlighting the importance of consistent resource use., Discussion: Regular engagement with preparation resources was linked to better performance, though student perceptions of usefulness did not always align with exam performance. This highlights the complexity of preparing for high-stakes exams, where subjective evaluations of resources may not fully capture their effectiveness., Conclusion: This study underscores the need for consistent engagement with preparation resources and highlights potential areas for improvement in NAPLEX preparation strategies. Future research should focus on strategies to improve student engagement and enhance self-assessment skills to better align perceptions with performance., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The purpose of this analysis was to identify, analyze, and report patterns (or themes) of planning and preparation considerations of students that scored less than the historic average score on the Pre-NAPLEX® exam., Methods: This qualitative study was a retrospective, inductive thematic analysis of de-identified semi-structured interview field notes collected from student interviews for those students that scored less than the historic average score on the Pre-NAPLEX® exam., Results: Ninety-one students were initially contacted based on their score on the Pre-NAPLEX® exam to participate in one-on-one virtual discussions (i.e., interviews) with faculty members. Fifty-two responded and participated with their responses analyzed and included in thematic categorization. Four major themes were identified during the analysis. These include 1) Organization and Messaging of NAPLEX® Preparation Efforts, 2) Time Management during Competing Obligations, 3) Test Taking Experience, and 4) Curricular Disconnect., Conclusion: Student performance on the NAPLEX licensing exam is of great concern to many colleges of pharmacy. As a result, many institutions are looking at root-causes for poor performance and working to implement structural changes at their institution to address these concerns. This investigation identified four major themes surrounding the preparation and planning for the Pre-NAPLEX® for students that scored less than the historic average score on the Pre-NAPLEX®. These include 1) Organization and Messaging of NAPLEX® Preparation Efforts, 2) Time Management during Competing Obligations, 3) Test Taking Experience, and 4) Curricular Disconnect. Each of these themes provides potentially actionable items to improve how students prepare and plan for the Pre-NAPLEX®, which may be translatable to informing actions to improve results on the actual NAPLEX exam itself., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To determine the impact of item-writing flaws and cognitive level on student performance metrics in 1 course series across 2 semesters at a single institution., Methods: Four investigators reviewed 928 multiple-choice items from an integrated therapeutics course series. Differences in performance metrics were examined between flawed and standard items, flawed stems and flawed answer choices, and cognitive levels., Results: Reviewers found that 80% of the items were flawed, with the most common types being implausible distractors and unfocused stems. Flawed items were generally easier than standard ones, but the type of flaw significantly impacted the difficulty. Items with flawed stems had the same difficulty as standard items; however, those with flawed answer choices were significantly easier. Most items tested lower-level skills and have more flaws than higher-level items. There was no significant difference in difficulty between lower- and higher-level cognitive items, and higher-level items were more likely to have answer flaws than item flaws., Conclusion: Item-writing flaws differently impact student performance. Implausible distractors artificially lower the difficulty of questions, even those designed to assess higher-level skills. This effect contributes to a lack of significant difference in difficulty between higher- and lower-level items. Unfocused stems, on the other hand, likely increase confusion and hinder performance, regardless of the question's cognitive complexity., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To conduct a pilot investigation about the alignment between didactic multimedia materials utilized by pharmacy faculty, with Mayer's Principles for Multimedia Learning and faculty characteristics associated with greater alignment., Methods: An investigatory systematic process was used which included a modified Learning Object Review Instrument (LORI) to evaluate the faculty video-recorded lectures for alignment with Mayer's Principles of Multimedia Learning, hence capturing the number and type of misalignments. Correlations were performed to evaluate the association between faculty characteristics; and ratings and proportions of misalignments., Results: Five hundred fifty-five PowerPoint slides of 13 lectures from 13 faculty members were reviewed. The average (SD) LORI score per slide was 4.44 (0.84) out of 5 with an average score per lecture ranging from 3.83 (0.96) to 4.95 (0.53). Across all lecture slides, misalignments with multimedia principles were captured in 20.2% of slides. For each lecture, the average percentage of misalignments was 27.6% ranging from 0% to 49%. Principal misalignments included violation of the principles of coherence (66.1%), signaling (15.2%), and segmenting (8%). No faculty characteristics were significantly associated with LORI ratings or proportion of misalignments within lectures., Conclusions: Faculty had high LORI ratings for their multimedia material but these varied significantly between lectures. Misalignments with multimedia principles were identified and were related primarily to extraneous processing. These misalignments, when addressed, have the potential to improve learning, thus suggesting an opportunity for the faculty to develop ways to optimize multimedia educational delivery. Future investigation is needed to clarify how clinical pharmacy faculty can develop multimedia material and the impact of faculty development on the application of multimedia principles and learning outcomes., (Copyright © 2023 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) face unique challenges when admitted to the hospital. The nature of the disease, complexity of the pharmacotherapeutic home regimens, and the medication-related policies of institutionalized care all contribute to the challenges patients and providers face. In addition, medication errors are common in this population. Incorrectly ordered or omitted home medications or delayed administration can have significant negative consequences including worsening of PD symptoms, dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome, or malignant or hyperpyrexia syndrome. Also, this patient population may commonly encounter contraindicated medications ordered during their hospitalizations. These medication misadventures negatively affect patient care, which may lead to increased length of stay and significant adverse sequalae. Nurses, pharmacists, and other health care providers can help ease the anxiety of patients and their families by taking detailed medication histories, restarting home medication regimens, customizing medication administration to fit patients' needs, and screening patient profiles for drug-drug and drug-disease interactions. Education of hospital staff regarding the unique needs of this patient population and seeking the advice of specialists in PD can also promote improved patient care.

Medicinal cannabinoid use continues to evolve across the United States, although legitimate federal recognition for medicinal purpose is lacking. Variability exists across states within the United States with respect to legislation, and health care institutions encounter challenges when patients present with a history of medicinal cannabinoid use. Emerging evidence in the field of neurosciences suggests a role of cannabinoids for neurologic medical conditions such as Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy. We aim to provide an overview of cannabinoids including a historical perspective, pharmacology, applications in neurosciences, and challenges in health care and academia. Knowledge of the appropriate role of cannabinoids in the clinical setting is essential for all health care practitioners including nursing.

Objective: Severe coagulopathy in a neurosurgical patient with intracranial hemorrhage is a common and serious problem. Current therapy with vitamin K and fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) may be too slow in certain situations. There are reports of rapid reversal of coagulopathy using human recombinant factor VII. We present a retrospective controlled study of our experience with factor VII., Methods: We used factor VII as a second-line therapy after initial attempts at reversal with FFP had failed. Factor VII was given to 29 patients in the neurosurgical intensive care unit; 24 patients treated before the introduction of factor VII were control subjects. The groups were matched by age, sex, cause of coagulopathy, and presence of intracranial hemorrhage., Results: After initial FFP administration, the international normalized ratio (INR) changed from a mean of 2.57 to 1.67 in the factor VII group and from 2.17 to 1.85 in control subjects. In all patients, INR tended to rebound. Before administration of factor VII, the mean INR was 2.206. After 1.4 mg of factor VII, mean INR decreased to 1.12 (P < 0.05). Measured from admission, INR in the factor VII group normalized within 6.78 +/- 2.68 hours, and in control subjects, within 47.44 +/- 9.88 hours (P < 0.0005). Six factor VII patients and six control subjects died. The number of patients with good functional outcome (Glasgow Outcome Scale score of 5) was greater among patients treated with factor VII compared with those who received only vitamin K and FFP (nine versus two, P = 0.04). None of the deaths were the result of a thrombotic complication. There were no thrombotic complications in the factor VII group., Conclusion: Factor VII is safe and highly effective when emergency reversal of coagulopathy is desired and may improve the functional outcome. We speculate that the use of factor VII as first choice may result in decreased use of FFP and thus increase patient safety.