One medical school faculty's views of training requirements for the PharmD degree include (1) strong support of a two-degree system with a minimum two-year doctoral program, and training in research and physical assessment, and (2) rejection of proposed methods to facilitate practicing pharmacists' acquisition of the degree and training sites…

There is strong evidence that pharmacy will continue to grow extensively in new directions in the future, emerging as a revitalized and expanded profession whose functions will be understood and appreciated by other health professions and the consumer. (LBH)

A course in educational techniques and skills for pharmacy educators was initiated in 1974 at the University of Kentucky by the Colleges of Pharmacy and Education. It is an adaptation of a general methods course offered to secondary education majors and is taught by an instructor in the College of Education. (LBH)

Flanders' Interaction Analysis was adapted to assess the communication process of an interview more accurately, and with more inter-student consistency. Experimental results indicate that students can learn the major elements of interview technique by the traditional lecture method and with a minimum of media support. (LBH)

A two-semester program entitled "Introduction to Disease States and Related Therapeutics" was introduced into the second professional year at Creighton University's School of Pharmacy. It was divided into 16 identifiable modules that were subdivided into 225 learning packages covering about 95 different disease entities. (LBH)

One in five pharmacy students is communication apprehensive (CA), similar to the general population. A third of those surveyed were shy, and about 14 percent were both high CA and shy. The more anxiety a communication type presents, the less importance the student attaches to it. Systematic desensitization is recommended. (MSE)

Use of a computer-assisted program to teach analysis of professional drug literature was compared with the traditional manual evaluation methods. Used for both practice and examinations, the computer-assisted method was found to be relatively simple, self-contained, and preferable.

A program using patient instructors programmed with a history of hypertension, chronic pulmonary disease, or congestive heart failure to teach and evaluate pharmacy students' interviewing skills is described. Content areas included drug therapy, adverse reactions, drug interactions, etc. (Author/MSE)

The results of a study to determine the potential of using rate-accelerated (compressed) speech audio tapes as an alternative method of instruction in a continuing education program for pharmacists at Auburn University in Alabama are reported. (Author/MLW)

A survey of 72 pharmacy schools shows 22 percent of the schools had no geriatric coursework, 35 percent offered only courses in which the geriatric content averaged under 12 percent of course content, and 43 percent offered courses that focused primarily on geriatrics, most including a major clinical component. (Author/MSE)

A study reexamined pharmacists' motivational patterns for participating in pharmacy continuing education. A previous study identified six motivational factors: competency-related curiosity, interpersonal relations, community services, escape from routine, professional advancement, and compliance with external influence. The motivational instrument…

It is desirable that the undergraduate pharmacy student gain some experience in the collection and mathematical treatment of pharmacokinetic data. An experiment to provide the student with data for obtaining pharmacokinetic parameters is described, including lists of materials and equipment, with a student consent form appended. (MLW)

Study results indicate that there is a relationship between grade point average and performance on the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Licensure Examination (NABPLEX); that the relationship exists for graduates from different colleges; and that performance on NABPLEX by graduates from two different colleges is significantly different.…

A 60-minute, color videotape of a simulated adult physical examination was produced and used by the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy to introduce clinical clerkship students to the procedures involved in the physical examination. The videotape was evaluated by a 25-question pretest and posttest. (Author/MLW)

The need to provide consumer drug education to the elderly has been well-documented. Pharmacists and pharmacy students must learn how to present the material to this population in order to encourage more appropriate use. The Maryland Elder-Ed program represents a unique approach to meeting these needs. (Author/MLW)