The Pharmaceutical Journal’s writing competition 2018

Congratulations to Dr. Parastou Donyai and Dr James Hall, the pharmacy admissions team, for winning third place at the Pharmaceutical Journal’s writing competition, Future Pharmacist!

Medicines at a touch of a button

To read this fantastic piece, visit https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/opinion/blogs/medicines-at-a-touch-of-a-button/20205120.blog. 

And contact our admissions team if you would like to try Contempo-3000…

Publications by Dr. Rosemary Lim

Dr. Rosemary has been busy working on a number of exciting new projects and below is a selection of some her publications this year.

  • Courtenay, M., Castro-Sanchez, E., Deslandes, R., Hodson, K., Lim, R., Morris, G., Reeves, S.and Weiss, M.  Defining antimicrobial stewardship competencies for undergraduate health professional education in the United Kingdom: a study protocol. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 2018. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2018.1463200

Healthcare professionals are at the forefront of working across different sectors to tackle antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial stewardship competencies have only been developed for prescribing but not for other healthcare activities. This article is a protocol which aims to develop and define competences at an undergraduate level. The study will involve a Depli excercise with experts to develop competencies across all undergraduate healthcare professional education programmes to provide a standardised curriculum.

  • Vosper H, Lim R, Knight C, Bowie P, Edwards B and Hignett S on behalf of the CIEHF Pharmaceutical Human Factors Special Interest Group (2018) Considering human factors and developing systems thinking behaviours to ensure patient safety. Clinical Pharmacist, 2018, Vol 10, No 2. doi: 10.1211/CP.2018.20204352

This articles calls attention to developing ‘systems thinking’ by considering human factors and ergonomics practice (HFE) to understand the complexity of issues in the workplace. HFE is regulated by the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF) and offers validated tools to model and test complex systems and provides a new way of thinking about and addressing safety issues.

  • Axon, D. R., Lim, R., Lewis, P. J., Sandher, S., Thondee, J., Edwards, K.and Howard, R. L. Junior doctors’ communication with hospital pharmacists about prescribing: findings from a qualitative interview study. European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, 2018 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/ejhpharm-2017-001449

The aim of this study was to explore the factors which affect communication between junior doctors and hospital pharmacists about doctors’ prescribing. The study shows that junior doctors and hospital pharmacists communicate well and input from pharmacists is generally appreciated by the doctors. Joint ward rounds, pharmacist led teaching sessions and standardised communication are some of the suggested ways that communication can still be improved.

Medication breaks in ADHD

Ibrahim, K. & Donyai, P. What stops practitioners discussing medication breaks in children and adolescents with ADHD? Identifying barriers through theory-driven qualitative research. ADHD Atten Def Hyp Disord (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-018-0258-9

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Treatment guidelines for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children recommend ‘drug holidays’ to assess the continual need for medication. Drug holidays are interruptions in treatment which allows parents and clinicians to monitor children. Recent research from the department, conducted under the supervision of Dr. Parastou Donyai, explored barriers which prevent clinicians from initiating planned ‘drug holidays’. Components of the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation (COM-B) model was used to analyse interview transcripts with clinicians. Knowledge and skills of general practitioner doctors as well as time contraints could be some of the barriers reported by this study. The full article can be accessed here, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-018-0258-9.

Should pharmacists be allowed to reuse medicines?

“If somebody leaves the pharmacy with their own medication and we can’t trust the integrity of the product in their hands, why would that medicine be OK for them [but not for someone else],” asks Donyai.”

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A recent article in The Pharmaceutical Journal recently questioned whether pharmacists should be allowed to reuse medicines and included comments by Dr. Donyai. Previous research by the department has shown that the public would be willing to reuse medications that are returned to pharmacies if their concerns are appropriately addressed¹.

Visit The Pharmaceutical Journal to read more about the feasibility of allowing medicines reuse. (The Pharmaceutical JournalDOI: 10.1211/PJ.2018.20205091)

¹Alhamad H, Patel N & Donyai P. Beliefs and intentions towards reusing medicines in the future: a large‐scale, cross‐sectional study of patients in the UK. Int J Pharm Pract 2018; 26 (suppl 1):12. doi: 10.1111/ijpp.12442).

Information design and architecture: combating drug-resistant infection

Dr. Rosemary Lim is a co-investigator on an exciting antimicrobial resisitance project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Concil entitiled, ‘Information Design and Architecture in Persuaive Pharmacy space: combating AMR (IDAPPS)’.

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A design competition was recently held where groups of designers comprising of architects, information designers, pharmacists and others worked together to produce five great ideas for talking about drug-resistant infections. More information about the project and the winning designs can be found here https://amrpharmacy.org/five-ideas-for-talking-about-drug-resistant-infections/