Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Pharmacists' Role In Harm Reduction: A Survey Assessment Of Kentucky Community Pharmacists' Willingness To Participate In Syringe/Needle Exchange, Amie Goodin, Amanda Fallin-Bennett, Traci Green, Patricia R. Freeman

Nursing Faculty Publications

Background: Pharmacists' role in harm reduction is expanding in many states, yet there are limited data on pharmacists' willingness to participate in harm reduction activities. This study assessed community pharmacists' willingness to participate in one harm reduction initiative: syringe/needle exchange.

Methods: In 2015, all Kentucky pharmacists with active licenses were emailed a survey that examined attitudes towards participation in syringe/needle exchange. Response frequencies were calculated for community pharmacist respondents. Ordinal logistic regression estimated the impact of community pharmacist characteristics and attitudes on willingness to provide clean needles/syringes to people who inject drugs and to dispose of used syringes/needles, where both …

Are We Making Smart Pumps Smarter?, Brittany Schaefer

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Background: Medication errors comprise a significant proportion of medical errors, and are abundant, costly, and associated with causing harm to patients via adverse drug events. The most serious medication errors often involve IV medications. Smart pumps were developed to improve patient safety by reducing medication errors. While some studies have found that smart pumps do not decrease medication errors, most have found they are effective to some degree. It is believed that routinely analyzing data on smart pump alerts, making corresponding adjustments in the drug libraries, and analyzing those adjustments can reduce alarm fatigue, which may then decrease medication errors …