The dental setting presents a unique opportunity to assist patients with tobacco cessation. Many dental providers do not feel prepared to provide tobacco cessation, particularly with regard to education on pharmacological treatments. An interprofessional practice experience with dental and pharmacy students provides a novel approach to tobacco cessation in the dental setting, but it is not known whether such methods affect patient outcomes. The goal of the study was to examine the impact of a novel dental and pharmacy student tobacco cessation education programme on patient knowledge gained, barriers to utilising cessation medications, quit intentions, and quit behaviours as compared to standard care. Dental patients who were seen at the dental admissions clinic of a dental school on interprofessional care (IPC) days and received tobacco cessation education from the dental-pharmacy student team (N = 25) were compared with dental patients at the clinic seen on Standard Care (SC) days (N = 25). Patients completed a post-appointment survey and a 4-week follow-up survey. IPC patients reported greater perceived knowledge post-appointment and at follow-up regarding tobacco cessation compared with SC patients and had greater intentions to utilise medication to assist with tobacco cessation. At follow-up there were no differences between groups in terms of quit attempts. Among patients who made a quit attempt those in the IPC group were more likely to have set a quit date and contacted a provider for assistance regarding tobacco cessation. Dental-pharmacy student interprofessional tobacco cessation may be an innovative way to provide tobacco cessation education to dental patients and provide students with interprofessional practice experiences.
Objective. To prepare pharmacy and dental students to collaborate as members of an interprofessional team by participating in an interprofessional practice experience. Methods. An interprofessional practice experience was implemented within a dental admissions clinic. Pharmacy and dental students collaboratively conducted medical histories and provided tobacco cessation education. Pharmacy student performance was measured using a standardized assessment rubric; pharmacy and dental student perceptions were measured using the SPICE-R tool; and faculty feedback was captured for evaluation purposes. Results. Pharmacy students achieved performance expectations upon completion. There was a statistically significant increase in the mean scores for a majority of the SPICE-R factors for pharmacy and dental students. Overall, faculty perceptions of the practice experience were positive. Conclusion. A collaboration between pharmacy and dental schools is a novel approach to meeting interprofessional and experiential curricular goals. Evaluating performance in practice experiences and perceptions can be used to demonstrate learner outcomes within interprofessional education. Furthermore, faculty feedback should be used to improve practice experiences.
Pharmacologic agents for the treatment and prevention of venous thromboembolism in the cancer patient population are limited. Currently, low-molecular-weight heparin is recommended by national consensus guidelines for this indication. Rivaroxaban, an oral factor Xa inhibitor, is Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for the treatment and prevention of venous thromboembolism and offers the convenience of oral fixed-dose regimens, no routine laboratory monitoring, and has few drug and dietary interactions; however, its use in patients with cancer has not been largely studied. We report 2 cases of recurrent venous thromboembolism in patients with active cancer on rivaroxaban therapy. The first case is a 64-year-old female admitted for recurrent pulmonary embolism, and the second case is a 70-year-old female admitted for recurrent deep vein thrombosis. Both patients were receiving rivaroxaban at the time of thromboembolic recurrence. These cases serve as a reminder to health-care providers that more safety and efficacy data in the cancer patient population are needed prior to using rivaroxaban for venous thromboembolism treatment.
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