Objectives. To examine the correlation between students accessing recorded lecture files (audio and slides) online and course grades and class attendance. Methods. Second professional year (of 6-year program) students in a therapeutics course had access to recorded online lectures for 72 hours following live lectures. The number and duration of lecture accessions were compared to final course grades and class attendance. Course grades were compared to those of a historical control group. At the end of the semester, students completed a brief survey instrument regarding their use and perceptions of online lectures. Results. No correlation was found between final course grades and the number of lecture accessions (r 5 0.0014) or total number of minutes lectures were viewed (r 5 0.033), nor between class attendance and minutes viewed (r 5 0.2158). Students with access to recorded lectures outperformed the historical control group on the final examination (p , 0.002). Seventy-two percent of students reported no influence of online files on class attendance. Conclusions. Posting lectures online did not affect student outcomes, but students did score higher on the final examination.

Practice-related projects and pharmacy practice research are requirements to complete postgraduate pharmacy residency programs. Many residents will complete residencies without fully developing the skills needed to perform research required for new clinical and academic positions. Many studies have quantified successes and identified characteristics that may be associated with successful resident publication. There are many benefits to gaining research and publication skills during residency training for the resident, preceptor/mentors, and the residency program. Published works have also suggested approaches than can be taken to improve research within a residency program. The aims of this article are to discuss the publication rates of resident research projects, suggest ways to improve residency research, review benefits of residency research, and briefly review research training alternatives.

Objective. To determine whether there is a difference in student pharmacists' learning or satisfaction when standardized patients or manikins are used to teach physical assessment. Design. Third-year student pharmacists were randomized to learn physical assessment (cardiac and pulmonary examinations) using either a standardized patient or a manikin. Assessment. Performance scores on the final examination and satisfaction with the learning method were compared between groups. Eighty and 74 student pharmacists completed the cardiac and pulmonary examinations, respectively. There was no difference in performance scores between student pharmacists who were trained using manikins vs standardized patients (93.8% vs. 93.5%, p50.81). Student pharmacists who were trained using manikins indicated that they would have probably learned to perform cardiac and pulmonary examinations better had they been taught using standardized patients (p,0.001) and that they were less satisfied with their method of learning (p50.04). Conclusions. Training using standardized patients and manikins are equally effective methods of learning physical assessment, but student pharmacists preferred using standardized patients.

Prevalence of HCV at BWJC was similar to previous jail studies, which is lower than reported prison rates and higher than the general population.

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