Objective. To assess pharmacy students' ability to retain advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) knowledge and skills within 120 days of previous high-fidelity mannequin simulation training. Design. Students were randomly assigned to rapid response teams of 5-6. Skills in ACLS and mannequin survival were compared between teams some members of which had simulation training 120 days earlier and teams who had not had previous training. Assessment. A checklist was used to record and assess performance in the simulations. Teams with previous simulation training (n510) demonstrated numerical superiority to teams without previous training (n512) for 6 out of 8 (75%) ACLS skills observed, including time calculating accurate vasopressor infusion rate (83 sec vs 113 sec; p50.01). Mannequin survival was 37% higher for teams who had previous simulation training, but this result was not significant (70% vs 33%; p50.20). Conclusion. Teams with students who had previous simulation training demonstrated numerical superiority in ACLS knowledge and skill retention within 120 days of previous training compared to those who had no previous training. Future studies are needed to add to the current evidence of pharmacy students' and practicing pharmacists' ACLS knowledge and skill retention.

Based on experience, providers' perspectives, and QI data, the PTMR program is an effective method to obtain, document, and communicate accurate MR data for patients at this institution.

*Objective: To introduce pharmacists to the process, challenges, and opportunities of creating transitions of care (TOC) models in the inpatient, ambulatory, and community practice settings. Methods: TOC literature and resources were obtained through searching PubMed, Ovid, and GoogleScholar. The pharmacist clinicians, who are the authors in this manuscript are reporting their experiences in the development, implementation of, and practice within the TOC models. Results: Pharmacists are an essential part of the multidisciplinary team and play a key role in providing care to patients as they move between health care settings or from a health care setting to home. Pharmacists can participate in many aspects of the inpatient, ambulatory care, and community pharmacy practice settings to implement and ensure optimal TOC processes. This article describes establishing the pharmacist's TOC role and practicing within multiple health care settings. In these models, pharmacists focus on medication reconciliation, discharge counseling, and optimization of medications. Additionally, a checklist has been created to assist other pharmacists in developing the pharmacist's TOC roles in a practice environment or incorporating more TOC elements in their practice setting. *

Objectives:To evaluate the impact of a pharmacy-technician centered medication reconciliation (PTMR) program by identifying and quantifying medication discrepancies and outcomes of pharmacist medication reconciliation recommendations.Methods:A retrospective chart review was performed on two-hundred patients admitted to the internal medicine teaching services at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ. Patients were selected using a stratified systematic sample approach and were included if they received a pharmacy technician medication history and a pharmacist medication reconciliation at any point during their hospital admission. Pharmacist identified medication discrepancies were analyzed using descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses. Potential risk factors were identified using multivariate analyses, such as logistic regression and CART. The priority level of significance was set at 0.05.Results:Three-hundred and sixty-five medication discrepancies were identified out of the 200 included patients. The four most common discrepancies were omission (64.7%), non-formulary omission (16.2%), dose discrepancy (10.1%), and frequency discrepancy (4.1%). Twenty-two percent of pharmacist recommendations were implemented by the prescriber within 72 hours.Conclusion:A PTMR program with dedicated pharmacy technicians and pharmacists identifies many medication discrepancies at admission and provides opportunities for pharmacist reconciliation recommendations.