Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and others (LGBTQIA+) patients face stigma and barriers to health care, including a lack of health care professionals' knowledge and confidence in treating this patient population. Pharmacists are in prime position to decrease this health disparity. United States pharmacy schools have limited LGBTQIA+ content, continuing the concern of recent graduates without knowledge and confidence. This commentary discusses potential barriers to introducing LGBTQIA+ content into school of pharmacy curricula and presents five strategies currently in use by nursing, medical, and pharmacy schools. Schools of Pharmacy should consider proactive incorporation of this content to graduate practitioners able to provide quality care to LGBTQIA+ patients. Copyright © Pharmacy Practice.Objectives This study aimed to describe the effect of using an innovative teaching strategy using a video tutorial on enhancing students' knowledge about medication reconciliation, and skills in identifying medication discrepancies. Methods This is a one group pre-post interventional study that was conducted at the School of Pharmacy at Applied Science Private University. Sixty pharmacy students were invited to attend an educational sessions that involve watching a 6-minutes video tutorial. The first two levels of the Kirkpatrick's Model were used to evaluate the effectiveness of this training tool. Level 1 (Reaction) was assessed using a satisfaction questionnaire, while level 2 (Learning) was assessed using two criteria 1) student acquired knowledge about medication reconciliation using a questionnaire and a knowledge score out of 13 was calculated for each student, and 2) student acquired skills in identifying medication discrepancies using a virtual case scenario. If the student was able to identify any o to enhance students' learning experience and to support the traditional learning provided by the teaching staff. Copyright © Pharmacy Practice.Objective This study evaluated medication counseling procedures and trends at retail pharmacies in the Houston metropolitan area through a naturalistic observational study. Methods A blinded cross-sectional observational study was conducted at retail pharmacies in the Houston metropolitan area. Data were collected by trained observers utilizing an observational log, to record various parameters that could have an impact on the duration of patient-pharmacist interaction in a naturalistic pharmacy practice setting. Additionally, indicators of counseling such as utilization of the counseling window and performance of show-and-tell were recorded. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, t-tests, Pearson correlations, ANOVAs, and multiple linear regressions. Results One hundred and sixty-five interactions between patients and pharmacy staff were recorded at 45 retail pharmacies from 7 retail pharmacy chains. The counseling window was utilized in only 3 (1.81%) out of 165 observations and the show-and-unseling including the use of the counseling window and the show-and-tell process were absent, suggesting lack of adequate pharmacists counseling. Further studies are needed to evaluate the validity of this conclusion and the role of pharmacy services and its value towards medication use and safety. Copyright © Pharmacy Practice.Objective This study was conducted to assess pharmacists' practices when counseling patients on their prescription medications, and their preferences for training. Methods Five focus group discussions of community pharmacists (n=45, with seven to eleven participants in each group) were conducted in a major metropolitan city in the southern United States. Participants were recruited via email using a list of community pharmacists provided by the Texas State Board of Pharmacy. All focus group discussions were structured using a moderator guide consisting of both discrete and open-ended questions. Qualitative analysis software was used to analyze the data with a thematic analysis approach. Results The participants in this study had a high self-efficacy regarding their ability to counsel on both new and opioid prescriptions. Many pharmacists experienced the same barriers to counseling and agreed on the components of counseling. However, the themes that emerged showed that the participants exhibited only a partial understanding of the components of counseling. The themes that emerged in the thematic analysis were perceived confidence and discordant counseling practices, inadequate infrastructure, lack of comprehensive counseling, inconsistent use of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), and pharmacists' desired training/assistance. Conclusions Community pharmacists are in a unique position to help combat the opioid crisis; however, there has been very little research on the pharmacist-patient interaction in this context. With policy changes, such as the PDMP mandate, going into effect across the country, it is important to capitalize on the potential community pharmacists have in ameliorating the opioid crisis in the United States. Copyright © Pharmacy Practice.Background Hospital readmissions are considered as the primary indicator of insufficient quality of care and are responsible of increasing annual medical costs by billions of dollars. Different factors tend to reduce readmissions, particularly instructions at discharge. Objectives Our study objective was to evaluate discharge instructions given to hospitalized Lebanese patients and associated factors. Methods Two hundred patients, aged between 21 and 79 years and admitted to the emergency department, were recruited from a Lebanese university hospital. Discharge instructions were evaluated by a face-to-face interview to fill a questionnaire with the patients immediately after their final contact with the physician or nurse in charge.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/GDC-0980-RG7422.html  We mainly focused on medications instructions and created two scores related to "instructions given" and "instructions appropriate" to later conduct bivariate analysis. Results We found that discharge instructions were not completely given to all our study population. The degree of appropriateness fluctuated between 25% and 100%.