A review of the continuous professional development system for pharmacists

Background The Portuguese Pharmaceutical Society (PPS) implemented a system of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for pharmacists in 2004. This system has evolved throughout the years, and currently all active pharmacists in Portugal are required to participate in the CPD program. Each CPD cycle takes 5 years. In each cycle, pharmacists must collect 15 CPD points, through participation in educational activities. The PPS accreditation process is managed via an online platform, where education/training providers, as well as pharmacists themselves, can submit educational activities for accreditation. Pharmacists may access their CPD status and assess their development at any point. The objective of this study was to analyze and review the educational activities submitted by providers over a 11-year period (2009–2019). Methods Data from activities were retrieved from the PPS CPD online platform. All educational activities were labeled according to the area of pharmaceutical professional focus, type of promoter, and activity type. Results During the study 3685 activities were analyzed. Over the last decade, submitted activities for accreditation increased in 52.6%. A significantly high proportion (98.9%) of these activities has been accredited. Promoters of activities were mostly pharmacies sectoral associations (29.6%), consultancy/training companies (19.6%), the PPS (18.5%), pharmaceutical industry (17.7%) and wholesalers’ consortia (9.0%). Academia represented only 2.3% of the total amount of educational activities. The most frequent topics were related to “pharmacology & pharmacotherapy” (9.9%), followed by “counselling” (9.8%) and “management & administration” (7.2%). The most accredited type of activities was face-to-face (68.9%) and e-learning trainings (13.1%). Conclusions This study shows increasing interest in submitting CPD activities for accreditation between 2009 and 2019, but it also demonstrates that Academia could play a more interventive role in the lifelong learning education of Portuguese pharmacists.

It’s Virtually Summer, Can the Zoo Come to You? Zoo Summer School Engagement in an Online Setting

Zoological collections are rapidly changing from a place of entertainment to centers of education. Many zoological collections run holiday and weekend clubs with activities aimed at inspiring and enthusing the next generation. The COVID-19 pandemic saw zoological collections across the world closing, leading a need for alternative educational content. Edinburgh Zoo, UK converted their summer school to a virtual provision. This provided a unique opportunity to determine the effectiveness of online zoological education by investigating if engagement levels differ for family groups when education is ‘live’, ‘recorded’ or ‘activity’ based. A total of 235 participants signed up for the Virtual Summer School, which comprised of 46 separate activities. Submissions, comments and polls were coded for content level and activity type. Results show that the overall engagement was higher for the live sessions compared to the recorded content; however, the content level was higher for activities. Content level increased over the week and there was a higher reported nature appreciation at the end of the Virtual Summer School. These findings provided evidence to suggest that online holiday zoo education can engage and inspire and gives insight on how to maximize the engagement and knowledge acquisition when using these online platforms.

How can the public health impact of vaccination be estimated?

Background Deaths due to vaccine preventable diseases cause a notable proportion of mortality worldwide. To quantify the importance of vaccination, it is necessary to estimate the burden averted through vaccination. The Vaccine Impact Modelling Consortium (VIMC) was established to estimate the health impact of vaccination. Methods We describe the methods implemented by the VIMC to estimate impact by calendar year, birth year and year of vaccination (YoV). The calendar and birth year methods estimate impact in a particular year and over the lifetime of a particular birth cohort, respectively. The YoV method estimates the impact of a particular year’s vaccination activities through the use of impact ratios which have no stratification and stratification by activity type and/or birth cohort. Furthermore, we detail an impact extrapolation (IE) method for use between coverage scenarios. We compare the methods, focusing on YoV for hepatitis B, measles and yellow fever. Results We find that the YoV methods estimate similar impact with routine vaccinations but have greater yearly variation when campaigns occur with the birth cohort stratification. The IE performs well for the YoV methods, providing a time-efficient mechanism for updates to impact estimates. Conclusions These methods provide a robust set of approaches to quantify vaccination impact; however it is vital that the area of impact estimation continues to develop in order to capture the full effect of immunisation.

Variation sets in the speech directed to toddlers in Argentinian households.SES and type of activity effects

The study adopts a naturalistic perspective, looking at the relationship between socio-economic status (SES), activities and variation sets in child-directed speech (CDS) to Spanish-speaking Argentinian toddlers. It aims to determine the effect of SES and type of activity on the proportion of words and utterances in variation sets and on the pragmatic function they serve in interaction. Thirty two children (mean: 14.3 months) and their families were audio-recorded for four hours and the middle two hours were analyzed using CLAN. We developed an automatic algorithm for variation sets extraction that compares noun, verb and adjective lexemes in successive utterances. Mixed-effects beta regression showed SES and activity type effects on the proportion of variation sets and on the pragmatic function served by variation sets. Findings revealed that the contextual variables considered impact on how interlocutors organize the information to young children at the local level of natural at home interactions.

The Effects of Leisure Activities on Self-Efficacy and Social Adjustment: A Study of Immigrants in South Korea

This study classified leisure activity types into active, passive, and social leisure activities based on theory, and focused on determining the type that has a significant influence on the self-efficacy and social adjustment of immigrants staying in South Korea. The results of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), including post-hoc analysis using SPSS 23.0, were as follows: in principle, immigrants who participate in active or social leisure activities perceive their self-efficacy and social adjustment to be high. Differing slightly from this, the passive leisure activity type, which includes activities such as reading alone, listening to music, and surfing the web, may relieve their stress or provide them with psychological stability, but it was not found to be helpful in their adjustment to the new culture. The significance of this study lies in the finding that leisure activities help immigrants with social adjustment, in addition to physical and psychological aids that are already well known. We hope that the findings of the present study can be used as basic data for helping immigrants with smooth social adjustment and increasing their quality of life.

Sun-protection strategies amongst people living with Albinism in Benin-city, Southern Nigeria

Background: Oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) is an inherited disorder of generalized hypopigmentation. Dermatological care and protection from UV radiation are necessary for individuals with OCA. We assessed the patterns of protection strategies amongst persons living with albinism in Benin-city, Nigeria. Methods: Snow ball sampling methods were employed to investigate sun protection strategies amongst albinos in UBTH, Benin-city, Nigeria. Avoidance of sun peak hours, sun-protection clothing and sunscreen preparations used were analyzed during semi-structured face to face interviews conducted in the outreach clinics. Results: A total of 73 participants living with albinism were studied. The mean age of the participants was 24.1years± 11.3 years. The predominant activity type was out-door occurring in 62(84.9%) of the population observed. Participants with albinism in this study were exposed to high levels of ultraviolet radiation throughout the year. They all reported being unable to avoid sun-peak hours. Sunscreens were used in 15 (20.5%) albinos studied while sun-protection clothings were worn in 13(17.8%) respondents. Sunscreens were used more in those who engaged principally in out-door activities. This was observed in 10(13.7%) clients studied (p=0.04). Conclusion: People leaving with albinism who attended UBTH outreach skin clinic had insufficient sun protection strategies.

Communication Driven Polyculturality of Modern Tv Journalism: Polylingual Focus for Future LSP Teachers

The article considers a well-established approach for differentiation between scientific, formal (official business), journalistic, artistic, conversational, sacred (confessional), and oratorical functional styles in the contexts of polyculturality and polylingualism as significant backgrounds for teaching languages of specific purposes. It is stated that the determining criteria for all these functional styles are the sphere of social activity, type and established way of thinking, purpose, stylistic load of the units used to convey the meaning to the people. The effectiveness of journalism in the representation of mass communication across the geographies is manifested in the fact that its content is regularly found in the speech of the broadest segments of the population. However, modern linguistics encounters a number of unresolved issues of describing the polylingual mode of mass communication in expression of polyculturalism, which determines the relevance of this study. It is revealed that the communication driven polyculturality and polylingual effect of mass communication in modern journalism make one whole with the needs analysis and relevant terminology in instruction of Telejournalism as an LSP (language for specific purposes) in different languages. It is characterized how the panorama of communication driven polyculturality and polylingualism, as well as the ‘journalism’ concept affect media communication. It is determined which are the stylistic possibilities of journalism in structuring, presenting and perceiving mass information in different cultures and languages, by covering the communicative aspects driven by polyculturality and polylingualism in modern journalism. It is also described that relevant language units are seen as a means of forming a language and communicative standard in journalistic texts, which can be adopted by future LSP teachers in educational settings for language instruction and acquisition in relation to terminology of journalism in different languages across the world. In the end, it is concluded what may be underlying for journalistic language in difeferent languages to constitute the polycultural communication driven framework rather than that of multiculturality; and to be advanced further in polylingual classes by future LSP educators.

Literature Survey on Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions of Oral Error Correction in the EFL/ESL Classroom

Oral Error Correction (OEC) is an essential component in the English language classroom, and how teachers do it can impact students’ learning in different ways. Above all, it is important for scholars to understand what teachers and students think about OEC, so that any similarities and mismatches in perceptions can be further explored and strategies for effective learning through OEC can be proposed. Thus, through this study, author aims to investigate the teachers’ and students’ perceptions toward OCF. With more than 20 research articles thoroughly studied, author presents a literature survey by investigating the students’ perceptions regarding what types of OCF they prefer, when, and by whom (teachers and/or peers) and teachers’ perceptions toward their choices of OEC. It was found that while students and teachers consider OEC to be of paramount importance for positive learning outcomes, there are also similarities and mismatches in terms of what types of OEC they prefer, by whom, and when. One outstanding mismatch was that while students like to get all their errors corrected, teachers do not consider it as pragmatic. The results also highlighted that teachers could create platforms for students to express their opinions about OEC and they should learn about various OEC methods to choose the best ones that fit students’ needs, proficiency, and the activity type.