• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.8-12
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• 2022

Background: Woosuk University College of Pharmacy delivered patient counseling education and administered Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) by utilizing standardized patients (SP) in Introductory Pharmacy Practice course. Surveys were conducted to examine students' perception of SP and its impact on experiential education. Methods: Students learned patient counseling by didactic lecture and role-play, followed by hands-on practice with SP. Then, patient counseling skills were assessed during OSCE by utilizing SP. The first survey was conducted immediately after OSCE, and the second survey after the completion of Pharmacy Practice Experiences (PPEs). Results: According to the surveys, majority of the students agreed that utilizing SP was effective in building confidence for conducting patient counseling, reflecting on strengths and weaknesses of communication skills, and preparing for PPEs. It was particularly more effective than role-play in simulating patient counseling in a real pharmacy and reflecting on oneself. Also, OSCE was an appropriate method to assess patient counseling skills and utilizing SP for this purpose was well-suited. Conclusion: Although it is very new in South Korea, other developed countries are already widely utilizing SP, and its importance and necessity have been proven by several studies. Therefore, Korean colleges of pharmacy should begin discussing how to utilize SP to improve students' communications skills and implementing OSCE to evaluate those skills.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.50-59
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• 2008

Objective: The aim for this article was to evaluate and to clarify the current opinions of the registered pharmacists concerning their recognition and adoption rates about introducing the preceptorship into the clinical pharmacy internship and clerkship. Methods: A 25-question-questionnaire was developed and pilot tested. For 40 days of survey by both on-line and on site, 90 over 240 (37.5%) registered pharmacists responded and the data were analyzed with comparison to the groups working in community and hospital pharmacies. Results: The overall answers were affirmative and the respondents were very interested in the application of the clinical preceptorship to the pharmacy educational and to their clinical settings. Moreover, the qualification level and the implementation methods were proposed in detail. Conclusion: Although ninety pharmacists showed their views differently, most of the respondents regarded the preceptorship as an adequate training system for the pharmacy students as well as junior pharmacists at the time of initiation of the new 6-year pharmacy education system in Korea.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.373-378
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• 2017

Ocotillol-type saponins are one kind of tetracyclic triterpenoids, sharing a tetrahydrofuran ring. Natural ocotillol-type saponins have been discovered in Panax quinquefolius L., Panax japonicus, Hana mina, and Vietnamese ginseng. In recent years, the semisynthesis of 20(S/R)-ocotillol-type saponins has been reported. The biological activities of ocotillol-type saponins include neuroprotective effect, antimyocardial ischemia, antiinflammatory, antibacterial, and antitumor activities. Owing to their chemical structure, pharmacological actions, and the stereoselective activity on antimyocardial ischemia, ocotillol-type saponins are subjected to extensive consideration. In this review, we sum up the discovery, semisynthesis, biological activities, and metabolism of ocotillol-type saponins.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.704-716
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• 2020

Background: Ginsenoside Rh2 (GRh2) is a characterized component in red ginseng widely used in Korea and China. GRh2 exhibits a wide range of pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticancer properties. However, its effects on Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infection have not been clarified yet. Methods: The effect of GRh2 against T. gondii was assessed under in vitro and in vivo experiments. The BV2 cells were infected with tachyzoites of T. gondii RH strain, and the effects of GRh2 were evaluated by MTT assay, morphological observations, immunofluorescence staining, a trypan blue exclusion assay, reverse transcription PCR, and Western blot analyses. The in vivo experiment was conducted with BALB/c mice inoculated with lethal amounts of tachyzoites with or without GRh2 treatment. Results and conclusion: The GRh2 treatment significantly inhibited the proliferation of T. gondii under in vitro and in vivo studies. Furthermore, GRh2 blocked the activation of microglia and specifically decreased the release of inflammatory mediators in response to T. gondii infection through TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway. In mice, GRh2 conferred modest protection from a lethal dose of T. gondii. After the treatment, the proliferation of tachyzoites in the peritoneal cavity of infected mice markedly decreased. Moreover, GRh2 also significantly decreased the T. gondii burden in mouse brain tissues. These findings indicate that GRh2 exhibits an antieT. gondii effect and inhibits the microglial activation through TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway, providing the basic pharmacological basis for the development of new drugs to treat toxoplasmic encephalitis.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2023

Objective: There is a growing interest in the safe use of medications in pregnant and breastfeeding women. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find ways to improve education about safe medication use by investigating the status of medication use of pregnant and breastfeeding women, and by evaluating their knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward safe medication use. Methods: In this study, a self-report questionnaire was conducted on pregnant or breastfeeding women in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The questionnaire consisted of the following four sections; 1) sociodemographic characteristics of participants, 2) experience of medication use, 3) experience of being educated on safe medication use, and 4) knowledge, attitudes, and practices about medication use during pregnancy/breastfeeding. Results: A total of 203 participants were included in the analysis. Of these, 38.4% reported to take prescription medications during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Regarding education on safe medication use, nearly 90% of the participants answered that they were not educated or were unsure whether they had it. In the knowledge-attitude-practice evaluation on safe medication use, the knowledge level was the highest (mean, 4.45), followed by the attitude level (mean, 3.58) and the practice level (mean, 3.33). The preferred education method of the participants was online education using a computer or mobile phone application, etc. Conclusions: This study suggests that there is a need for systematic and effective education that can link knowledge of safe medication use with attitudes and practices in pregnant and breastfeeding women.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.23-35
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• 1983

Since the national health insurance was introduced in 1978, the increased utilization of hospitals and the growing importance of pharmaceutical services to hospital patients have made the administration of these services a very complex and specialized responsibility. The pharmaceutical services has always been an essential component of comtemporary hospital care. In the hospital, the pharmaceutical services is the professional department which concerns itself with the evaluation, selection, control and utilization of drugs. The director of this service must be a versatile professional person who can work effectively in a heterogenous society of educated persons. However, graduate education in hospital pharmacy has not been introduced yet in Korea. The necessity of graduate education hospital pharmacy has been discussed in this research. Graduate education in hospital pharmacy emphasizes preparation for assumption of responsibility as the senior hospital pharmacist or the director of pharmaceutical services. Graduates should also be prepared as administrators of a department that must operate with great efficiency. They should be prepared serve as a consultant on drugs for the medical and allied health professional staff, organizing and disseminating a large and dynamic body of information in their interest and to establish professional roles that emphasize procurement, storage, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, control and evaluation of drugs. Senior hospital pharmacist is a teacher charged with responsibility fer formal and informal instruction of other hospital personnel in pharmaceutical sciences. In addition, the graduates have the opportunity to be a researcher dealing with aspect of hospital care and are intensively educated in the professional aspects of hospital pharmacy practices. The curriculum of graduate education in hospital pharmacy should be established detailly and carefully to fit the educational objective.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.296-303
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• 2014

Background: The first pharmacy student practice undergoing 6 year pharmacy school curriculum have begun in the hospital pharmacy, community pharmacy, pharmaceutical company and administrative office since 2013. Although most of practice sites have prepared the program of pharmacy student practice education for several years under guideline of Korean Association of Pharmacy Education, generally community pharmacies which start the pharmacy student practice education have difficulty in performing the desirable student practice program due to absent experience for it. So we reported the comparison of student practice programs between mono pharmacy and multiple pharmacies conducted by Gyeongsang National University College of Pharmacy to provide the future design information of the ideal pharmacy student practice in community pharmacy. Method: Students who practiced both multiple (multi) and mono pharmacy (mono) programs for each 5 weeks were participated the survey to evaluate the student practice programs. Results: The results of the survey on the student practice program reported that students were much more satisfied with the multiple pharmacies program than mono pharmacy program in both practical contents ($4.12{\pm}0.72$ : $3.27{\pm}1.28$; multi : mono) and satisfaction ($4.54{\pm}0.54$ : $3.54{\pm}1.3$; multi : mono) and they all gave the highest points ($5.00{\pm}0.00$) to multiple pharmacies program for recommendation because the multiple pharmacies program was significantly helpful for their experience to plan the future career. Conclusion: Mono and multiple pharmacy practice programs would be a great helpful for student's future career. However, the disadvantages of each program should be amended gradually for the unified and specialized program to be established the ideal community pharmacy student practice in Korea. The results will be affected the pharmacy practice program for students in community pharmacy and the other colleges of pharmacy to design the ideal community pharmacy practice program.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.285-292
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• 2021

Background: Recently, the Korean Association of Pharmacy Education has been focusing on competency-based education (CBE) and has established required areas of competencies to improve the graduation competency. However, competency-based assessment (CBA) tools for implementing CBE have not yet been developed for faculty members and students to successfully access the assessment tests. Moreover, the faculty members in charge in pharmacy schools have encountered various barriers in recruiting individuals with integrated clinical experience to act as virtual patients. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the advantages and limitations of applying CBA tool and faculty assessors in the development of CBE to ensure the reliability of this assessment. Methods: Utilizing CBA tool, the students' communication skills and styles were assessed. students and faculty assessors were surveyed to evaluate the advantages and limitations of the CBA tool. Results: 8 assessors and 96 students participated in this study. 100% (8/8) of the faculty assessors and 77.4% (65/84) of the students reported that CBA tool is valuable to assess and improve student's ability. 90.5% (76/84) of the students felt confident in applying knowledge to patient-centered care. CBA tool can be a valuable for the instructors in identifying the competency level of students but can also be associated with limitations in implementation to ensure the objectivity and reliability of the CBA. Conclusions: The CBA tool can be valuable in assessing the level of students' competency. Faculty assessors have the advantage of well-prepared themselves for patient roles, so that the time and cost required may be minimized.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.281-287
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• 2022

Pharmacists should maintain professional competencies to provide optimal pharmaceutical care services to patients, which can be achieved through continued commitment to lifelong learning. Traditionally continuing education (CE) has been widely used as a way of lifelong learning for many healthcare professionals. It, however, has several limitations. CE is delivered in the form of instructor-led education focused on multiple learners. Learning is passive and reactive for participants, so it sometimes does not lead to bringing behavioral changes in workplace performance. Therefore, recently the concept of lifelong learning tends to move from CE toward continuing professional development (CPD). CPD is an ongoing process that improves knowledge, skills, and competencies throughout a professional's career. It is a more comprehensive structured approach toward the enhancement of personal competencies. It emphasizes an individual's learning needs and goals and enables learning to become proactive, conscious, and self-directed. CPD consists of four stages: reflect, plan, learn, and evaluate. CE is one component of CPD. Each stage is recorded in a CPD portfolio. There are many practical difficulties in implementing the complete CPD system for lifelong learning of pharmacists in many countries including Korea. Applying a hybrid form that utilizes CPD and CE together, as in the case of some countries, could be an alternative. Furthermore, in undergraduate pharmacy education, it is necessary to teach students about CPD and train them on how to perform CPD as a pharmacist.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.111-115
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• 2010

The flowers of Nyctanthes arbor-tristis Linn. of Oleaceae widely used in Ayurvedic system of medicine for the treatment of diuresis, liver disorder, spleen enlargement sciatica, bitter, stomachic, carminative and tonic to hair. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the alcoholic and aqueous extracts of the flowers of Nyctanthes arbor-tristis for hepatoprotective effect against carbontetrachloride induced liver damage in rats. Administration of alcoholic and aqueous extracts of the leaves of Nyctanthes arbor-tristis protect the liver from toxic effects of carbontetrachloride by reducing the elevated levels of Serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase, Serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase, Alkaline phosphatase and serum bilirubin. Results revealed that both the alcoholic and aqueous extracts showed significant hepatoprotective activity by reducing the elevated levels of biochemical parameters at a dose of 200 mg/kg body weight. The results were supported by histopathological studies of liver samples which showed regeneration of hepatocytes by the extracts.