Thesenotes serve as a primary source to stay informed about essential dates, impending deadlines, upcoming exam schedules, and additional pertinent details. By regularly referring to your class notes, you can effectively organize your academic responsibilities, prepare adequately for exams, and ensure you never miss any important events or submissions.
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Objective. Clinical documentation is an important element of patient care that pharmacy students traditionally learn through subjective-objective-assessment-plan (SOAP) notes. In clinical practice, pharmacists often document more succinctly, both in length and time, using formats such as consult notes. The objective of this study was to assess consult note assignments for third-year pharmacy (P3) students.Methods. Consult note assignments were implemented in a P3 skills laboratory course by converting SOAP notes to consult notes. The series began with an introduction and a practice consult note. Four graded notes were then completed throughout the semester, whereby the time allotted for writing decreased throughout the semester. To assess the series, grades and estimated time to completion were collected for each graded note. A survey given before and after the course assessed student self-confidence in overall documentation, specific elements of consult notes, and concerns related to writing. Friedman tests were used to compare grades and times. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to compare self-assessments.Results. The median grades on the four consult notes were 92%, 88%, 80%, and 90%. Median times for completing each note were 75 minutes, 120 minutes, 60 minutes, and 60 minutes. Students' self-confidence in writing consult notes significantly increased, as did five of the six individual elements.Conclusion. The consult note assignments allowed students to practice documenting patient care in a succinct format with consideration for time efficiency. Further work should evaluate best pedagogies for teaching documentation skills and assess the impact on performance during advanced pharmacy practice experiences.
A patient originally admitted for GI bleed went to the OR for a perforated bowel. All of their orders were rewritten post-op by the surgical physician assistant. I was seeing the patient in the morning, before the ICU attending. I noted the following issues:
1. The patient had been switched from a PPI to famotidine, but they had a GI bleed earlier in the admission.
2. The patient was intubated but did not have an order for oral care with chlorhexidine.
3. The patient was septic with a perforated bowel but was on levofloxacin (30%+ resistance to e coli) and metronidazole. To find out what I would have recommended in place of levofloxacin check out episode 8 about empiric antibiotic section in the ICU.
For more detailed information on writing progress notes, using sticky notes for interventions (sometimes) and documenting clinical services outside of the medical record I have a Masterclass training in the Hospital Pharmacy Academy. Go to
pharmacyjoe.com/academy for immediate access.
The Subjective, Objective, Assessment and Plan (SOAP) note is an acronym representing a widely used method of documentation for healthcare providers. The SOAP note is a way for healthcare workers to document in a structured and organized way.[1][2][3]
This widely adopted structural SOAP note was theorized by Larry Weed almost 50 years ago. It reminds clinicians of specific tasks while providing a framework for evaluating information. It also provides a cognitive framework for clinical reasoning. The SOAP note helps guide healthcare workers use their clinical reasoning to assess, diagnose, and treat a patient based on the information provided by them. SOAP notes are an essential piece of information about the health status of the patient as well as a communication document between health professionals. The structure of documentation is a checklist that serves as a cognitive aid and a potential index to retrieve information for learning from the record.[4][5][6]
The CC or presenting problem is reported by the patient. This can be a symptom, condition, previous diagnosis or another short statement that describes why the patient is presenting today. The CC is similar to the title of a paper, allowing the reader to get a sense of what the rest of the document will entail.
Current medications and allergies may be listed under the Subjective or Objective sections. However, it is important that with any medication documented, to include the medication name, dose, route, and how often.
This is a list of the different possible diagnosis, from most to least likely, and the thought process behind this list. This is where the decision-making process is explained in depth. Included should be the possibility of other diagnoses that may harm the patient, but are less likely.
This section details the need for additional testing and consultation with other clinicians to address the patient's illnesses. It also addresses any additional steps being taken to treat the patient. This section helps future physicians understand what needs to be done next. For each problem:
The order in which a medical note is written has been a topic of discussion. While a SOAP note follows the order Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan, it is possible, and often beneficial, to rearrange the order. For instance, rearranging the order to form APSO (Assessment, Plan, Subjective, Objective) provides the information most relevant to ongoing care at the beginning of the note, where it can be found quickly, shortening the time required for the clinician to find a colleague's assessment and plan. One study found that the APSO order was better than the typical SOAP note order in terms of speed, task success (accuracy), and usability for physician users acquiring information needed for a typical chronic disease visit in primary care. Re-ordering into the APSO note is only an effort to streamline communication, not eliminate the vital relationship of S to O to A to P.
A weakness of the SOAP note is the inability to document changes over time. In many clinical situations, evidence changes over time, requiring providers to reconsider diagnoses and treatments. An important gap in the SOAP model is that it does not explicitly integrate time into its cognitive framework. Extensions to the SOAP model to include this gap are acronyms such as SOAPE, with the letter E as an explicit reminder to assess how well the plan has worked.[7][8][9][10]
Medical documentation now serves multiple needs and, as a result, medical notes have expanded in both length and breadth compared to fifty years ago. Medical notes have evolved into electronic documentation to accommodate these needs. However, an unintended consequence of electronic documentation is the ability to incorporate large volumes of data easily. These data-filled notes risk burdening a busy clinician if the data are not useful. As importantly, the patient may be harmed if the information is inaccurate. It is essential to make the most clinically relevant data in the medical record easier to find and more immediately available. The advantage of a SOAP note is to organize this information such that it is located in easy to find places. The more succinct yet thorough a SOAP note is, the easier it is for clinicians to follow.
October 15-21, 2023 is National Pharmacy Week, a time to recognize the contributions that pharmacists and pharmacy technicians make to patient care. Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved several change designations from prescription to over the counter (OTC), broadening the types of nonprescription drug products available to consumers. Pharmacists play a key role facilitating the safe and appropriate use of these medications to the patients who need them.
The most recent example of prescription to OTC switch occurred in July 2023, and pharmacists are key in the safe and effective transition of this medication. In July, the FDA approved norgestrel (Opill), the first daily oral contraceptive for OTC use in the United States.
About 95 percent of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a community pharmacy and estimates suggest that the general population visits a community pharmacy almost nine times as often as they see a primary care provider. This suggests that many patients may have greater access to discuss the details of their medications with pharmacists.
When medications no longer require a prescription, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in the community must be equipped to discuss crucial health and safety information about OTC medications, including drug interactions, adverse effects, and the importance of adherence.
Although OTC medications are not limited to pharmacies and may be sold at other retail locations, including convenience and grocery stores, pharmacies are the go-to location for many patients for good reasons. Pharmacists are equipped with a current medication profile for each patient at their preferred community pharmacy, which is crucial for identifying potential drug interactions. Pharmacists can highlight important information to ensure patient eligibility for the medication, understanding about how to take it, what to do in case of missed doses, and when to contact a physician or emergency facility.
With increased access to patient records in both the primary and secondary care sector, pharmacists can contribute to effective care coordination and enable seamless transitions between healthcare providers. Patient notes can take various forms, including handwritten notes, electronic medical records, or a combination of both. Regardless of the format, the principles of good documentation remain the same.
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