Providing Patient Care Research Articles

Impact of Pharmacy-Related Memes on Students’ Professional Identity Formation

ObjectiveProfessional identity formation (PIF) is the process which one internalizes the values and norms of a profession, ultimately becoming a member of that profession. The objective of this study was to determine the perceived professional identities of pharmacists in memes and how pharmacy-related memes affect students’ PIF. MethodsStudent pharmacists from a single academic institution participated in focus groups to discuss the concept of professional identity, view self-submitted pharmacy-related memes, and reflect on the memes’ impact on their PIF. An inductive, thematic content analysis was performed, and a theoretical model was developed to illustrate the themes observed. ResultsTwenty-six student pharmacists participated in the study. Before exposure to the self-submitted memes, the participants described the professional identity of a pharmacist in a more idealistic way, noting pharmacist roles such as medication expert, educator, and patient care provider. After exposure to the memes, the participants’ responses reflected a pharmacist identity based on feelings of being antagonized, overwhelmed, and misperceived. Despite these challenges, the participants noted the importance of remaining professional. ConclusionWhen exposed to pharmacy-related memes, the students’ perceptions of the pharmacist identity changed from one based on idealistic roles to an identity based on negative feelings and interactions. Owing to memes’ ability to reflect one’s experiences, it is important to recognize the impact memes may have on PIF. Further research is needed to determine how pharmacy educators can help students navigate identity dissonances that arise from the students’ pharmacy experiences.

Preoperative Communication Between Anesthesia, Surgery, and Primary Care Providers for Older Surgical Patients

Suboptimal communication between clinicians remains a frequent driver of preventable adverse health care-related events, increased costs, and patient and physician dissatisfaction. Cross-sectional surveys on preoperative interspecialty communication, tailored by stakeholder type, were administered to (1) primary care providers in northern New England, (2) anesthesia providers working in the perioperative clinic of a tertiary rural academic medical center, (3) surgeons from the same center, and (4) older surgical patients who underwent preoperative assessment at the same center. In total, 107/249 (43.0%) providers and 103/265 (39.9%) patients completed the survey. Preoperative communication was perceived as logistically challenging (59.8%), particularly across health systems. More than 77% of anesthesia and surgery providers indicated that they communicate frequently or sometimes, but 92.5% of primary care providers indicated that they rarely or never communicate with anesthesia providers. Some of the most common reasons for preoperative communication were discussion of complex patients, perioperative medication management, and optimization of comorbidities. Although 96.1% of older surgical patients reported that preoperative communication between providers is important, only 40.4% felt that their providers communicate very or extremely well. Many patients emphasized the importance of preoperative communication between providers to ensure transfer of critical clinical information. Surgeons and anesthesiologists infrequently communicate with primary care providers in one rural tertiary center, in contrast to patient expectations and values. These study results will help identify priorities and potentially resolvable barriers to bridging the gap between the inpatient perioperative and outpatient primary care teams. Future studies should focus on strategies to improve communication between hospital and community providers to prevent complications and readmission.

A Modified and Refined Classification System for Secondary Cleft Nasolabial Deformities.

Secondary cleft lip (CL) deformities are commonly encountered in cleft management. Various attempts have been made to create a classification system that can comprehensively encapsulate residual CL deformities after primary repair. The aim of this study is to reinforce valid classification systems and to introduce a new classification subtype (Type V Revision). A longitudinal retrospective analysis was done in 35 outreach programs in 4 countries (Ecuador, Lebanon, Peru, and El Salvador) between 2015 and 2023. Two hundred sixty-nine patients, between the ages of 9 months and 45 years, with residual CL deformities after primary lip repair, were classified into one of the 5 classification types. Patients with syndromes were excluded from the study. Patients received one of 5 revision types depending on their initial preoperative evaluation and intraoperative analysis of anatomic involvement. The mean age at surgery was 12.86 years. Twenty-five patients received type I revision, 29 patients received type II revision, 81 patients received type III revision, 106 patients received type IV revision, and 28 patients received type V revision. As the surgical complexity advanced from type I to V, there was a gradual increase in the average surgical time. The Congruence between preoperative and postoperative revision types was substantial. Residual CL defects cause a significant burden on both the patient and cleft care provider. This classification system, with the newly introduced type V revision, enhances and eases the categorization and management of secondary CL deformities.

Survey of staff experiences of potential stigma during the COVID19 pandemic.

The impact of COVID-19 on everyone's lives has been significant. However, there is also another factor related to the well-being of healthcare workers (HCWs) and that is how they are perceived by the general public. The aim of this study is to provide insight into the scope of this potential problem and describe how HCWs perceive community views and if this influences provision of patient care. A paper-based survey was conducted within mental health wards and community services as well as medical and surgical wards of a large metropolitan hospital in Queensland. Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to explore the dimensionality of the HCW stigma scale from the staff survey. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to assess validity and reliability. A total of 545 staff (67.9% nursing, 6.6% medical, 14.7% Allied Health and 10.8% Administrative) completed the survey between June and July 2020. Exploratory Factor Analysis showed that five factors explained 55% of the variance and represent factors of (i) Alienation, (ii) Social isolation, (iii) Perceived workplace harmony, (iv) Perceived job demands, (v) Clinical self-efficacy. The survey displayed high internal reliability and discriminant validity was observed for all subscales. Australian HCW's reported feeling well supported at work and appreciated by society in general during the pandemic, possibly because Australian healthcare services were better prepared than those countries that first experienced COVID-19.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice on Diabetic Retinopathy among Final-Year Medical Students in Riyadh.

This study aimed to evaluate the awareness, knowledge, and attitude on diabetic retinopathy of final-year medical students and the association of knowledge, attitude, and practice with the gender of medical students. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the College of Medicine, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The initial part of the questionnaire included demographic details, while the remaining parts of the questionnaire included six questions on knowledge, four on attitude, and three on practice. IBM SPSS Statistics 24 was used to retrieve and analyze data from an Excel file. A P value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Of 84 medical students, 51 (60.71%) and 33 (39.19%) were male and female medical students, respectively. The total knowledge score for male and female medical students was 4.28 (SD = 0.92). The majority of students correctly answered practice questions, indicating good significant practice toward diabetic retinopathy among diabetic patients with A score of 1.93 (SD = 0.83). The majority of final-year medical students were good in knowledge and practice toward prevention and treatment of diabetic retinopathy, which helps them become better future care providers for patients with diabetes and diabetic retinopathy.

A Qualitative Study into the Experiences and Motivation of Filipino Healthcare Professionals in Pre- and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic

Motivation is among the core components of work performance among individuals and organizations, particularly for workers facing challenging and complex work environments. The Self-Determination Theory analyzes the key elements of one’s motivation, focusing on intrinsic and extrinsic motivational patterns. Healthcare workers face specialized tasks (e.g., providing patient care) and daily challenges (e.g., weighty workloads) that test their motivation to pursue their chosen profession. In this article, the self-determination theory is applied to clarify both (a) experiences and (b) challenges of these healthcare workers employed in Cagayan de Oro City. The current study utilized an online qualitative survey to obtain responses from the target sample. The data were coded and thematically analyzed. Results indicate that participants experience both ends of the motivational continuum; some experience a personal inherent desire for continued learning and professional development, while others are motivated in their profession for increased financial compensation and benefits. These workers’ challenges include workload challenges, conflicts with colleagues, changes in the workplace environment, and difficulties encountered through patient interaction. Policymakers should focus on providing a balance between boosting healthcare workers’ monetary compensation, providing further growth and development in their field, and enhancing workplace conditions; improvements in their motivation level can be anticipated to increase.

Are Junior Residents Accurate at Predicting Fetal Weight? An Analysis of Junior Residents' Performance of Estimated Fetal Weight Using Ultrasound and Leopold's Maneuver.

Performing accurate estimated fetal weights (EFWs) is a critical skill developed in obstetrics residency training. Resident physicians are often the first to perform EFWs on obstetric patients when they enter care. Evaluating residents' accuracy in performing EFWs is crucial for assessing their achievement in residency training milestones and providing patient care. As part of an educational initiative program between 2014 and 2020, postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) and postgraduate year 2 (PGY2) residents performed EFW measurements on 10 term (>37w0d) patients using ultrasound and Leopold's maneuver and 10 preterm (>24w0d and <37w0d) patients using ultrasound. Clinical characteristics, mode of delivery, and actual birthweights (BWs) were recorded for each patient. The accuracy of these estimates was evaluated using mixed-effect regression models. Thirty-three residents, 1127 deliveries, and 1790 EFW measurements were evaluated. Overall, the percentage of residents with estimations within 10% of actual BW went up in PGY2 for Leopold's and ultrasound term births, but not for preterm ultrasound births. Maternal body mass index and actual BW were associated with absolute percentage estimation error. After adjusting for these variables, there was a statistically significant decrease in error between PGY1 and PGY2 for Leopold's method in term births; ultrasound (term and preterm) showed more modest reductions in error during PGY2. Resident physicians have accurate estimates of EFWs early in their training, beginning in their first year of residency by both Leopold's maneuver and ultrasound. Furthermore, PGY2 residents performed better than PGY1 residents for Leopold's method.

Mediating mechanism of posttraumatic growth as buffers of burnout and PTSD among nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study aims to investigate factors that prevent burnout (BO) and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while facilitating posttraumatic growth (PTG) among nurses combating the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with the purpose of validating the mediating effects of PTG. A total of 247 nurses who provided patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic were enrolled, and a questionnaire was used to measure BO, PTSD, and PTG, data on deliberate rumination, emotional expression, adaptive cognitive emotion regulation (CER), maladaptive CER, and social support. The mediation path models for the effects of the predictors on BO and PS through the mediation of PTG were analyzed using the R Lavaan package. The results showed that deliberate rumination, emotional expression, and adaptive CER significantly increased PTG, while PTG significantly reduced BO and PTSD symptoms (PSs). However, maladaptive CER did not have a significant effect on PTG and only had significant direct effects on BO and PS. Bootstrapping confirmed that PTG significantly mediated the effects of all predictors. It partially mediated the effects of deliberate rumination and adaptive CER and completely mediated the effects of emotional expression. Based on the results, it has been supported that deliberate rumination, emotional expression, and adaptive CER should be addressed as important variables in psychological interventions addressing nurses' adversities during the pandemic. These variables can prevent BO and PS by facilitating PTG.

The impact of care-recipient relationship type on mental health burden of caregivers for schizophrenia patients: evidence from Beijing, China.

To examine the impact of care-recipient relationship type on mental health burden of caregivers for schizophrenia patients in China, elucidating the underlying mechanisms. A cross-sectional study was conducted using face-to-face surveys administered to caregivers of patients with schizophrenia in selected communities in Beijing, China. 1,853 samples' data was used. Descriptive statistics, logistic regression models and Sheaf coefficient method were employed to analyze the data. The mental health burden experienced by caregivers of schizophrenia patients has reached a high level, with 66.9% reporting a moderate or severe impact from their caregiving responsibilities. Parents and spouses were the primary providers of care for schizophrenia patients in China. Parent caregivers experienced greater suffering in their caregiving role compared to spouse caregivers, whereas the difference between child caregivers and spouse caregivers was not significant. The factors influencing caregiver's mental health burden vary according to the type of relationship with the care-recipient. For parent caregivers, the mental health burden primarily stems from personal conditions of schizophrenia patients, while for spouse or child caregivers, it mainly arises from family economic conditions. This study reveals that caregivers having different types of care-recipient relationship with schizophrenia patients experience significantly different mental health burdens in Beijing, China, and major influencing factors are distinct according to different care-recipient relationship types.

Home Care Practices that Improve Performance of Activities of Daily Living of Patients Post-stroke:A Systematic Review.

Evidence is inconsistent on the effectiveness of home rehabilitation for patients post-stroke. This review aims to explore home care practices that improve the performance of activities of daily living of patients post-stroke. Adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA), clinical trials and mixed-methods studies published from 2012 to 2022 were gathered from PubMed, ScienceDirect, EBSCO, and ProQuest in December 2022. The Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used for quality appraisal. Narrative synthesis approach was utilized to present the findings. A total of 758 articles were screened, and 10 were included in the final analysis. Five out of ten programs were found superior compared with usual care. Factors that influence the effectiveness of the programs include the age of the participants, severity of disabilities, family participation, and presence of a multidisciplinary team. A multidisciplinary healthcare team approach toward the enhancement of knowledge, skills, and behaviors of patients and their families is common in effective home care. The role of nurses is emphasized not only as providers of direct patient care but also as coordinators of the healthcare team and patients and their families. This study provides insights for policymakers in developing healthcare system for post-stroke care. J. Med. Invest. 71 : 197-204, August, 2024.

Opportunities for Improving the Transplant Assessment and Education Process in British Columbia: Patient and Health Care Provider Perspective.

There are several steps patients and their health care providers must navigate to access kidney transplantation in British Columbia (BC). We explored perceptions and experiences with the pretransplant process across BC to determine where process improvements can be made to enhance access to transplantation. Anonymous surveys were sent online and via post to health care providers (including nephrologists, registered nurses, and coordinators) and patients across BC. Kidney care clinics, transplant regional clinics, and provincial transplant centers in BC. Surveys included Likert scale questions on the current pretransplant process and transplant education available in BC. The health provider survey focused on understanding the pretransplant process, knowledge, roles, and communication while the patient survey focused on patient education and experience of the pretransplant processes. A total of 100 health care providers and 146 patients responded. Seventy-six percent of health care providers understood their role and responsibility in the pretransplant process, while only 47% understood others' roles in the process. Fifty-nine percent of health care respondents felt adequately supported by the provincial donor and transplant teams. Seventy-one percent of registered nurses and 92% of nephrologists understood transplant eligibility. About 68% and 77% of nurses and nephrologists, respectively, reported having enough knowledge to discuss living donation with patients. Fifty percent of patients had received transplant education, of which 60% had a good grasp of the pretransplant clinical processes. Sixty-three percent felt their respective kidney teams had provided enough advice and tools to support them in finding a living donor. Fifty percent of patients reported feeling up to date with their status in the evaluation process. This analysis was conducted between December 2021 and June 2022 and may need to account for practice changes that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Responses are from a selection of health care providers, thus acknowledging a risk of selection bias. Furthermore, we are not able to verify patients who reported receiving formal transplant education from their health care providers. Exploring these themes suggests communication with regional clinics and transplant centers can be improved. In addition, patient and staff education can benefit from education on kidney transplantation and the pretransplant clinical processes. Our findings provide opportunities to develop strategies to actively address modifiable barriers in a patient's kidney transplantation journey.

Lived Experiences of Hospitalized Patients With Coronavirus Disease at Tibebe Ghion Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Bahir Dar, North West Ethiopia, A Phenomenological Study.

Hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease experienced different challenges at treatment centers; however, there is no evidence in Ethiopia on patients' experiences at COVID-19 treatment centers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the lived experiences of hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease at Tibebe Ghion Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, in 2021. A qualitative phenomenological study design with a heterogeneous purposive sampling technique was used. Fifteen hospitalized patients participated from March 15 to April 1, 2021. The information was gathered through an in-depth interview technique with an audio recorder. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data using Atlas Ti version 7.09 software. Hospitalized patients with the coronavirus disease had a variety of experiences with various phenomena. Lived experiences were identified with 2 major themes: the psychoemotional theme has 2 subthemes (psychological and emotional experience), and the context-related experience has 5 subthemes (socioeconomic, patient-health care provider, health facility-related, exposure prevention, and governmental-related factors). The study identified 2 major themes: 7 subthemes and 10 categories. Study participants faced different challenges, mainly hopelessness, anxiety, a lack of caregiver, isolation, a shortage of medications, poor communication between the patient and health care provider, and a lack of health insurance. Therefore, we recommend giving psychological support, improving communication between patients and health care professionals, and ensuring health insurance.

Review of the Patient Burden and Therapeutic Landscape of Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Constipation in the United States.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common disorder of the gut-brain axis. IBS with constipation (IBS-C) accounts for approximately one-third of IBS cases and is associated with substantial burden of illness and decreased quality of life. This narrative review provides an overview of the current and upcoming treatment options and disease management for IBS-C from a US perspective and discusses the importance of the relationship between patient and health care provider in diagnosis and treatment. A positive diagnostic strategy for IBS-C is recommended, based on clinical history, physical examination, and minimal laboratory tests. An effective communication strategy between patients and health care professionals is essential to ensure early diagnosis and reduce both health care costs and overall disease burden. Treatment typically begins with lifestyle interventions and nonpharmacologic options, such as dietary interventions, fiber supplements, and osmotic laxatives. In patients with inadequate response to these therapies, 4 currently available therapies (lubiprostone, linaclotide, plecanatide, and tenapanor) approved by the US Food and Drug Administration may relieve IBS-C symptoms. These agents are generally well tolerated and efficacious in improving IBS-C symptoms, including constipation and abdominal pain. In patients with persistent abdominal pain and/or psychological symptoms, brain-gut behavioral therapy or neuromodulator therapy may be beneficial.

Perspectives on Applying Organizational Psychology to Improve Rural Oncology Care

This editorial provides an interdisciplinary look at rural oncology care, blending healthcare delivery research, public health literature related to rural healthcare, and organizational science to better understand the benefits and challenges associated with rural cancer care. In particular, I provide a brief overview of how organizational psychology can and should be leveraged to better support rural oncology, including rural cancer centers, rural oncology teams, and individual healthcare professionals that practice in rural settings. This continued convergence of disciplines will further enhance oncology care provision for patients, improve rural healthcare professionals’ work experience, and provide sustainable practices for rural cancer care centers. Recommendations, specifically from the lens of organizational psychology, blended with expertise in rural healthcare, are provided to help researchers, leaders, and healthcare professionals continue to move forward with exemplary rural healthcare.

Analysis on Automatic International Classification of Disease Coding with Medical Records

The clinical concepts in the information gathered from the healthcare services are categorized and standardized using medical coding. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) includes codes for various diseases that have an impact on financing, reporting, and research. In order to provide patient care and billing, medical coding allocates a subset of ICD codes to each patient visit. Medical personnel must spend a lot of time and effort on manual medical coding, which can lead to missed revenue and claim denials. Different studies on machine learning achieved promising performance for automated medical coding. Many researchers carried out their research on ICD. But, heterogeneous mode of operations by doctors and diagnosis methods makes the medical coding as more complex one. Furthermore, the current ICD approaches did not reduce computational complexity or increase accuracy. To address these problems, a range of deep learning and machine learning approaches are tested for ICD.

Registered Nurses and Practical Nurses Working Together: An Institutional Ethnography

In Canada, different categories of nursing professionals, including registered nurses and practical nurses, often “collaborate” to provide care to patients. How their collaboration is currently conceptualized in the literature varies; and these conceptualizations are not always contextualized by the complex sociopolitical environment in which nursing professionals work. The purpose of this study was to explicate how different categories of nursing professionals (registered nurses and practical nurses) worked together to provide patient care after a provincial health authority implemented a new nursing care delivery model to “optimize” patient care. The authors used Smith’s institutional ethnography to guide the study, and data collection methods included observing, conducting interviews, and identifying the texts activated through the nursing professionals’ work. Data analysis focused on the social organization of the nursing professionals collaboration, while keeping the complex contexts within they completed their daily work in view. The article concludes with recommendations for future research.

Benchmarking Large Language Models in Evidence-Based Medicine.

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) represents a paradigm of providing patient care grounded in the most current and rigorously evaluated research. Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) offer a potential solution to transform EBM by automating labor-intensive tasks and thereby improving the efficiency of clinical decision-making. This study explores integrating LLMs into the key stages in EBM, evaluating their ability across evidence retrieval (PICO extraction, biomedical question answering), synthesis (summarizing randomized controlled trials), and dissemination (medical text simplification). We conducted a comparative analysis of seven LLMs, including both proprietary and open-source models, as well as those fine-tuned on medical corpora. Specifically, we benchmarked the performance of various LLMs on each EBM task under zero-shot settings as baselines, and employed prompting techniques, including in-context learning, chain-of-thought reasoning, and knowledge-guided prompting to enhance their capabilities. Our extensive experiments revealed the strengths of LLMs, such as remarkable understanding capabilities even in zero-shot settings, strong summarization skills, and effective knowledge transfer via prompting. Promoting strategies such as knowledge-guided prompting proved highly effective (e.g., improving the performance of GPT-4 by 13.10% over zero-shot in PICO extraction). However, the experiments also showed limitations, with LLM performance falling well below state-of-the-art baselines like PubMedBERT in handling named entity recognition tasks. Moreover, human evaluation revealed persisting challenges with factual inconsistencies and domain inaccuracies, underscoring the need for rigorous quality control before clinical application. This study provides insights into enhancing EBM using LLMs while highlighting critical areas for further research. The code is publicly available on Github.

Striking a Balance: Navigating Ethical Complexity in Healthcare: A reply to Mandal, Jharna; Ponnambath, Dinoop Korol; Parija, Subhash Chandra

Background: Medical ethics is a rational area of moral philosophy that addresses probable outcomes and disputes in duties and obligations. There are two schools of ethics that focus on decision-making: utilitarian and deontological. While in the utilitarian method, outcomes define the means and most benefit expected for the greatest number of people, in the deontological approach, outcomes/consequences may not only justify the means to attain them. In this paper we explore the idea of striking a balance proposed by Mandal J., et al (2016) between two very strong and conflicting ethical approaches (deontological &amp; utilitarian) viewpoints while making ethical decisions in the healthcare industry and focusing on real-world implementation challenges of these ethical approaches. We argue about the practical implication of “balance” as well as the limitations of “Dual processing theory of moral judgment”. Objectives: The objectives of this commentary are to critically analyze the concept of balance between utilitarian and deontological perspectives in ethical decision-making within healthcare and to highlight the challenges it poses in practical implementation. Conclusions: In conclusion, it is emphasized that striking a balance in healthcare ethics is important yet difficult, necessitating a dedication to compassion and honesty as well as a sophisticated grasp of ethical reasoning. In order to provide patient care that is both ethically sound and patient-centered, healthcare practitioners work to integrate utilitarian and deontological principles while taking into account a variety of contextual elements.

Conducted Electrical Weapon Fire Risk in the Presence of Supplemental Oxygen.

Conducted electrical weapons (CEWs) are nonlethal weapons used in tactical environments. Tactical EMS (TEMS) operators provide patient care in environments where CEWs are present. CEWs may produce a spark that can be a source of ignition. When supplemental oxygen is in use by a TEMS operator, the flammability risk from the CEW is unknown. We measured oxygen levels over 20 minutes in an enclosed space with a supplemental oxygen source maximally flowing. Measurements were taken at various distances from the oxygen source to establish baseline concentrations. These concentrations were replicated within a plexiglass box where a CEW was activated to create a sparking arc between probes embedded in a fresh swine shoulder (with skin intact). Various flammable materials, typically found in a patient care setting were used as potential fuel sources. The highest oxygen levels were achieved directly at the source. At 15cm from the source, the maximum oxygen concentration was 31.5%. Within the box, ignition was only achieved at oxygen concentrations greater than 45% and only when human hair was present as fuel. No ignition was achieved at oxygen levels below this regardless of the tested fuel present. Ignition from a CEW is possible at supplemental oxygen levels greater than 45% when human hair is present. In an enclosed space, oxygen concentration levels of 45% are only present within 15cm of a flush rate oxygen source. The likelihood of CEW-caused ignition in such settings with supplemental oxygen in use is extremely low.

Implementation of an Interprofessional Diabetes Management Clinic in the Rural Primary Care Setting.

Background: Access to a primary care provider is not guaranteed for many living in rural settings. Notably, rural populations experience a higher degree of burden from chronic diseases compared to urban-dwellers. For example, diabetes can go undiagnosed and undertreated with lack of primary care. To address these care gaps at a large, rural family medicine practice in western North Carolina, a multidisciplinary pharmacist-led diabetes clinic was developed. Objectives: This article describes the implementation, evolution, and impact of the diabetes management clinic and explores future directions for improving the experience of patients and health care providers. Practice Description and Innovation: The diabetes management clinic at Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) is a pharmacy resident-led interdisciplinary clinic incorporating nutrition and pharmacy learners to provide patient care in both telehealth and in-office settings. Since its inception in 2018, the clinic has facilitated meaningful learning opportunities for students and residents and helped patients manage their diabetes in a multifaceted approach. Evaluation Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional study evaluated diabetes-related outcomes for 80 patients seen in the diabetes management clinic during twelve months of appointments. The primary outcome measure was change in A1c from baseline. Results: Among patients with a follow-up A1c during the study (n=64), there was a mean reduction in A1c by 0.79% from baseline. Additionally, among those with a second follow-up A1c available (n=32), there was a mean reduction from baseline in A1c of 1.42%. Conclusion: The utilization of pharmacy residents as part of an interdisciplinary diabetes management clinic can extend access to care for underserved patients. The clinic also serves as a structured teaching clinic for interdisciplinary learners, and it has contributed to positive clinical outcomes, strong interprofessional collaboration, and expansion of experiential education opportunities since its inception in 2018.