Objectives. To design, implement, and evaluate student performance on clinically relevant chemical and spectral laboratory exercises on antibiotics. Design. In the first of 2 exercises, second-year pharmacy students enrolled in an integrated laboratory sequence course studied the aqueous stability of ß-lactam antibiotics using a spectral visual approach. In a second exercise, students studied the tendency of tetracycline, rifamycins, and fluoroquinolones to form insoluble chelate complexes (turbidity) with polyvalent metals. Assessment. On a survey to assess achievement of class learning objectives, students agreed the laboratory activities helped them better retain important information concerning antibiotic stability and interactions. A significant improvement was observed in performance on examination questions related to the laboratory topics for 2012 and 2013 students compared to 2011 students who did not complete the laboratory. A 1-year follow-up examination question administered in a separate course showed >75% of the students were able to identify rifamycins-food interactions compared with <25% of students who had not completed the laboratory exercises. Conclusion. The use of spectral visual approaches allowed students to investigate antibiotic stability and interactions, thus reinforcing the clinical relevance of medicinal chemistry. Students' performance on questions at the 1-year follow-up suggested increased retention of the concepts learned as a result of completing the exercises.

A Joint Cooperative Endeavor Agreement is a contract between a college of pharmacy and a hospital. Through this type of agreement, colleges are providing partially or fully funded faculty a teaching and practice site within both community and university hospitals. The purpose of this article is to discuss the benefits for both the colleges of pharmacy and the hospitals that engage in a joint agreement and to provide information for those wishing to establish such an agreement. This article will include details of the terms and conditions of joint agreements from two different statefunded universities. The details provided could be considered when establishing a joint agreement to ensure adequate division of responsibilities between the two entities; however, the agreement may need to be adapted based on specific university and hospital legal counsel.

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