Four student-led community engagement projects will be awarded the 2009-10 AACP Student Community Engaged Service Award for their outstanding programs delivering consumer education about medication use, expanding access to affordable healthcare and improving the public’s health.
Teams from Midwestern University – Chicago, Purdue University, Creighton University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will each receive the national award, sponsored by Teva Pharmaceuticals, at the 2010 AACP Interim Meeting, “Patient-centered, Team-based Care: Setting the Standard.”
In addition to receiving a commemorative prize, the winning pharmacy colleges and schools will also receive $10,000 to be used exclusively to support the expansion of the recognized program or new community engaged service projects at the school. Other prizes include a $5,000 financial stipend administered to participating students to be used for enhancing or sustaining the recognized program or for travel support to attend and present their projects at professional meetings.
A student representative and faculty advisor from each of the following schools (listed in alphabetical order by state) will be honored with a Steuben glass Star Stream during the 2010 AACP Interim Meeting Community Engaged Service Awards Luncheon on Monday, Feb. 8 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Va.
The primary objective of CHAT (Collaborative Health Advocate Team) is to promote collaborative healthcare practice by recruiting and training students from pharmacy, medicine, physician assistant studies and other health science related programs on campus to work as a team in providing diabetes education and self-management training to people with the disease in underserved communities. The second objective is to provide community clinics serving underserved patient populations the opportunity to offer free diabetes prevention and self-management classes to their patients in small group settings with the goal of promoting healthy lifestyles and medication adherence while reducing health disparity. Currently every month, CHAT team members present one of four interactive educational sessions at each clinic throughout the calendar year. In addition to the educational sessions, CHAT offers medication therapy management and personal goal-setting services to patients. Regarding medication therapy management, CHAT team members assisted each patient in managing and understanding their current medication regimen including medications taken for conditions other than diabetes.
Since 2004, Purdue University School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (PU-SOPPS) students provide a variety of pharmaceutical care services in a resource-constrained setting in western Kenya. Student service learning activities are varied depending upon student interests. The activities fall into three main areas. The first is Pharmaceutical Care Services at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in which students provide pharmaceutical care on the adult and pediatric hospital wards every day. They are responsible for monitoring patients, recommending therapy, addressing out of stock and missed dose issues, educating patients and providing drug information. Students also provide patient education and counseling, fill prescriptions, complete order entry and offer assistance with stocking and pre-packing medications in the second area of service, Academic Model for Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) and MTRH Clinics: Patient Care and Projects. The most unique of the student services are the Sally Test Pediatric Center Activities. Pharmacy students developed, implemented and sustain a sewing initiative for families of hospitalized children. They provide care for children while their parents learn sewing skills which can be used to make clothing for their families or can be turned into a marketable trade, capable of providing income.