2009-10 AACP Student Community Engaged Service Award announced

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.

In an attempt to incorporate this mission of Creighton University into the curriculum, pharmacy faculty members developed an elective course, Cardiovascular Risk Screening and Health Promotion, to provide students with opportunities to care for and serve underprivileged persons. While in the community, students are expected to counsel and educate patients and/or caregivers on cardiovascular risk and refer for appropriate follow-up if indicated. Through work at health screenings, students proactively collaborate, cooperate and communicate with other healthcare professionals as part of an interdisciplinary health promotion team. The pharmacy students who participate in the Cardiovascular Risk Screening and Health Promotion course have the opportunity to be involved with some of Omaha's largest health fairs. In the 2008-2009 academic year, 41 total pharmacy students successfully completed the course for a total of 502 community service hours. Approximately 2,200 community residents were served through this initiative.

The UNC Student Health Action Coalition (SHAC) is composed of students from all UNC health affairs schools, which allows student practitioners to work in teams to solve complex medical and lifestyle concerns for underserved patients in the community. The key branches of SHAC in which pharmacy students are currently involved include the Medical Clinic, SHAC Outreach and Beyond Clinic Walls. At the Medical Clinic, pharmacy students consult with medical teams (1-2 medical students with attending physician) and make recommendations for medical therapy. They encourage adherence to the SHAC formulary, when possible, which guarantees that the patient will receive the medication free of charge. SHAC Outreach works with local groups to assess ways for community members to get involved in maintaining and improving their health. Students identify unmet needs, partner with groups to create sustainable programs and provide support through materials, expertise and volunteers. In Beyond Clinic Walls, students form interdisciplinary teams and visit a client's home monthly to assess the client's health status, living conditions and concerns, and then share their observations with the client's primary care physician.