The American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists ETSU chapter won two awards at the APhA-ASP midyear regional conference in Atlanta.
Operation Diabetes won its first Region Three Award, and Generation Rx was recognized for the seventh consecutive year also picking up a Region Three Award.
Generation Rx was chaired by Megan Ferry throughout the 2018-19 awards cycle.
“Generation Rx’s mission is promoting safe medication practices for patients of all ages,” said Ferry.
Ferry said it is this mission that makes the program so successful, as well as the passion that drives the people involved.
“Hearing the stories [of patients the program has worked with] is really what drives us more than anything,” said Ferry. “The awards of course are nice, but it’s the patient outreach we love and what makes us keep coming back.”
The program also works on preventing the development of substance use disorders. Working in conjunction with ETSU President Brian Noland, it offers naloxone training to students and has been working on an initiative to equip all campus dorms with naloxone kits. Naloxone is a medication that is used to reverse an opioid overdose.
Over the course of all of their events, Generation Rx has educated over 5,000 people on medication prescription misuse. It has consecutively been named in the top two in the country for the past six years.
Operation Diabetes was chaired by Payton Tipton. The program’s aim is to help identify people in the community who may have undiagnosed diabetes or are at risk of it.
“We educate people on how to manage diabetes and how to check their blood glucose,” said Tipton.
Tipton reiterated the caring and passionate nature of the students involved with the programs.
“We have a lot of caring students who really put a lot of effort into it, and we have a lot of people in our community who are affected by diabetes,” she said.
Operation Diabetes screened nearly 90 students for blood glucose and evaluated over 50 individuals using the American Diabetes Association Risk Assessment.
