Between Nov. 1 and 16, 2019, pharmacy schools across the country sent a total of 223 students to community pharmacies to support advanced pharmacy care services, and 15 of those students were from ETSU.
ETSU’s Bill Gatton School of Pharmacy was one of 34 colleges of pharmacy to participate in Academia CPESN Transformation Pharmacy Collaborative’s first National Day of Service with a total of 1,405 patients cared for across the country, according to ACT Pharmacy Collaborative’s National Day of Service Results 2019.
“The idea was – behind National Day of Service and some other things that the ACT collaborative is doing – was that if we can show impact on a local scale, wouldn’t it be great if we could show impact on a national scale?” said Dr. Katelyn Alexander, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice.
ACT is a movement, in coordination with the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, that grew out of people in academic settings wanting to support local pharmacy networks and trying to find ways to help them be more successful in the patient care services they offer, according to Alexander. The collaborative’s goal is to bring more clinical services into community pharmacies by increasing patient and community engagement, exposing student pharmacists to advanced care services at Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network pharmacies and fostering partnerships between CPESN pharmacies and pharmacy schools.
CPESN is a nationwide group with regional and statewide networks of independent and smaller-chain pharmacies focused on specialty and patient-driven services. Alexander said these pharmacies work with different healthcare partners such as physician offices, hospital groups or insurance companies in order to provide more services to patients and to help improve outcomes.
When organizing the National Day of Service, Alexander said they reached out to student organizations on campus that had compatible missions with ACT such as Gatton’s National Community Pharmacists Association student chapter and the American Pharmacist Association Academy of Student Pharmacists.
On Nov. 16, groups of ETSU pharmacy students visited four East Tennessee pharmacies: West Towne Pharmacy in Johnson City, Olde Towne Pharmacy in Jonesborough, Atchley Drug Center in Greeneville and Colonial Heights Pharmacy and Gifts in Kingsport. Along with educating patients about vaccines, blood pressure, blood sugar and healthy lifestyle changes, students helped pharmacists provide services such as blood pressure checks, flu shots and pneumonia vaccines.
Pharmacy student Miranda Green, whose group visited Atchley Drug Center, said vaccine education was a primary focus. For her, giving patients information that enabled them to be in charge of their own health was a “really good feeling.”
“We had a patient come in who was a smoker and did not have any interest in the vaccines, and after talking with him he ended up getting a flu shot and pneumonia shot that day,” Green said. “So, we ended up kind of converting someone who doesn’t really care much about vaccinations to being more proactive in preventing preventable diseases, which is kind of cool.”
Alexander said through the education and screenings, students spent more in-depth time with patients, which not only allowed students to help their community but also provided them with enrichment and career development.
“It’s great for patients,” Alexander said. “It’s a great learning experience for students to be able to practice in real life, and the other thing we really liked about it was getting students out to these pharmacies that are doing really innovative things to show them the opportunities they’ll have in their future career because a lot of students don’t realize that most independent pharmacies have those kind of services.”
As someone who works in community pharmacy, Jonathan Brewster said the service opportunity was both beneficial for patients and for pharmacy students like him because he could see pharmacists’ abilities and limitations legally.
“The pharmacist is one of the most easily accessible healthcare professionals,” Brewster said. “A patient can just come in from off the street and talk to us, so showing patients that we can do these enhanced services and better care for their health was kind of a step in the right direction as far as our profession goes.”
Alexander said the college of pharmacy plans to participate in the event again next year.
“Hopefully in the future we’ll be able to target a new assortment of pharmacies; continue growing both student engagement and then also helping those pharmacies kind of boost their own level of practice,” Alexander said.
To learn more about the ACT Pharmacy Collaborative mission and upcoming events, visit https://www.actforpharmacy.com/. For more information about ETSU Bill Gatton School of Pharmacy, visit https://www.etsu.edu/pharmacy/.
