Pharmacy partnership with local high school wins city award

Lipscomb student pharmacists helped prepare high schoolers to take the pharmacy technician's exam in a year-long pharmacy science course

Janel Shoun-Smith  | 

 

A partnership between the Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy and the John Overton High School Academy of Health Sciences was awarded earlier this month with the Academies of Nashville 2015 Academy Partnership of the Year: Health & Public Service Award.

The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce has held awards for the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools Academies of Nashville program for five years. The awards are designed to honor schools, teachers, students, administrators and stakeholders who exemplify excellence in preparing high school students for college and career readiness through applied learning in a theme-based school environment.

Since the beginning of the school year, several fourth-year students at Lipscomb’s College of Pharmacy have spent a portion of their month-long advanced pharmacy practice experience in education developing curriculum and co-teaching a pharmacological science class held at Overton’s health academy.

Overton teacher Denise Wigginton taught the course, developing grading metrics and designing tests, while Lipscomb’s students worked with her to develop content, presentations, study guides and lab exercises. Lipscomb students:

  • Prepared hands-on activities illustrating specialized pharmacy skills in the areas of medication compounding, counting and liquid measurements;
  • Held a “dispensing day” where students went through the entire process of dispensing a drug with a fake patient;
  • Held a mock pharmacy board meeting with Lipscomb pharmacy administrators; and
  • Took students on a tour of the pharmacy facilities on Lipscomb’s campus.

All lessons were designed to help the students meet the required standards to pass the pharmacy technician certification exam, allowing them to gain employment in the pharmaceutical field even if they chose not to go college after graduation.

The program was featured on Nashville’s WPLN radio as well as the National Public Radio show “All Things Considered” as an innovative example of bringing vocational education back into America’s high schools.

Metro Nashville Public Schools introduced the Academies of Nashville in 2008, based on the concept of creating small learning communities within each comprehensive high school with individually tailored programs based on their career interests and aptitudes.

“The Academies of Nashville have been nationally recognized as a successful strategy for engaging students through relevant, hands-on learning,” said Ralph Schulz, president and CEO, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, when the nominees were announced in March. “These nominees are on the cutting edge of helping young people prepare for college and career.”

Award winners were chosen from the list of nominees by high school executive principals, assistant principals, lead teachers, coaches, MNPS executive staff, school board members, academy partnership council members and partners and CEO champions of the program.

Lipscomb’s College of Education, College of Computing & Technology and Institute for Conflict Management also work with Nashville’s academies program at local schools throughout the city.