Students earn four national honors at 2022 American Pharmacists Association annual meeting
Student Ally White is one of four in the nation honored with leadership award.
Janel Shoun-Smith |
The Lipscomb College of Pharmacy brought home four national awards and additional accolades from the 2022 American Pharmacists Association annual meeting this past spring.
For the second time in chapter history, Lipscomb’s chapter of the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists was crowned the national first place winner for their Operation Immunization activities in the 2020-2021 school year.
In that time period, 124 APhA-ASP chapters nationwide participated in the Operation Immunization campaign, immunizing 1,286,161 patients and providing 1,123,049 patients with health and wellness or clinical services.
Of that total, the Lipscomb chapter prepared and provided 33,472 vaccines including influenza and COVID-19 and provided education and recommendations for shingles, pneumonia and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines in Middle Tennessee.
Lipscomb President Candice McQueen came to the pharmacy students for her 2022 flu shot.
The chapter has won the regional award for Operation Immunization three times prior to this national recognition.
This was a unique time for vaccinations for the chapter. When COVID-19 vaccinations became available in December of 2020 multiple health care facilities called our chapter to assist with the vaccination of employees. Chapter members immunized employees of Vanderbilt Medical Center, Skyline Hospital, HCA Corporate offices and, of course, Lipscomb University. The chapter also worked with Vanderbilt’s Mobile vaccine program to take COVID vaccines to underserved patients in their homes.
Recognizing the need for education and increased opportunities to receive immunizations, the APhA-ASP and the Student National Pharmaceutical Association collaboratively developed Operation Immunization in 1997.
Lipscomb pharmacy students prepared and provided 33,472 vaccines including influenza and COVID-19.
Lipscomb’s chapter also claimed the second runner-up prize for Operation Diabetes, a program which seeks to increase overall awareness of diabetes and the role pharmacists play in prevention and managing the effects of diabetes. By conducting blood glucose screenings and educating the public on the risk factors for diabetes and the importance of medication compliance and tight control on blood glucose, student pharmacists can help individuals across the nation improve their quality of life.
The chapter partnered with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to hold a stuffed animal drive for a local type 1 diabetes clinic. These stuffed animals are given to the children who come for their diabetic medical appointments to comfort them during procedures. They also provided Lunch and Learns for chapter members helping them learn how to screen patients for diabetes and how to properly use a variety of diabetic testing devices.
Operation Diabetes was launched as an official APhA-ASP National Patient Care project in 2001. Since that time, over 700,000 individuals have been screened for abnormal blood glucose levels.
Pharmacy students coordinated an afterschool health education program for Lipscomb Academy students.
Lipscomb’s students also won the AAA Division Chapter Achievement Award. This award was established in 1974 to recognize outstanding activities of APhA–ASP chapters at the schools and colleges of pharmacy in the United States and Puerto Rico.
The award is designed to recognize superior programming among chapters that envision the future of pharmacy by creating opportunities for student participation. Winning chapters embrace the core ideas of APhA–ASP’s mission to create new standards of leadership, professionalism, membership, patient care and legislative advocacy among student pharmacists nationwide.
Ally White won the APhA-ASP Student Leadership Award.
Finally, student pharmacist Ally White won the APhA-ASP Student Leadership Award. Only four students in the entire country receive this award, established in 1983, to recognize outstanding students’ academic achievement and leadership ability in APhA-ASP at the local, regional and national levels.
Ally has served on the local chapter’s APhA-ASP executive committee for two years. She served as the patient care vice president and as chapter president during an extremely challenging time when many of the meetings were being held on zoom and the chapter had to get creative and hold many activities virtually due to the pandemic. Her leadership helped the chapter reach the other side of this pandemic just as strong as it was previously.
Faculty sponsors of Lipscomb’s APhA-ASP chapter are Dr. Sarah Uroza and Dr. Justin Kirby.