Happy American Pharmacists Month!

As most of you probably know by now, October is American Pharmacists Month. We are lucky to have an entire month to celebrate the wonderful profession of pharmacy! However, not everyone is able to celebrate for the entire month, which is why this week of October 21, 2012 is Pharmacy Week!

Typically, this week is dedicated to hosting specific pharmacy events in pharmacies across Michigan to recognize the pharmacy team. Some hospitals are offering tours of the pharmacy to all hospital employees so that other healthcare workers can understand some of the medication process, while others are doing smaller events such as hosting a lunch for all pharmacy team members or passing out boxed lunches.

The main point of Pharmacy Week is to educate the public and other healthcare professionals about the hard work the pharmacy team does every day in ensuring patient safety and accurate medication dispensing, as well as advocating for our profession.
So, take the time during this Pharmacy Week to not only recognize the pharmacists, but also the pharmacy technicians, stocking personnel, pharmacy administration and receptionists that make pharmacies and pharmacy departments run smoothly. After all, a pharmacist must rely on the hard work of the entire pharmacy team–we wouldn’t be able to do our job as pharmacists without them!

–Ashley, SPAN Liaison (bb9946@wayne.edu)

As a side note, October 17th, 2012 was APhA’s National “Make Your Mark” Day.  How have you made your mark on the profession of Pharmacy this month?

Your SPAN Update, As Promised…

The Winter semester is always a hot bed of advocacy and potential change for the profession of Pharmacy, despite the temperatures outside.

MPA Annual Convention 2012 – Detroit, MI

This weekend, WSU will be sending 5 delegates to the MPA’s House of Delegates on Sunday morning to vote on proposals that will possibly change the landscape of Pharmacy in the state of Michigan.  We plan to update you with the outcomes of the house session, along with other happenings of the event here soon after.

APhA-ASP National Meeting – New Orleans, Louisiana

Alas!  The proposals being considered at this year’s national meeting have finally been released and are now out for the public’s consideration.  Below you will find a list of the proposals:

2012.1 Antimicrobial Stewardship

1. APhA-ASP encourages hospitals, community pharmacies, and other health systems to implement and continually optimize antimicrobial stewardship programs according to current guidelines.

2. APhA-ASP encourages pharmacists and student pharmacists to take an active role in the implementation and continuation of antimicrobial stewardship practices, including, but not limited to, prospective audits, formulary restrictions, dose optimization, and education to minimize drug- resistant organisms and improve clinical outcomes.

2012.2 Pharmacy Job Market Data Disclosure and Career Services

1. APhA-ASP strongly encourages all schools and colleges of pharmacy to disclose current and projected local, state, and regional pharmacy manpower data in admissions materials to prospective student pharmacists.

2. APhA-ASP encourages ACPE and other pharmacy education stakeholders to include the disclosing of current and projected local, state, and regional pharmacy manpower data as a requirement in the standards and guidelines for accreditation.

3. APhA-ASP strongly encourages all schools and colleges of pharmacy to provide career and job placement services to their student pharmacists and recent graduates.

2012.3 Expansion of Schools and Colleges of Pharmacy Relative to Pharmacist Demand

APhA-ASP strongly encourages that all current and future schools and colleges of pharmacy considering expansion or creation of PharmD programs evaluate the projected demand for pharmacists in their local, state and regional area prior to taking such actions.

2012.4 Proper Medication Disposal and Drug Take-Back Programs

1. APhA-ASP encourages the profession of pharmacy, federal and state regulator agencies, law enforcement, waste management authorities, and other appropriate entities to develop and implement standardized guidelines for the proper disposal of unused or expired medications that help prevent drug abuse and reduce harm to the environment.

2. APhA-ASP supports state and federal regulations that allow pharmacists to take back unused or expired medications, including controlled substances, through a process that minimizes diversion, liability, and financial burden to all stakeholders.

3. APhA-ASP encourages pharmacists and student pharmacists to serve as a source of information for the public on the proper disposal of unused or expired medications.

2012.5 Training Program for Post-diagnostic Pharmacist Prescriptive Authority

APhA-ASP encourages the profession’s national organizations to develop an accredited training program that prepares pharmacists to have post-diagnostic prescriptive authority within the health care team.

2012.6 Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) Practices

1. APhA-ASP supports regulation of PBM audit practices and encourages the implementation of a national standardized audit procedure to include, but not be limited to, audit timeframes, a written appeals process, documentation requirements, and adherence to fair business practices.

2. APhA-ASP encourages all PBMs to notify patients prior to any changes or modifications in their plan that may include, but not be limited to, reaching their coverage gap, formulary adjustments, prior authorizations, and tier changes. The notification should be in a manner that is standardized, comprehensive, and easy to understand for all patient populations.

2012.7 Drug Shortages

APhA-ASP encourages transparency and cooperation between pharmacists, health care providers, FDA, manufacturers, distributors, and other stakeholders in the drug supply chain to anticipate and resolve drug shortages in order to reduce their impact on patient care.

There will be a Chapter Policy Discussion Meeting on Monday, February 27th at 11AM in LRC room 321 to discuss our stance on these proposals. For more information on these proposals such as background information and current opinion, please visit our SPAN page, HERE.

**As an aside, our chapter of ASP will be accepting nominations for e-board positions and will start collecting applications for chair positions after our next general meeting on March 19th, 2012.  Please feel free to e-mail any of us with any questions or if you are interested in running for a position.

What Have We Been Up To? Winter 2012 Updates

Despite a longer-than-usual winter break this year,  we have been back at it with a vengeance with our Winter/Spring schedule of events for 2012.  Slightly different than the Fall semester where our chapter’s events are focused on developing patient care skills, the second half of the year looks at more non-traditional opportunities to develop our skills as student Pharmacists.  Here is a recap of what we have been up to and what is yet to come:

Patient Care Counseling Competition 2012

Annually APhA-ASP holds a local patient counseling competition for our members. This competition allows student pharmacists to put their counseling skills to the test! The top 10 finalists that advanced to the 2nd round will receive prizes from APhA.

This year’s 10 finalists were:

Selmir Mahmutovic
Katelyn Payter
Deborah Bourquin
Jessica Traster
Matthew Duprey
Kathleen Beydoun
Amber Hanson
Jane Li
Karen Spiteri
Emily Fisher

ASP is pleased to announce the winner of the final round, Jane Li, who will be receiving a stipend to travel to the APhA Annual Meeting in New Orleans and compete in the National Patient Counseling Competition next month!

Congrats to you all and good luck Jane!!

APhA-ASP WSU Chapter’s Annual Pie in the Face Fundraiser 2012

Every year, our chapter of ASP holds a Pie in the Face fundraiser as a means of helping student Pharmacists travel to the APhA National meeting, and supplementing an end-of-year raffle that all of our members are entered into.  This year, these additional funds were especially important as a large number of students will be attending the National Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana in March.  As an E-board, we would like to extend special thanks to all who were in the running to be pie’d this year: Dr. Davis, Dr. Pinelli, Dr. Commissaris, Dr. Bach, and Dr. Pokorski as our faculty volunteers, and Anthony Jaworski, Alan Rozycki, Sonia Hassan, Emily Fisher, Minu Jacob, Margi Shah, Mike Gozdzialski, Mike Wodecki, Umang Desai, Greg Kozmor, and Jeff Krupinski as our student volunteers. Thanks to all who showed up and contributed to the cause–because of you we were able to surpass our goal of $500 and raised ~$789 for student travel.

Special thanks to Dr. Pokorski and Mike Wodecki for taking their pies with impeccable poise.

Things to Think About:

Call for Nominations

There will be a call for nominations out at our upcoming General Meeting on March 19th for Elected Positions for the 2012-2013 school year; at this meeting we will also discuss chair positions and what they entail.  If you are interested in running for an elected E-board position, or are curious as to what the job descriptions may entail, please feel free to contact any of us using the e-mail links at the right of this page–we would be happy to answer any questions.

Non-Traditional Patient Care Projects

Our award-winning Patient Care Project–Sex, Drugs, and the Dragon–is coming up on Wednesday, March 21st.  For this project, student pharmacists meet with students on WSU’s main campus and educate on the dangers of Hepatitis C and other STDs through a vehicle of thought-provoking games and discussion-starters.  This is an excellent opportunity to grow skills needed to talk with patients about topics that may be considered “taboo” or otherwise uncomfortable.  The training for this event is on February 20th so plan ahead–every year student pharmacists and participants alike have a great time!  If you have any questions or would like to be involved in this project, please contact David Ly (as0641@wayne.edu) or Danielle Herlehy (ba2915@wayne.edu).

MPA Annual Conference (http://www.michiganpharmacists.org/education/convention/)

TODAY is the last day to register for the Michigan Pharmacists Association’s Annual Convention for free for MPA members ($20 for non-members).  This is a great opportunity to network with pharmacists in your field of interest and other student pharmacists from Ferris State and U of M Schools of Pharmacy, or to meet other students from our own school–we are looking at a good turn out this year.  Events of note include: Student Pharmacist Social on Friday Night, Adopt-a-student Banquet on Saturday, Self-Care competition on Saturday, as well as the House of Delegates session and Awards Banquet on Sunday.  Please contact any E-board member if you have any questions or concerns–time is of the essence!

–Your 2012 ASP E-board

Keep your eyes peeled for a SPAN update soon!

Improving Patient and Health System Outcomes through Advanced Pharmacy Practice

This last December, a report was published to the U.S. Surgeon General titled “Improving Patient and Health System Outcomes through Advanced Pharmacy Practice” .  The report was an extensive detailing of the current state of Pharmacy and the potential pharmacists hold as health care providers.  Up to this point in time, pharmacists are not officially recognized as health care providers despite the sheer amount of patient care we provide and our accessibility to the public.  As such, pharmacists have not really been included in the latest health care legislation being put into effect to expand healthcare accessibility to the entire nation.

This report focuses on four areas in order to drum up support from the Surgeon General for the integration of pharmacists into the health care team:

1. Pharmacists are already integrated into primary care as health care providers; because we are not recognized as providers we are limited in our ability to provide optimal patient outcomes.
2. Pharmacists should be recognized as health care providers–in advanced pharmacy practice models where pharmacists are delivering direct patient care, success has already been shown with patient outcomes and compensation measures.  Also, pharmacy education has already increased to match an increased role in patient care.
3. Compensation mechanisms for pharmacists in advanced roles need to expand and reflect the amount of clinical services provided if such a model is to be sustained.  This encourages a switch from being paid solely based on a drug product to being paid for cognitive services rendered similar to other health care professionals.
4. There is already a great deal of evidence in existence that having pharmacists as an integral member of the health care team improves patient outcomes, quality of care, patient safety, etc.

Fortunately, a response from U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin was released voicing her support of this report and going on to say, “This report provides the evidence health leaders and policy makers need to support evidence-based models of cost-effective patient care that utilizes the expertise and contributions of our nations’ pharmacists as an essential part of the health care team . . . I look forward to working with you and your team as you implement this report and take its findings to the wider professional pharmacy community.”  This is a big step forward for pharmacy practice and provides hope for the expansion of the role of pharmacists in all aspects of health care.

To read the full report, please go HERE, and to read the Surgeon General’s response, please go HERE.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer

For the second year in a row, APhA-ASP has been successful in making a generous donation to the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event! After a few bake sales and a fun night at Mongolian BBQ in Royal Oak, we were able to make a donation of just over $1600.  Although the day of the walk was tainted by an unfortunate windstorm, those who came out had a great time. We joined the thousands of walkers at Belle Isle on October 15^th to celebrate the advancements that have been made to help find a cure.

While it is important to get involved with the various direct patient care events it is also important to see how we can impact the community. Our donation to the American Cancer Society helps millions that are affected by this devastating cancer. I’d like to thank everyone for participating in this event and look forward to working with everyone again for our next charitable event fundraisers.

–Lisa Kejbou

For questions about the event or other fundraising opportunities please contact Lisa (az7705@wayne.edu). T-shirts may still be available.

2011 Great American Smokeout

The Great American Smokeout is an annual event created by the American Cancer Society that educates smokers on smoking cessation and encourages smokers to set a quit date.  It is an event our chapter hosts on main campus for students every year; this year, the OTC committee was responsible for planning the Great American Smokeout. Dr. Berlie provided the smoking cessation training to 11 student pharmacists on November 16, 2011. The actual event was held in student center on the main campus on November 17, 2011.

Thank you very much for supporting this event! With your help, we were able to educate 36 patients, 3 of which agreed to quit on that day and were referred to University Pharmacy for smoking cessation follow-up.  As a result of this event, student pharmacists practiced techniques for communicating with smokers and motivating them to quit, counseled patients about smoking cessation OTC products, and engaged participants in educational and interactive games and demonstrations.

-Jane Li, OTC Chair

Special thanks to our wonderful 11 volunteers: Anna Fiorvento, Jessica Traster, Janice Kulik, Kristin Perry, Peter On, Jordan Masse, Greg Kozmor, Anila Gjini, and Jeff Krupinski.

Please continue encouraging your patients to quit smoking and supporting future events of our committee. In the beginning of next semester, we will be hosting a pediatric OTC medication patient education session out in the community. Please contact OTC Chair, Jane Li (em0517@wayne.edu) if you are interested in sitting on the committee for upcoming events.

WSU Wellness Warriors!

For the second consecutive year Wayne State’s student pharmacists were the official screeners and health counselors to the Wellness Warrior program, a program open to all WSU faculty and staff that receive their health benefits through the WSU Health and Wellness department.   During the 11 day screening event, 71 student pharmacists and 20 pre-pharmacy students have screened and counseled 1101 patients.  Several members of the pharmacy faculty have also supported the efforts of the event by providing follow-up counseling and screening.

The purpose of the WW program is for the participant to receive a baseline screening of their blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose, which they are then able to refer to throughout the calendar year to gauge their progress.  In addition to the monitoring, the WSU student pharmacist is also responsible for the counseling of each Wellness Warrior during the screening event. This is a great opportunity for our student pharmacists to practice skills learned in our didactic classes and to reinforce information taught in modules.

Not only does Wellness Warriors allow student pharmacists to practice and strengthen clinical skills, it also allows for peer mentoring as every class is able to participate in Wellness Warriors. It allows the students that are in the program to share information with each other, and also with pre-pharmacy students who participate, giving them an opportunity to see what WSU’s program offers and how student pharmacists interact with patients. Overall, Wellness Warriors is an event that allows student pharmacists an opportunity to get out of the classroom and practice their clinical skills, mentor other students, and interact with patients.

-Alan Rozycki, OH Co-Chair

For more information on how to get involved with Operation Heart, contact Alan at ba4318@wayne.edu, or Anu at c15210@wayne.edu.