Past newsletters can be viewed here.

Take a look at all our past newsletters here.

Take a look at all our past newsletters here.

The Commercial Appeal, the major newspaper distributed in Memphis, featured a picture and small description of the event in the next day’s paper! Take a look through this link.

We also had a membership table set up where first year students could join AphA and our chapter. Approximately 45 students joined for the first time, making our total first year student enrollment at over 100 new members!

If this Committee Showcase is any indication of the year to come, it is going to be a great one! Let’s keep this excitement going throughout the year!

In this issue: Becoming an active chapter member, events for August and September and a special introduction to our chapter’s Executive Committee.

Grab your copy here: Vol 1, Issue 1 – Aug/Sept 2011

Our chapter is really excited about the avenues that this building will open, not only for the education of our students, but for the impact on our community. It has been a long time coming, but it will make an even longer impact in the future.

For more information about the new building, including a floor-by-floor layout with pictures, visit the UT College of Pharmacy’s News Page.

Our student chapter won the award for 2009-2010 Chapter Achievement in Division A at the 2011 APhA Meeting in Seattle, WA, held in March 2011! Divisions are determined by the total enrollment of the college, with Division A consisting of schools that have more than 500 student pharmacists currently enrolled. This marks the second time that our chapter has won the Division A Award in the past 5 years. We have also won the Chapter of the Year Award, the highest honor a chapter can receive, three times since the year 2000.

Additionally, our chapter was recognized as a five star chapter by APhA-ASP, one of only four national chapters to receive this honor! This five star rating is based on individual scores in the following areas:

• Chapter Structure
• Chapter Programming in the Areas of:
  • Patient Care
  • Policy and Advocacy
  • Professionalism and Leadership
• Continuous Quality Improvement over the Past 3-5 Years
• Maintaining Minimum Requirements as Defined in the Chapter Affiliation Agreement
• Membership Activity
• Participation at Regional and National Meetings

UT APhA-ASP’s Operation Immunization Committee was also awarded the Region 3 Award for being great leaders in promoting and advancing pharmacy-based immunizations. Finally, our Operation Immunization, Operation Diabetes, and Heartburn Awareness committees all received Certificates of Recognition for excellent service in their respective areas.

See our feature in the UT College of Pharmacy’s May 2011 Newsletter!

What a great year for our chapter and UT pharmacy!

Policy 1: Interdisciplinary Patient Care Projects

APhA-ASP encourages its chapters to collaborate with other student health care professionals to develop and deliver interdisciplinary patient care projects.

Policy 2: Primary Care Pharmacy Practice

PhA-ASP supports the integration of pharmacists into the primary care setting for the monitoring & adjustment of chronic conditions requiring medications, as well as for patient education.

Policy 3: Requirement of Tamper Resistant Prescription Blanks for Controlled Medications

APhA-ASP supports the required use of tamper resistant prescription blanks for the prescribing of all controlled substances.

Policy 4: Pharmacist Involvement in Methadone Treatment

APhA-ASP supports requiring methadone clinics to have a registered pharmacist specifically trained in methadone treatment present or on-call during hours when dose adjustments are made.

Policy 5: Medication Therapy Management Education in the Curriculum

APhA-ASP supports the inclusion of medication therapy management in both the didactic and experiential curriculum in all schools and colleges of pharmacy in order to prepare student pharmacists for a variety of patient-centered services and activities in practice.

APhA-ASP supports the research of best practices concerning medication therapy management and disseminating these findings among schools and colleges of pharmacy for educational purposes.

APhA-ASP supports research on the best ways to deliver and teach medication therapy management in the curriculum.

APhA-ASP supports the development of a model curriculum for teaching medication therapy management in schools and colleges of pharmacy, predicated on the findings of best practices within this field.

Policy 6: Clinical Laboratory Course in all Pharmacy Curriculums

APhA-ASP encourages including an introductory clinical laboratory course in every pharmacy school curriculum to further diversify the profession of pharmacy.

Policy 7: Patient Assessment Course in Curriculum *

APhA-ASP insists that all schools of pharmacy require an adequate level of training and competency in the field of Patient Assessment.

Policy 8: Classifying Residency Programs as Post-Graduate Education

APhA-ASP supports the formation of a policy to classify residency programs as post-graduate education for purposes such as student loan repayment and insurance issues.

Policy 9: Limiting the Number of New Pharmacy Schools

Opening of new colleges of pharmacy across the United States should be limited based on open employment opportunities within the profession of pharmacy in order to ensure graduates a job within their area of expertise.

Policy 10: NAPLEX Scoring Reports *

APhA-ASP request that the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy submit NAPLEX subject based scoring reports, which will be released annually to individual colleges of pharmacy, that displays overall scoring trends specific to that college of pharmacy’s recent graduates.

Policy 11: Dual Degree Programs

APhA-ASP encourages the development and expansion of dual degree programs by schools and colleges of pharmacy so as to prepare student pharmacists for a variety of career opportunities as the role of a pharmacist evolves further into different health care areas.

Policy 12: Expansion of Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience Sites

APhA-ASP supports initiatives to expand the availability of Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience rotation sites. To ensure that all student pharmacists attend quality APPE sites, barriers that limit the number of available APPE locations must be overcome. Possible solutions include the implementation of regional experiential pharmacy education consortiums to expand access to rotation sites.

Policy 13: Expansion of Pharmacy Based Immunizations

APhA-ASP encourages APhA & state pharmacy associations to increase pharmacist involvement in administering immunizations for more preventative care purposes.  These purposes could include immunizations for travel, hepatitis, MMR, tetanus, & meningococcal disease.

Policy14: Drug Take-Back Programs for Controlled Substances

APhA-ASP encourages the implementation of periodical prescription drug take-back programs.

Policy 15: Permitting Certified Pharmacies as Drug Take-Back Locations

APhA-ASP encourages the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to implement a nationwide pilot program to allow certified pharmacies to serve as take-back locations for unwanted or expired prescription or over-the-counter medications.

Policy 16: Responsibility of Pharmacists to Collect & Destroy Medications

APhA-ASP supports the collection and destruction of all medications by pharmacists without the supervision of law enforcement.

Policy 17: The Development of a Pain Clinic Database

APhA-ASP recommends the development of a database distinguishing the legitimacy of pain clinics.

Policy 18: Electronic Formulary Database Development

APhA-ASP supports the development of a formulary database where prescribers, patients, & pharmacists alike can access an individual patient’s formulary for more efficient prescribing & dispensing, leading to increased patient outcomes & more economically efficient therapies.

Policy 19: Bioequivalency Trials

APhA-ASP supports the development of more stringent bioequivalency trials for generic formulations, including trials in the target population.

Policy 20: The Requirement of Proper Disposal Medication Information on Manufacturer Package Inserts & Patient Information Sheets

APhA-ASP encourages manufacturers to include information on the proper disposal of medications in package inserts.  We also encourage pharmacies to include this information in patient hand-outs. We also advocate for pharmacists to include this information within the patient counseling process.

Policy 21: Consolidation of Medication Information Disseminated to Patients

APhA-ASP supports the consolidation and standardization of information given to patients and required to be given to patients at the pharmacy. The manufacturer supplied and required Patient Package Inserts for select medication, FDA required and approved Medication Guides for medications with black box warnings as well as many others, and pharmacy generated Consumer Medication Information provide different sources of information which may be incomplete alone, but may not all be provided or read by every patient. Consolidating and standardizing the different sources of information into one handout would be a benefit to the patients and the pharmacies trying to keep track of all the information.

Policy 22: Needle Safety Patient Education Programs

APhA-ASP supports the development of needle safety programs to inform patients using injectable products how to safely & accurately use their injectable supplies.

Policy 23: Advocating as Students as Immunizers

Whereas APhA-ASP represents the interests of pharmacists and pharmacy interns in the Nation,

And whereas the purpose of this resolution is to represent all pharmacy interns in the state of Florida in regards to amending the Florida Statutes to permit student pharmacists to provide immunizations under the direct supervision of a certified immunizing pharmacist,

And whereas we recognize that in order for the pharmacy interns to be prepared to offer immunization services, it is of critical importance that pharmacy interns be given the proper education, training, and experience in immunization services prior to graduation, 

Therefore be it resolved that APhA supports the necessary legislative and regulatory changes to permit pharmacy interns to provide immunization services while directly supervised by a certified immunizing pharmacist.

Policy 24: Patient Counseling Rooms in Pharmacy Settings

APhA-ASP supports the use of private patient counseling rooms in pharmacy settings to better facilitate pharmacist-provided services that require prolonged communication with patients, such as medication therapy management.

Policy 25: Primary Providers of Medication Therapy Management

APhA-ASP recognizes pharmacists as the primary providers of medication therapy management.

Policy 26: Pharmacist Access to Full Patient Profiles in the Community Setting

APhA-ASP recommends the use of full patient profiles for community pharmacists to reduce the occurrence of medication errors and to increase pharmacists’ ability to provide MTM.

Policy 27: Reaffirmation of Financial Compensation for Additional Pharmacy Services

APhA-ASP reaffirms the financial compensation for all pharmacy services including but not limited to administration of immunizations and medication therapy management.

Policy 28: The Use of Qualified Interpreters in Healthcare Settings

APhA-ASP supports the use of qualified interpreters proficient in medical terminology in all major healthcare settings.

Policy 29: Regarding Pharmacy Coupons &/or Rewards

APhA-ASP encourages the elimination of pharmacy transfer coupons and/or rewards.

Policy 30: Visible Quality Check for Reconstitution

APhA-ASP encourages addition of “fill-line” or a similar visible quality check for medications that need to be reconstituted.

Policy 31: Needle Disposal Programs

APhA-ASP supports the development of needle disposal programs to easily & safely dispose of injectable product waste.

Policy 32: National Standardization of Electronic Prescriptions

APhA-ASP recommends the standardization of electronic prescriptions nationally.

Policy 33: Development of Nationally Standardized Prescriptions

APhA-ASP encourages the use of nationally standardized prescriptions with barcodes to ensure their legitimacy.

Policy 34: Pharmacist’s Responsibility to Observe Proper Hand Washing Technique

APhA-ASP recommends that all pharmacy employees observe proper hand washing technique upon leaving and entering the pharmacy especially when compounding.

Policy 35: Pharmacist Title

APhA-ASP encourages the use of the Titles PharmD or BPharm to designate a licensed pharmacist instead of RPh.

Policy 36: Environmentally Friendly Pharmacy Practice

APhA-ASP supports the development of environmentally-friendly pharmacy operations, including computer systems that limit paper consumption & redundancy in literature, as well as plastic & paper recycling programs.

Policy 37: Improving Pharmacy Safety & Deterring Further Offenses

APhA-ASP supports the requirement of surveillance cameras at three focal points in the pharmacy to capture identifying information from alleged perpetrators. The parking lot and exterior of the store, main entrance, and pharmacy counter will be under constant surveillance by closed circuit recording devices to aid in identification and prosecution of criminals targeting pharmacies.

Policy 38: Pharmacy Security

APhA-ASP encourages the use of security personnel in pharmacies that are located in or near high crime areas &/or that have already been the target of a crime against the pharmacy, pharmacist, &/or any of the pharmacy staff.

Policy 39: Public Awareness of Student Pharmacist Capabilities

APhA-ASP supports the development of a national public awareness campaign to educate consumers on the patient care projects and capabilities student pharmacists have on improving health outcomes.

Policy 40: Standardized Prescription Insurance Cards

APhA-ASP supports the standardization of prescription insurance cards to increase accuracy & efficiency of prescription dispensing with a third party payer.

* Policy 7 & 10 were proposed by UT-College of Pharmacy