International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation
Contact Person’s Report
American Pharmacists Association – Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhAASP)
www.pharmacist.com
Cory A. Nelson
usaipsfcp@gmail.com
1. Introduction
APhA-ASP is one of three academies within the American Pharmacists Association
(APhA) and it represents APhA’s student pharmacist members. There are currently
34,500 student pharmacists that are members of APhA-ASP at 129 colleges of
pharmacy across the United States of America (U.S.A.).
The mission of APhA-ASP is to be the collective voice of student pharmacists, to
provide opportunities for professional growth, to improve patient care, and to envision
and advance the future of pharmacy.
The day-to-day operations of APhA-ASP are conducted by staff members as well as the
nationally elected National Executive Committee, made up of five student pharmacists.
These APhA-ASP leaders also work with four designated APhA-ASP National Standing
Committees: Communication, Education, Policy, and International. The International
Standing Committee is comprised of the IPSF National Officers.
2. Education and Practice Activities
American Pharmacist Month
October is designated as American Pharmacist Month. Under the banner of “Know
Your Pharmacist, Know Your Medicine” student pharmacists and other APhA members
around the country focus on educating the public, policy makers, and other healthcare
professionals about the importance of pharmacists as members of the healthcare team.
Focus is placed on commitment to patient safety, proficiency as medication experts, and
the financial and medicinal effectiveness that pharmacists bring to the healthcare
system.
APhA-ASP International Standing Committee ● 2215 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037 ● www.pharmacist.com
Midyear Regional Meetings
APhA-ASP is organized into eight regions across the United States of America. Each of
these regions hosts a Midyear Regional Meeting (MRM), the only meetings in the
U.S.A. that are designed solely for student pharmacists. They include leadership
training, job expositions, informational presentations, poster presentations, and regional
awards. Student pharmacists are able to collaborate with other chapters from around
their area. This helps to keep communication between chapters and good ideas
circulating. All eight of the regions hold their own MRM every fall. Hundreds of student
pharmacists attended each of the MRMs this year.
APhA Annual Meeting & Exposition
APhA Annual Meeting & Exposition is the largest meeting held annually by APhA and
includes programming specifically for APhA-ASP members. Pharmacists and student
pharmacists convene in the House of Delegates to declare annual policies that further
define the organization’s mission towards the field of pharmacy. Student pharmacists
also meet separately as the APhA-ASP House of Delegates to set their vision of the
future of pharmacy via policy, where there is representation from each chapter. Other
student programming includes the Closing Celebration, educational programs, career
connection, and community pharmacy residency showcases. This year Annual Meeting
& Exposition was held in Los Angeles, California. Thousands of pharmacists and
student pharmacists were in attendance.
National Patient Counseling Competition
The National Patient Counseling Competition (NPCC) begins at the local level. Each
chapter holds a competition to select one student pharmacist who will represent them at
APhA Annual Meeting at the national level. The local winner travels to APhA Annual
Meeting to compete. At the national level student pharmacists are evaluated on both
the content and style of the counseling session. The top ten finalists are recognized
and the top four receive cash prizes.
Summer Leadership Institute
Summer Leadership Institute (SLI) is a leadership training conference that occurs each
July. Student pharmacists who are in leadership at local, regional, and national
positions meet in Washington, DC. Time is spent teaching new leaders about APhAASP as well as leadership development. The highlight of the weekend is a dinner on
the roof of APhA Headquarters overlooking the Lincoln Memorial and the National Mall.
APhA-ASP International Standing Committee ● 2215 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037 ● www.pharmacist.com
3. Public Health Activities
HIV/AIDS:
Many schools across the U.S.A. participated in events to promote HIV/AIDS awareness.
Some of the events included weeklong activities, wearing red to promote awareness
about HIV/AIDS, handing out the red ribbon, and having guest speakers talk about
HIV/AIDS to students. Last year an event called “A Drive for Change” was held to raise
money for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. This year the event was
carried out and three schools of pharmacy worked together to raise over $460 for the
foundation.
Humanitarian Campaign:
This year a few schools of pharmacy put together a blood drive. The total units of blood
collected were over 260. At Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) student
pharmacists decided to promote this campaign through a short video on the importance
of donating blood. They also made the blood drive a competition between other health
care professionals. Students from all healthcare professions (dental, medicine, etc.) at
VCU competed to collect the most number of units of blood. The winning prize was a
pizza party. The student pharmacists at VCU collected the most amount of blood and
won the party. Even though the number of units of blood collected on a national level
was low, next year the Vampire Cup will still be a priority for APhA-ASP and IPSF in the
U.S.A.
Diabetes:
In the U.S.A., IPSF works in collaboration with APhA-ASP to promote diabetes
awareness. One school raised money for the American Diabetes Association by
allowing students to wear jeans in a professional pharmacy laboratory class. The
students were able to raise $100 for the American Diabetes Association. Schools also
participated in events on World Diabetes Day. They screened patients for diabetes,
educated the public on how to manage diabetes, and held walks to raise money and
awareness about Diabetes.
TB Campaign:
The Stop TB Partnership and World Tuberculosis Day on March 24th are publicized to
all APhA-ASP members via email and social media. This year schools educated
patients through international health fairs on TB and how to prevent the spread of TB.
One school, Idaho State University, held a TB awareness luncheon to educate
APhA-ASP International Standing Committee ● 2215 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037 ● www.pharmacist.com
pharmacy students about TB. The event was successful and reached student
pharmacists from two schools of pharmacy.
Tobacco Alert Campaign:
Student pharmacists primarily focus on education and screening for smoking cessation for the Tobacco
Alert Campaign. This spring IPSF members from two colleges of pharmacy held this type of event.
Students from South Dakota State University organized an Anti Tobacco Lock-In Event where they invited
local grade school students to the university to participate in tobacco prevention education, play games,
and watch movies. Also, student pharmacists from Ohio State University helped a local clinic to identify
patients that could best utilize help with cessation and proceeded to contact those patients to set up
appointments.
APhA-ASP Patient Care & Community Service Projects
APhA-ASP also has many of its own campaigns known as Patient Care Projects and Community Service
Projects: Operation Heart, Operation Diabetes, Operation Immunization, Operation Self-care, and
Generation Rx. Each focuses on education, screening, and community outreach for its respective
disease state: heart disease, diabetes, vaccine-preventative diseases, over-the-counter medication use,
and prescription drug abuse. Many APhA-ASP chapters focus much of their efforts on these projects.
Outstanding chapters in each of these projects are recognized for their achievements at APhA Annual
Meeting and the individual MRMs.
4. Student Exchange Programme
The Student Exchange Programme (SEP) is continuing to grow in numbers over the
years as APhA-ASP student pharmacists learn more about the program and become
more aware of its presence. The U.S.A. national officers have worked hard to increase
the awareness of SEP throughout the country and to keep the program running
smoothly.
In September 2012, we began the pre-application process to select students who would
be participating in SEP from the U.S.A. One hundred pre-applications were received,
and from them, 36 students were selected based on their pre-application and their
curriculum vitae. From the 36 students, 33 have been offered places by an association.
On the other side of the program, information on available U.S.A. host sites was
obtained from December 2012 to February 2013. Host sites provided the number of
students they could accept, their accommodation options, their work site(s), and any
other details that their site required. Beginning in late January 2013, incoming
application forms were evaluated. Selected students were presented to local exchange
officers within the U.S.A. for possible placement and those accepted by the local
exchange officer began discussing details of the exchange. When the pharmacy work
APhA-ASP International Standing Committee ● 2215 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037 ● www.pharmacist.com
site and exact dates of exchange were established, the student was marked as placed
in the database. After placement, invitation letters were sent to each student. This
process continued from the end of January until June 20th, when the last reserved
student was placed. .
Presently, SEP is occurring at a number of different host sites across the United States
of America. Students will continue to come through the end of September. We hope for
a very successful year of SEP, and continue to promote the program throughout the
U.S.A. An important goal we set for last year was to increase the number of host sites in
the U.S.A. We were able to increase the number of accepted students last year from 23
to nearly 40 for summer of 2013. We have established new outreach techniques and
will continue to work towards expanding SEP throughout the United States of America.
We continue to promote SEP through various forms of media and hope for continual
growth of interest in the future.
5. Other Activities
In the past year policy and advocacy for the profession of pharmacy have become a
primary focus of APhA as well as APhA-ASP. It has become evident that if the
profession of pharmacy is to realize its full potential, pharmacists and student
pharmacists must advocate for these changes.
The healthcare system of the United States of America is amidst the greatest period of
reform in decades. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, enacted by
President Barack Obama offers much opportunity for pharmacists to become an integral
part of the health care team. The idea of team-based healthcare is still a new concept
as payment models shift from fee-for-service (FFS) payment to incentive based models.
Numerous studies have shown how the integration of a pharmacist into a patient
centered health care team can reduce costs, improve outcomes and allow patients to
receive the best possible care from each practitioner.
APhA-ASP and IPSF continue to work together to provide student pharmacists with
patient care experiences geared towards a changing health care climate. Students
participating in these programs show the public and other health care professionals the
benefit of having a pharmacist involved with primary patient care and drug therapy
optimization. Collaborative initiatives focused on chronic disease states such as type 2
diabetes allow student pharmacists to engage in patient education from the moment
they begin pharmacy school. Our student leaders are not born, but made through the
interactions with patients where students can apply their therapeutic knowledge from
the classroom; APhA-ASP and IPSF help students develop that leadership.
APhA-ASP International Standing Committee ● 2215 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037 ● www.pharmacist.com
The APhA-ASP National President, Brandi Hamilton, is currently inspiring all APhAASP/IPSF members to be agents of change in accordance with her presidential theme:
Be The Change. We must not resist changes to our profession, but embrace new
opportunities if we want to see our profession flourish in the coming years. Our health
care system is not stagnant, but full of moving pieces, where various participants are
looking to define their roles in improving patient health. Our student pharmacists,
through collaboration between IPSF and APhA-ASP, are better prepared to contribute
to the strength of the healthcare team and improved patient health.
6. Closing Remarks
IPSF within APhA-ASP is rapidly growing in several aspects. Record numbers of
APhA-ASP members have applied for placement at the 59th World Congress and the
SEP has increased both local exchange sites and our placements abroad. In this year
alone we nearly doubled our number of host sites. However, the one aspect of IPSF
that has remained rather quiet is the IPSF-sponsored Public Health Activities. This is
not for lack of effort, as many of these campaigns have been well sponsored via email
newsletters, websites, and Facebook pages. It is also known that APhA-ASP members
are interested in pharmacy on an international level given World Congress and SEP
applications.
One reason for the lack of IPSF Public Health Activity Participation is they are in
competition with APhA-ASP Patient Care Projects. Student pharmacists in the U.S.A.
who are members of APhA-ASP and IPSF must choose where to spend their time and
energy. The APhA-ASP International Committee members are working with the APhAASP Educational Standing Committee members to attempt to bridge this gap in the
coming year. The goal is to help chapters understand how they can incorporate IPSF
and APhA-ASP projects together (i.e. IPSF’s Tobacco Alert Campaign and APhA-ASP’s
Operation Heart).
In summary, it has been an excellent year for IPSF and APhA-ASP. As we move
forward into the future of healthcare, student pharmacists that choose to get involved
with these organizations are certainly more prepared to encounter the problems they
will face in a variety of settings in their future careers. IPSF and APhA-ASP are two
very strong, involved organizations serving as a voice for student pharmacist.
Hopefully, increasing the amount of coordination between the two will greatly increase
the strength of that voice within the U.S.A. for years to come.
APhA-ASP International Standing Committee ● 2215 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037 ● www.pharmacist.com