NACDS members offer externships via partnership with Elizabeth Seton High School

NACDS and its members are partnering with Elizabeth Seton High School — an all-female college preparatory school in Bladensburg, Md. — to strengthen the pipeline for diverse, skilled professionals to enter the pharmacy workforce.

On March 10, 68 members of Elizabeth Seton High School’s pharmacy technician program received their white coats as future members of the healthcare profession. Christie Boutte, senior vice president of reimbursement, innovation and advocacy, was on hand to discuss the pharmacy profession. 

“It takes a special person to be a pharmacist and a pharmacy technician," she said. "You come into contact with a lot of people, a lot of sick people, a lot of people who have concerns, a lot of people who are scared, but it is those people who trust the pharmacist and the pharmacy technician — who rely on you — to guide them, to talk to them [and] to help them leave that store before they take their own health care into their own hands."

The school's pharmacy technician program offers students basic knowledge about the practice of pharmacy, skills in pharmacology, and the roles and responsibilities of a pharmacy technician.

NACDS also is working with the school and the pharmacy technician program to help students with a critical part of the program — real-world experience via an externship in which students work with local community-based and hospital pharmacies. After which, students can apply for Maryland certification as a pharmacy technician. 

Four NACDS member company pharmacies are currently collaborating in the community externship program, including CVS Health, Albertsons' Safeway banner, Weis Markets and Walgreens. NACDS said it is working on expanding the initiative to include additional member pharmacies as community partners, cultivating meaningful community partnerships that strengthen the pipeline for diverse, skilled professionals to enter the pharmacy workforce and helping shape the future for licensed pharmacy technicians in the community pharmacy space.

The partnership with Elizabeth Seton High School — whose student population is composed of 72% racial and ethnic minorities — is part of NACDS' commitment to directly addressing disparities in health care and shedding light on those Americans who face a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 and other diseases. In 2020, NACDS created the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Awareness, or IDEA, Task Force to identify and pursue opportunities to bring about progress in these areas.