NACDS Foundation awards $235,000 in scholarships

4/29/2019
The NACDS Foundation presented award recipients from its 24th annual Scholarship Program Monday night at The Breakers Palm Beach as part of the NACDS Annual Meeting. The foundation said it awarded $235,000 in scholarships to students as part of the program in an effort to advance patient care through pharmacy education.

The awards included six $20,0000 merit-based scholarships to fund institutions’ patient-focused coursework or other curriculum innovations, as well as two $15,000 diversity grants meant to award institutions based on their current or proposed diversity programs to advance pharmacy education in underrepresented groups.

“Thanks to the commendable generosity of our benefactors, students and faculty at schools and colleges of pharmacy across the country have the opportunity to impact community health in a tremendous way,” said NACDS Foundation president Kathleen Jaeger. “We are so appreciative of our benefactors’ continued support and outstanding commitment to improving patient care through pharmacy education.”

Auburn University Harrison School of Pharmacy students will develop patient-specific health-and-wellness action plans for an underserved population in Alabama under the supervision of community pharmacists. Services include assessing immunization status, conducting biometric screenings and discussing health behaviors, including weight management and smoking cessation.

Winners of the $20,000 scholarships were:

  • Auburn University Harrison School of Pharmacy, where students will develop patient-specific health-and-wellness action plans for an underserved population in Alabama under the supervision of community pharmacists. Services include assessing immunization status, conducting biometric screenings and discussing health behaviors, including weight management and smoking cessation;

  • University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy, where students will address rural health disparities in Nebraska by screening 500 rural patients for hepatitis C under the supervision of faculty and pharmacist preceptors;

  • St. John’s University College of Pharmacy, which will collaborate with a community health center to provide outreach and preventive care screenings, immunizations and medication optimization services to those who need it most with its Mobile Clinic, which sets up in nine temporary locations throughout the summer to serve the most vulnerable populations in Queens, N.Y., including the homeless and uninsured;

  • University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy, which will address the recent outbreaks of meningitis B on college campuses by expanding its student-led “Operation Immunization” program to provide education and needed vaccines on the URI campus during the spring and fall terms;

  • Mercer University College of Pharmacy, which will provide 200 first-year student pharmacists with an immersive experience in cultural competency through a partnership with the Clarkston Refugee Clinic outside of Atlanta that serves the most diverse one-square-mile population in the nation; and

  • Howard University College of Pharmacy, where fourth-year pharmacy students will use videos and technology to communicate health information in multiple languages to an ethnically and racially diverse patient population at Washington, D.C.’s Howard University hospital.


The University of the Incarnate World’s Feik School of Pharmacy and East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy received the $15,000 scholarships for their diversity programs. Feik School of Pharmacy will provide at-risk minority students with a “Pharmacy Readiness” program during the summer to prepare incoming first-year pharmacy students using a group immersion strategy and peer mentoring in its Doctor of Pharmacy program. Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy will develop an outreach program aimed at pre-health professional students from Appalachia who are first in their family to attend a higher learning institution.

The NACDS Foundation also awarded $2,200 scholarships to each of the other schools and colleges of pharmacy in attendance.

The foundation’s scholarship program began in 1997, and the organization has provided close to $4.5 million in scholarships for pharmacy education.
X
This ad will auto-close in 10 seconds