Educational and Professional Development
The Academy of Educational and Professional Development focuses on enhancing pharmacy students' professional skills and knowledge through two competitions: a patient counseling competition and a clinical skills competition. In addition, the academy organizes the CPR certification/recertification courses during orientation and the first week of class and makes arrangements for WSPS members to attend pharmacy and therapeutic committee meetings throughout the year.
The Patient Counseling Competition provides a unique opportunity for students to enhance their patient education skills. The competition begins with the student studying a prescription, a patient’s profile, and appropriate reference material for five minutes. Then the student is given the prescription vial and counsels the patient for five minutes while being videotaped. Later, judges review the videotape. The competition has a preliminary round held at the end of November and a final round held at the beginning of December. The winner from the UW School of Pharmacy will advance to the national competition held at the APhA Annual Meeting and compete with pharmacy students from around the country. More information and sign-ups to come during the fall semester! Contact Chelsie Reinwand (reinwand@wisc.edu) or visit the APhA website for more information: http://www.pharmacist.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home2&CONTENTID=13451&TEMPLATE
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The purpose of the Clinical Skills Competition (CSC) is to facilitate clinical skill development for pharmacy students by encouraging cooperation and teamwork. The CSC is designed to facilitate an interactive, team-based analysis of clinical scenarios for hospital/health-system pharmacists to help patients make the best use of their medications. Students work on case studies in pairs. Each team is given a case summary, forms for completing information, and access to references. Teams have two hours to create a pharmacist’s care plan for the patient using the forms provided. Upon completion of the written portion, teams give oral presentations justifying their care plan recommendations. A total of 10 minutes is allowed for the case presentation, which includes a maximum of two minutes for the presentation period and another eight minutes for questions and answers. The CSC is held during mid-October. The winning team will advance to the national competition held at the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting in December. For more information contact Melissa Heim at meheim@wisc.edu or visit the ASHP website, http://www.ashp.org/Import/ABOUTUS/Awards/ClinicalSkillsCompetition.aspx.
A Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P & T) Committee is a committee that reviews new and existing medications and selects medications to be included in a health plan’s formulary based on safety and how well the drugs work. The committee selects the most cost-effective drugs in each therapeutic class. In most health plans, the P & T Committee is composed of pharmacists and physicians from various medical specialties. Students are able to attend various P&T committee meetings such as those held by Navitus, Meriter, St. Mary’s, and Unity. The meetings are held at multiple times throughout each semester by these organizations usually beginning around 7 or 7:30 AM, thus providing many opportunities for students to attend. More information and opportunities to sign up will be available during WSPS meetings.
If you have any questions about the Educational and Professional Development Academy please feel free to contact your current Vice Presidents, Chelsie Reinwand (reinwand@wisc.edu) and Melissa Heim (meheim@wisc.edu). We look forward to working with you throughout this year!
