Student Pharmacists Visit Annapolis for Annual Legislative Day

Event Provides Opportunity for Students to Learn Importance of Advocacy

By Yara Haddad
February 24, 2009

University of Maryland School of Pharmacy students once again showed their leadership abilities and passion for advocacy at the 9th Annual Maryland Pharmacy Legislative Day in Annapolis on February 12. This year, a total of 140 students from both the Baltimore and Shady Grove campuses attended in an effort to educate state legislators about issues important to the pharmacy profession.

The day started with representativevs from the Maryland Pharmacists Association, the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, the American Pharmacists Association, the Maryland Society of Health-System Pharmacists and other organizations within the Maryland Pharmacy Coalition (MPC) and student pharmacists from the School of Pharmacy arriving at the State House Building in Annapolis. Brian Hose, PharmD, a 1996 graduate of the School who was instrumental in planning the day, Delegate Donald B. Elliott (R), District 4B, and Delegate Theodore J. Sophocleus (D), District 32, welcomed the group at a debriefing session. Both delegates expressed their support of the pharmacy profession and the potential positive impact of the students’s visits with the legislators.

Shortly after the debriefing session, groups of students and pharmacists met with elected officials from their corresponding districts. During the meetings, students thanked their representatives for state funding for the construction of Pharmacy Hall Addition, which is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2010, and for their continued support for higher education, the School of Pharmacy and the pharmacy profession.

Following their individual meetings with legislators, the student groups observed the House of Delegates’ morning session and were acknowledged from the floor by Delegate Elliot.

Shortly after the morning session concluded, student pharmacists, under the supervision of pharmacists and faculty members, sponsored a lunch-time brown bag event at which elected officials, their aides and staff could come for blood pressure screenings, medication consultations and for general information from future pharmacists. . The event was coordinated by student pharmacists Melissa Kim and Shirley Lee, with oversight from faculty members Cherokee Layson-Wolf, PharmD, and Christine Lee, PharmD.

“Participating in legislative day gave me the opportunity to see how much support the field of pharmacy has from our state government, but how little knowledge there is about what pharmacists do,” said Brittany Farrugia, a second year student pharmacist. “I ultimately learned that advocacy projects like this can really advance the profession.”

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