Student Pharmacists Participate in Local Competition

Patient counseling competition provides opportunity to use skills learned in pharmacy school

By Katie Morneau
February 4, 2009

Each year, the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy chapter of the American Pharmacists Association – Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP) hosts a Patient Counseling Competition in conjunction with its parent organization. This competition gives students the opportunity to utilize the patient counseling and education skills they have attained through pharmacy school. This year, 31 students signed up to participate, double the number from the 2008 competition.

Each of the students who participated was presented with a prescription and asked to counsel faculty members, staff or practice lab teaching assistants who posed as patients. The top ten students from the preliminary round advanced to the final competition where the patient scenarios became more challenging.

The final round involved a more complex counseling situation where the participants again selected a prescription at random and were asked to counsel the patient on safe and effective drug use. In addition, the patients in the final round displayed personality characteristics such as anxiousness, confusion or apathy with the intent of challenging the participants’ ability to convey pertinent information in a realistic situation.

The ten winners of this year’s competition are:
Brian Ellsworth, Ann Lang, Will Albanese, Reisel Burger, Kelly Martin, Rita Kasliwal, Jessica Holstein, Shirley Lee, Sheryl Thedford, and Kim Wu.

As the first place winner, Ellsworth will be headed to San Antonio in April to represent the School of Pharmacy at a national competition.

Each of the top ten finalists who competed in the final round of the local competition will receive an award, compliments of APhA-ASP, and the top winner receives travel expenses to the national competition in San Antonio, Texas.

The top ten finalists in the national competition will be recognized during the APhA-ASP Awards Ceremony and will receive prizes compliments of APhA-ASP. The four top winners of the national competition will also receive cash prizes.

Co-author: Janessa Smith