Wilkes University students in the Nesbitt School of Pharmacy were awarded the National Rookie Award of the 2019 National Consumers League Script Your Future Challenge. The award was presented during the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy annual meeting. The event was held July 13-17 at the Hyatt Regency, Chicago, Ill.
Script Your Future is a competition designed to engage health profession students and faculty across the nation by encouraging teams to develop creative initiatives to raise public awareness about the importance of medication adherence. The team completed the Medication Adherence Team Challenge, a two-month long inter-collegiate competition among health profession student teams and faculty to raise awareness about the consequences of not taking medication as directed.
The Wilkes team partnered with community organizations and pharmacies to provide programs such as checking blood pressure and blood glucose and education on medication adherence. The Script Your Future initiative also focuses on inter-professional care, and nursing students in the Passan School of Nursing volunteered with the pharmacy students during these events.
The team was supported under the guidance of Troy Lynn Lewis, assistant professor of pharmacy practice and Angela Jones, faculty of practice in nursing. Wilkes identified student representatives to lead the initiative and represent the Nesbitt School of Pharmacy:
- Antonia Gobo of Newton, N.J., student pharmacist
- Cody Morcom of Scott Township, Pa., student pharmacist
- Danica Benson of Allentown, Pa., student pharmacist
- Jamie Campbell of Cinnaminson, N.J., student pharmacist
- Katelin Ivey of Elysburg, Pa., student pharmacist
- Meghan Muretta of Easton, Pa, student pharmacist
- Nicole Hughes of Olyphant, Pa., student pharmacist
- Rachel Wood of Pottsville, Pa., student pharmacist
- Sarah Hughes of Lake Ariel, Pa., student pharmacist
- Sergey Svintozelskiy of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., student pharmacist
- Dylan Fox of Denver, Pa., student pharmacist
- Harrison Ferro of Berwick, Pa., student pharmacist
The Medication Adherence Team Challenge is an integral part of Script Your Future, a campaign launched by the National Consumers League and its partners in 2011 to combat the problem of poor medication adherence in the United States, where nearly three out of four patients do not take their medication as directed. Nonadherence puts patients, especially those with chronic conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, or cardiovascular disease, at risk for serious complications.
The challenge is sponsored by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Foundation, the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), and the American Pharmacists Association (APhA).
