January 11, 2012
Abisoye Abisogun, PharmD, and Brandi Whaley, PharmD, community pharmacy residents at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, have received $1,000 incentive grants from the American Pharmacists Association to support their research.
Abisogun, a resident based at Kerr Health Care Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is investigating whether involvement in a national campaign will affect student pharmacists’ understanding of medication adherence. She will examine the nationwide campaign Script Your Future, which was created to educate the public about adherence and includes an advocacy challenge for schools and colleges of pharmacy.
“Studies published in pharmacy literature reveal that active learning exercises similar to what will occur in the SYF campaign leave a memorable impact on students,” Abisogun says. “My project is a cohort study that consists of pre- and post-campaign questionnaires that are open to all student pharmacist volunteers involved in the SYF campaign at one school of pharmacy. The questionnaires will assess the impact of participation on the student pharmacists’ understanding of adherence.”
Whaley, who is completing her residency at Moose Professional Pharmacy in Concord, North Carolina, is conducting an online survey to assess whether community pharmacists in the state would be interested in administering the tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis vaccine if state laws allowed them to do so. North Carolina pharmacists are currently only permitted to administer influenza, pneumococcal, and zoster vaccines.
“The Tdap vaccine is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for use in adolescents and adults,” says Whaley, who received her PharmD from the School in May 2011. “The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices provided initial recommendations for its use in 2005, and recommendations were updated in 2010.
“This study will collect information about pharmacists’ willingness to market and administer this vaccine to their patients, as well as their knowledge of the ACIP recommendations regarding the vaccine.”
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