UNMC pharmacist interns are providing influenza vaccines for UNMC students on the Omaha campus, through a collaborative effort between Student Health and the College of Pharmacy chapter of the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists (ASP-APhA).
Pharmacist interns also are placing and reading screens for tuberculosis (TB).
The service project also will serve as a research study, said Ally Dering-Anderson, Pharm.D., clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice. Several aspects of students serving students will be studied, including:
- Does running a formal, in-house clinic improve confidence in providing vaccinations?
- Can student-providers serving student-patients demonstrate improved access and cost-efficiency?
- What are the impressions of supervising preceptors?
Dr. Dering-Anderson credited Student Health’s Tere Batt, Kim Battreall, Cristin Kohlscheen and Douglas Wheatley, M.D., associate professor of family medicine, for helping make it happen. Liz Grigsby and Cassie Gruidel have co-coordinated the pharmacy students’ effort.
Hundreds of influenza vaccines and TB placements have been administered, and several more clinics are scheduled through Dec. 1.
Through further collaboration between Student Health and Employee Health, the pharmacist interns will provide flu shot clinics for the faculty and staff of the College of Pharmacy as well.