Academy of Student Pharmacists Patient Counseling Competition
Background
The Texas Pharmacy Association Patient Counseling Competition was developed in 2005 as part of an ongoing initiative to further recognize the significant role student pharmacists play in the future of our profession. The motivation behind this competition was not to duplicate the efforts of other professional organizations that offer a “glass box” scenario of patient consultations. Instead our goal was to challenge these students to perform as pharmacists are expected to everyday in more true to life circumstances.
Participant Selection
Three students from each school of pharmacy in the state of Texas are invited to participate in this competition held at the Texas Pharmacy Association annual meeting each summer. In an effort to make this competition less burdensome on each individual chapter, we recommend using the results of the chapter’s annual patient counseling competition to determine who competes at the state level. As the first place winner at the chapter advances to the national competition, we would encourage the second through fourth place winners to advance to the state competition. If the three runners up are not able to attend the annual meeting it will be left to the discretion of the chapter who will participate. It is recommended though that you do choose individuals who participated in your chapter competition to offer your chapter the opportunity to be more competitive that. All participant names should be submitted 60 days prior to the start of annual meeting. In most cases contestant names should be submitted before the end of the spring semester.
Competition
The competition will be held during the opening of the exhibits on Thursday evening.
Contestants are expected to arrive ten minutes early to the competition.
At this time each contestant will randomly select a number to determine their position in the competition. The first contestant will then draw from a selection of patients to counsel.
They will be sent in to the preparation area where they will be supplied with several resources including the package inserts for each of the products that will be used during the competition and items for demonstration when appropriate. The contestant will also have available at this time the prescribing physician who may be called to verify the appropriateness of the prescription(s) for the patient being counseled.
The contestant will be given 5 minutes to prepare the prescription for their patient.
The contestant will then be escorted from the preparation area to the consultation area where they will greet their patient.
The contestant will have five minutes from the time they greet their patient to counsel the patient on their prescription(s). The counseling session will be held in front of a panel of three to five volunteer judges.
Judging
Judges will be volunteer pharmacist members of the Texas Pharmacy Aassociation. Each judge will be provided with a list of prescriptions being used in the competition and judging criteria forms. These materials will be provided to each judge by e-mail 1 week prior to the competition to allow time for review of the materials and the prescription products they will be judging. The copy of prescriptions that the judges use will also contain a short list of key counseling points to ensure consistency in judging.
Results and Prizes
Results will be tabulated by Texas Pharmacy Association staff immediately after the competition and all participants will be asked to return to the consultation area prior to the closing of the exhibit hall to accept their awards. Each competitor will receive a gift for their participation in our competition. Prizes will be awarded to the first, second, and third place winners in our competition. Prizes will be determined jointly by the executive committee of the Academy of Student Pharmacists and the sponsor of the competition.
Contact
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact Jennifer Tuepker, Pharm. D. at jtuepker@texaspharmacy.org
