- MCW School of Pharmacy
Spotlight On: Community Engagement
Part of our mission at the MCW School of Pharmacy is to advance the health of our communities through continuous public and professional service. This April, we'd like to share some updates on some of our MCW School of Pharmacy Community Engagement Initiatives.
Pharmacy Student Alliance
Serving with integrity, professionalism and compassion is one of the core values of the MCW School of Pharmacy. This value is emphasized through student initiatives to engage in public events that contribute to positive outcomes for the community.
The Pharmacy Student Alliance (PSA) leads student participation in community engagement events that are discovered by faculty, staff, and students and then shared with PSA through the Community Engagement Representative, Margaret Pertzborn. Faculty and preceptors who have knowledge of an event and wish to lead involvement in it can contact Steven Broadway, MS or Margaret Pertzborn.
MCW Neighborhood Partners
The MCW Neighborhood Partners had its soft launch on March 15. The program is developed in collaboration with community partner Next Door, an early childhood education and social service organization. Free services provided include health and wellness screenings, health promotion, disease prevention, nutrition counseling, and patient health assessments. The MCW School of Pharmacy's partnership with Next Door is being enhanced with the Next Door book drive occurring from Monday, April 1 until Tuesday, April 30.
During the first two days of operational testing, 19 volunteer participants from Next Door made use of MCW Neighborhood Partner's services, filling the schedule completely. The clients were able to select from body mass index, blood pressure, blood glucose, and cholesterol health screening tests. 18 clients completed follow-up surveys that showed that they found the experience to be comfortable and helpful, that they plan to return to the screening service, and will recommend the screening service to their family and friends. The MCW Neighborhood Partners team was able to make the experience more efficient from week one to week two - cutting down wait times from 55 minutes to 10 minutes. More improvements are scheduled for the future, including creation of more communication tools, implementing Client Health Education Videos and Materials, and cooling the temperature of the exam room.
Dominika Krynicka completed the first IPPE rotation with the MCW Neighborhood Partners program. The next student, Arslan Aslam, will begin onboarding for the MCW Neighborhood Partners IPPE rotation on April 12.
Kelly Cornelius, MS and Michael DeBisschop, PharmD, and David Ombengi, PharmD, MBA, MPH are members of the MCW Neighborhood Partners team.
Outreach and Personal Development
Personal and professional development is a key institutional focus at the MCW School of Pharmacy, both as part of the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum for our students and providing opportunities for pharmacy professionals to expand their skills and knowledge. The office of Outreach and Professional Development is committed to providing advanced training that allows professionals to fulfill the evolving role of the pharmacist and better serve their communities.
Professional development program ideas are gathered from faculty, students and preceptors. Also, surveys are sent out to participants of programs in order to provide ideas to improve existing programs and suggest new programs. The upcoming event "Frontiers in Precision Medicine: Role of Pharmacogenomics" was developed from a program request. Anyone with a request for a professional development program can contact
Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured
The Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured (SCU) continues to provide comprehensive, patient-centered, and equitable care to Milwaukee’s uninsured population through an interprofessional student-oriented model of care. Starting August 2018, the SCU began utilizing P2 and P3 pharmacy students in clinical pharmacy roles, delivering novel, much-needed services such as medication education, comprehensive medication review and drug information. As it stands, pharmacy services are available every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month. The dispensary team is comprised of one P1/P2 student working collaboratively in the on-site dispensary with one M1 student, one P2/P3 clinical pharmacy student providing the clinical services described above and one faculty pharmacist preceptor overseeing all operations. Additionally, current P2 pharmacy student, Molly Schmidt, was selected to the SCU Student Board as a Dispensary Co-Manager. Molly is the first pharmacy student to be selected to a leadership position within the Board, thus solidifying the interprofessional nature from top to bottom. Nathan Lamberton, PharmD, BCPS is the faculty lead for the Saturday Clinic.
