UB PharmD students teach poison prevention and awareness at local elementary schools

Throughout the month of April, 125 PharmD students visited 23 local schools in the Buffalo and Western New York region. They hosted over 100 poison prevention and awareness presentations to approximately 2,500 preschool and early grade school students.

The message our PharmD students shared was, ‘A poison is anything that can hurt you if you take it the wrong way. Before you touch, play with, eat or drink anything you’re not absolutely sure is safe, ask a grown up.’ Along with explaining the dangers of accidentally misusing common household items, our PharmD students emphasized the importance of only taking medicine that’s prescribed to you.

“I think it's really important to work on poison prevention,” says Caden Jones, PharmD’24, UB SPPS poison prevention student leader. “There are so many potential dangers in our everyday lives, and it's essential to take steps to keep ourselves and those around us safe. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to work with my local high school and UB SPPS to design and help distribute a poison prevention presentation for those within our community.”

The presentations included videos and interactive games along with student goodie bags containing Poison Information Center magnets, stickers, activity sheets, crayons and letters to parents.

“The UB PharmD students did a fantastic job, were engaging with the elementary students and received positive feedback from the teachers I talked with,” says Mary Beth Dreyer, public health educator, Upstate New York Poison Center.

Since the 1980s, our PharmD students and UB SPPS faculty have partnered with the Poison Control Center to provide educational poison prevention and awareness programs to various groups in the Western New York Community.