PharmD student team wins third place at regional SNPhA Clinical Skills Competition

The SNPhA CSC is an opportunity for SNPhA members across the country to demonstrate their pharmaceutical knowledge and patient assessment skills through case presentations and patient counseling. The regional CSC focuses on patient counseling and is performed in pairs.

Elaine Marji, PharmD’24 and Livia Chase, PharmD’24 teamed up to participate in the CSC at the SNPhA Region 1 conference on March 10-11 in Washington, D.C. They were given a patient’s medication profile to evaluate and provide appropriate counseling. They acted as pharmacists to counsel a patient on medication dosing, side effects, drug interactions and provided nonpharmacologic therapy recommendations.

“The case that was presented to us was lengthy and we had a lot of information to process in such a short amount of time,” says Chase. “We worked efficiently together and despite the short amount of time and challenging case, we were able to identify the key drug interactions and make over the counter recommendations.”

The team was judged by a panel of pharmacists and was awarded third place in the competition among 34 other participating teams. The students received a $150 award, $25 gift card, lapel pins and certificates.

“We are well versed in counseling and making recommendations thanks to our pharmaceutical care courses at UB SPPS, which helped us reach all the key points the judges were looking for,” says Chase. “In fact, during the competition I was running down UB's pharmaceutical care rubric in my head.”

Marji adds, “Winning third place means that UB SPPS has prepared us well and provided us with the skills needed to be successful pharmacists.”

SNPhA promotes active student participation in national healthcare issues and is dedicated to improving the health, education and social environment of minority communities.