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Wilkes University Pharmacy Students Awarded National Rookie Award Winner in Script Your Future Challenge

Wilkes-Barre, PA (07/24/2019) — Wilkes University students in the Nesbitt School of Pharmacy were awarded the National Rookie Award of the 2019 National Consumers League Script Your Future Challenge. The award was presented during the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy annual meeting. The event was held July 13-17 at the Hyatt Regency, Chicago, Ill.

Script Your Future is a competition designed to engage health profession students and faculty across the nation by encouraging teams to develop creative initiatives to raise public awareness about the importance of medication adherence. The team completed the Medication Adherence Team Challenge, a two-month long inter-collegiate competition among health profession student teams and faculty to raise awareness about the consequences of not taking medication as directed.

The Wilkes team partnered with community organizations and pharmacies to provide programs such as checking blood pressure and blood glucose and education on medication adherence. The Script Your Future initiative also focuses on inter-professional care, and nursing students in the Passan School of Nursing volunteered with the pharmacy students during these events.

The team was supported under the guidance of Troy Lynn Lewis, assistant professor of pharmacy practice and Angela Jones, faculty of practice in nursing. Wilkes identified student representatives to lead the initiative and represent the Nesbitt School of Pharmacy:

Antonia Gobo of Newton, N.J., student pharmacist
Cody Morcom of Scott Township, Pa., student pharmacist
Danica Benson of Allentown, Pa., student pharmacist
Jamie Campbell of Cinnaminson, N.J., student pharmacist
Katelin Ivey of Elysburg, Pa., student pharmacist
Meghan Muretta of Easton, Pa, student pharmacist
Nicole Hughes of Olyphant, Pa., student pharmacist
Rachel Wood of Pottsville, Pa., student pharmacist
Sarah Hughes of Lake Ariel, Pa., student pharmacist
Sergey Svintozelskiy of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., student pharmacist
Dylan Fox of Denver, Pa., student pharmacist
Harrison Ferro of Berwick, Pa., student pharmacist

The Medication Adherence Team Challenge is an integral part of Script Your Future, a campaign launched by the National Consumers League and its partners in 2011 to combat the problem of poor medication adherence in the United States, where nearly three out of four patients do not take their medication as directed. Nonadherence puts patients, especially those with chronic conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, or cardiovascular disease, at risk for serious complications.

The challenge is sponsored by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Foundation, the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), and the American Pharmacists Association (APhA).

For more stories about Wilkes University and its students, faculty and staff, please visit News@Wilkes.

About Wilkes University:

Wilkes University is a private, independent, non-sectarian institution of higher education dedicated to academic and intellectual excellence through mentoring in the liberal arts, sciences and professional programs. Founded in 1933, Wilkes is on a mission to create one of the nation's finest doctoral universities, offering all of the programs, activities and opportunities of a large university in the intimate, caring and mentoring environment of a small college, open to all who show promise. The Economist named Wilkes 25th in the nation for the value of its education for graduates. In addition to 46 majors, Wilkes offers 24 master's degree programs and five doctoral/terminal degree programs, including the doctor of philosophy in nursing, doctor of nursing practice, doctor of education, doctor of pharmacy, and master of fine arts in creative writing. Learn more at www.wilkes.edu.

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