PULLMAN, Wash. — A team of four WSU pharmacy students has been invited to a competition in Boston in October at the annual meeting of the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA).
A business plan prepared by pharmacy students Jeana Little, Jennifer Aichele, Jaclyn Lopez and Silvia Perez was one of three plans selected for a final round of competition from the 16 plans submitted to the NCPA’s first-ever student business plan competition. The four WSU students will be entering their fourth and final year of pharmacy school in the fall.
The finalists were announced at a recent meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy in Salt Lake City
If the WSU students win the competition in October, they will receive $3,000 for their student chapter of NCPA, the WSU College of Pharmacy will receive $3,000 for its dean’s fund, and the students, their advisor, and the College dean will receive a trip – travel, lodging, registration paid – to a February meeting of the NCPA at St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
The second place award is $2,000 to the team’s student NCPA chapter and $2,000 to its pharmacy school, and the third place award is $1,000 to the NCPA student chapter and $1,000 to the school.
The WSU students will be competing against pharmacy student teams from the University of Kansas and Mercer University
During the first round of competition, the NCPA reviewed the written business plans of 16 teams to select three finalists. The students will have to present their plans in October to a panel of judges.
The WSU team created a plan for a Cougar Pharmacy, which would be an independent pharmacy with diabetes care, a home health care department and other pharmaceutical care services .The team’s advisor was Linda Garrelts MacLean, WSU clinical assistant professor of pharmacotherapy.
“The goal of the competition is to motivate pharmacy students to create the blueprint necessary for buying an existing independent community pharmacy or to develop a new pharmacy providing unique patient care services,” said Bruce Roberts, NCPA executive vice president and CEO.
The competition is the first national competition of its kind in the pharmacy profession, and is named after two great champions of independent pharmacy, the late Neil Pruitt, Sr., and H. Joseph Schutte. The competition is supported by the Pruitt and Schutte families and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals.
The NCPA represents the nation’s community pharmacists, including the owners of 24,000 pharmacies. The nation’s independent pharmacies, independent pharmacy franchises, and independent chains represent a $77 billion marketplace, dispensing nearly half of the nation’s retail prescription medicines.
More information about this competition is available at: www.ncpanet.org/students.
