California Statewide Patient Counseling Competition
The Pharmacy Foundation hosts this yearly competition on the first day of the annual state pharmacy conference, Outlook. The intent of the competition is to provide visibility for the participating California pharmacy students that have, on a local level, excelled in demonstrating their ability to counsel a patient successfully on appropriate medication use and to aid in facilitating a higher level of performance by California students at the national competition, held annually at the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Annual Meeting.
All participants will receive a complimentary copy of Facts & Comparisons and a VIP invitation to PFC’s annual Leadership & Awards Breakfast at Outlook 2011, where they will be honored with certificates of achievement. The competition “winner” will be announced during the breakfast and will receive the Max & Bess Stollman Excellence in Patient Consultation Award - a $1,000 check to help fund their expenses to the APhA national competition. Additionally, a perpetual plaque will be engraved with the winner’s name and sent to their school for the year.
Criteria
Participating schools of pharmacy host their own individual patient counseling competitions and use the criteria standards set forth by APhA. The winner from each school’s competition is invited to participate in the statewide competition in order to enhance their counseling skills and gain valuable feedback about their performance that may help them prepare for the national competition.
Competition Guidelines
All participants receive the prescription information just prior to their competition start time and are required to counsel a patient on the appropriate use of the drug involved. The participant is given up to 5 minutes to prepare for the scenario, using Facts and Comparisons as a reference. Once they have determined the appropriate information for the patient, the participant has approximately 5 minutes to counsel the patient. The patient may display personality characteristics to challenge the participants’ ability to convey pertinent information in a difficult situation. Each counseling session is recorded for subsequent review by the judges and to provide feedback to the participants.
The competition is “blinded” so that the panel of judges is unaware of each participant’s school affiliation. Each participant is evaluated based on the content and style of their counseling presentation and the panel of judges must unanimously agree on the selected “winner” of the competition.
Since all of the participants will compete at the national competition (not just the winner of the statewide competition), the panel of judges will offer each participant constructive feedback intended to enhance their performance at the national competition.
Previous Winners
2010 - Krystal Pong, UCSF
2009 - Lindsey Elmore, UCSF
2008 - Julie Chen, UCSF
2007 - Emmanuelle Mirsakov, USC
2006 - Eric Ip, UCSF