The School’s WSPS is honored for community outreach and a student pharmacist wellness program

By Logan Underwood

PharmD students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy know there is more to being a pharmacist than science and medicine: Patient care and education, community outreach, and personal wellness are all essential skills.

“As student pharmacists, we have a unique opportunity to engage with our communities while building the skills we’ll need as professionals,” says third-year PharmD student Jenny Velikodanov, president of the Wisconsin Society of Pharmacy Students (WSPS). “Whether it’s through outreach, wellness initiatives, or volunteering, these experiences allow us to make a meaningful difference now while preparing us to lead with compassion and purpose after graduation.”

To give student pharmacists those experiences, WSPS, the School’s chapter of the American Pharmacists Association’s Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP), organizes a breadth of distinct community outreach “Operations” that each tackle a facet of health, from diabetes to immunizations.

“Through these initiatives, students have truly made an impact on their communities.”
—Andrea Porter

For the 2023–24 academic year, four of their initiatives — Operation Heart, Operation Reproductive Health, Operation Substance Use Disorder (SUD), and Operation Over-the-Counter (OTC) Medication Safety — were honored with APhA-ASP Region 4 awards for their substantial community impact. The group also received a fifth Region 4 award: the Innovative Programming Award for Wellness Wednesdays, a series of events dedicated to supporting the health and well-being of the School’s student pharmacists.

“I am so proud of all the Operations that won,” says Velikodanov. “I know that we always aim to do great work for our community, and I had no doubts that they would bring home awards.”

These awards are the latest in WSPS’ tradition of excellence: This marks the second consecutive year that Operation Reproductive Health and Operation SUD are being recognized, and the third award for Operation Heart within the past five years. In fact, WSPS has earned at least two Region 4 awards every year for the past four years.

“WSPS has a long tradition of community outreach that has been recognized regionally and nationally,” says Andrea Porter (PharmD ’06), professor of pharmacy practice and WSPS faculty advisor. “The students are the ones driving this success with their leadership, engagement, and passion for serving patients. Through these initiatives, students have truly made an impact on their communities.”

Improving community health

Fourth-year PharmD students Kelsie Tingle and Taylor Redfern, co-chairs of Operation Heart in the 2023-24 academic year, doubled the number of outreach activities. Throughout the year, the Operation organized 14 events, with 135 student volunteers reaching more than 1,500 community members.

The group’s main goal is to offer blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk screenings, while educating patients on the importance of heart health. This past year, the students focused on expanding these services to new populations.

Along with hosting a blood drive in collaboration with Operation Organ Donor Awareness, Operation Heart organized blood pressure screening events at nursing homes, schools, senior centers, and the William S. Middleton Veterans Memorial Hospital. Additionally, Tingle and Redfern newly implemented Stop the Bleed training for School of Pharmacy students, teaching them to recognize and provide effective emergency care during life-threatening bleeding situations.

“Being able to be out in the community providing these services, providing education, and showing people just how much pharmacists are capable of — even in our early stages of training — is really powerful,” says Tingle.

Operation Reproductive Health also made significant strides in improving public health during the 2023-24 academic year. Co-chairs Sydney McKersie and Kelby Drogemuller, fourth-year PharmD students, partnered with another UW–Madison student organization during Sexual Health Awareness Week to host a Jeopardy game for School of Pharmacy students that focused on how pharmacists can support sexual health and safety.

“Organizing that event helped me learn about myself as a leader, coordinating people, communicating, and keeping all that organized while balancing my coursework, while providing a fun and educational experience for others,” says McKersie.

Operation Reproductive Health also partnered with the local charitable organization Babies and Beyond, which provides free diapers, wipes, clothing, and toys to local families in need. With the support of the Operation’s student volunteers, Babies and Beyond was able to make these resources available monthly.

For Tingle, the ability to serve the community while educating School of Pharmacy students makes the WSPS operations uniquely impactful.

“You get to actually work with the patients, provide those clinical services, and practice them yourself,” she says. “You get to provide a lot of education.”

Improving medication safety

Operation SUD focuses on educating teens and young adults on the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs. The group worked to expand its outreach during 2023-2024, delivering presentations at 15 local schools and reaching more than 1,000 students.

To take their outreach to the next level, Operation SUD implemented an activity with impairment simulation goggles to teach high school students about the dangers of drunk and buzzed driving. They also connected students with resources to find drug take-back sites and access to naloxone and fentanyl test strips and tailored their presentations and activities to age groups, such as playing a “candy or medicine” game with elementary school students.

“Within the last year, we implemented a lot of new things,” says fourth-year PharmD student Jessica Haase, who co-chairs Operation SUD with fourth-year PharmD student Lukas Kelsey. “It was good to see that momentum build.”

MedDrop, an organization that works closely with Operation SUD, coordinates drug takeback events for safe prescription medication disposal. Under co-chairs Jessa Mielke, third-year PharmD student, and Sawyer Fleming, fourth-year PharmD student, the group hosted two takeback events collecting almost 1,000 pounds of medicine at each event.

Over-the-counter medications, too, can pose health risks. That’s where Operation OTC Medication Safety comes in, most often educating kids and older adults about the risks of some commonly used medicines.

The Operation participates in health fairs on and off of campus to deliver important information on the safe use of dosing devices for liquid medications, proper storage and disposal of OTC medications, and resources for older adults through the Aging and Disability Resource Center.

In the 2023–24 academic year, third-year PharmD students Emily Phillips and Alexa Dietsche, OTC Medication Safety co-chairs, expanded the initiative to include the UW–Madison campus by forging new partnerships with student organizations. The Operation worked with the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) learning community to share safe medication practices and advised student athletes through the Wisconsin Track Club about the proper ways to self-medicate with OTCs during the cold and flu season.

“These initiatives were very valuable learning experiences for us, and we thoroughly enjoyed engaging with the community and educating people on medication safety,” says Dietsche.

Prioritizing student health

As WSPS president, Velikodanov wanted to ensure that the more than 200 members of WSPS were taking care of their mental and physical health while devoting time to outreach initiatives.

“Whenever I get stressed, it is really hard to do anything wellness-related,” says Velikodanov. “I realized that pharmacy school doesn’t have to be that way.”

In September 2023, Velikodanov partnered with UW–Madison’s RecWell to offer the WSPS board members an introduction to wellness coaching. Together, they practiced setting goals to improve all aspects of their wellness. After receiving an extremely positive response, she decided to take what they learned and host “Wellness Wednesdays” for all of the School’s PharmD students during October: American Pharmacists Month.

The initiative offered healthy cooking classes, in which students were taught simple recipes and were given the ingredients to make their own meals at home. Other sessions included mindful meditation, chair yoga, and free treats.

“Our goal was to help student pharmacists learn how to manage and balance their lives,” she says. “We wanted to implement a service that could really help build these foundational skills for pharmacists.”

The Wellness Wednesdays initiative was awarded the Region 4 Innovative Programing Award for its positive impact on the health of future pharmacists. The award also means that Wellness Wednesdays is nominated for the national Innovative Programming Award, which will be decided during the upcoming 2025 Annual Meeting and Exposition.

“Pharmacists pour their heart and soul into caring for their communities, and this initiative teaches future pharmacists how to care for themselves in the same way,” says Velikodanov. “It’s thrilling to see that APhA-ASP is as excited about our work as we are.”