Paria Sanaty Zadeh, a third year pharmacy student, participated in the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP) National Patient Counseling Competition. The competition is designed to reflect changes that are occurring in practice, to promote and encourage further professional development of the student pharmacist, and to reinforce the role of the pharmacist as a health care provider and educator.

The competition began at the local level as students like Zadeh competed to represent their school or college of pharmacy on the national level at the APhA Annual Meeting and Exposition in Baltimore, Md. in early March. The national competition was split into a preliminary and final round. During the preliminary round, students select a simple practice scenario at random and are required to counsel a patient on the appropriate use of the drug involved. Participants were evaluated on the content and style of their counseling, with the ten highest, including Zadeh, advancing to the final round.

The final round involved a more complex counseling situation where Zadeh selected a prescription at random and was asked to counsel the patient on safe and effective drug use. In addition, the patient in the final round will display personality characteristics such as anxiousness, belligerence or apathy to challenge the participants’ ability to convey pertinent information in a realistic situation.

Zadeh and fellow finalists were recognized at the APhA-ASP Awards Celebration and will receive a cash prize compliments of APhA-ASP and CVS Health. In 2014, Karrie Radovich, Pharm.D. ‘15, was also a top ten finalist.