College of Pharmacy Class of 2020 Dons White Coats
| Aug. 31, 2016 | By the time the UAMS College of Pharmacy Class of 2020 graduates, medical knowledge will be doubling every 73 days, keynote speaker Jonell Hudson, Pharm. D., said Aug. 26 at the college’s White Coat Ceremony.
“There is no way we can teach everything you need to know about pharmacy and the practice of taking care of patients in four years. It’s just changing too quickly,” Hudson said. “What you will get through your four years of study is a solid foundation on which you can easily assimilate this new knowledge.”
Hudson is an associate professor in the college’s Department of Pharmacy Practice, who teaches on UAMS’ Northwest Campus in Fayetteville. She also is co-director of student-led North Street Clinic on the campus.
A student of the Class of 2020 puts on her white coat as part of the ceremony.
Other dynamic changes in the pharmacy profession in recent years that Hudson noted include interprofessional education — students in health care professions learning together to cultivate a team-based approached to patient care — and the much more dynamic role pharmacists now play in patient outcomes in medication therapy.
Hudson cited the example of an asthma patient whom she and student pharmacists helped to understand when and how to use her inhalers, which required repeated instruction and follow-up visits. Instead of struggling to breathe and even rest, the patient sleeps through the night and no longer wheezes.
“We assessed, we created, we implemented, we monitored, we adjusted, we educated and we counseled,” Hudson said. “The result was a positive outcome associated with her medication therapy.”
After Hudson spoke, the 120 students in the Class of 2020 one by one came up on stage to put on white coats to mark symbolically the beginning of their four years of study and their transition into the life of a student-pharmacist.
College of Pharmacy Dean Keith Olsen, Pharm. D., steps up to the podium at the Aug. 26 White Coat Ceremony.
“When I went to pharmacy school, we did not have a white-coat ceremony,” College of Pharmacy Dean Keith Olsen, Pharm. D., said. “I wish we had because the white coat is a rite of passage into the pharmacy profession. The donning of the white coat is a tradition originating in scientific laboratories. However, your white coat also is important to your patient care. It is a sign of professionalism, a sign of caring, a sign of compassion for our patients.”
Sponsored by the Arkansas Pharmacists Association (APA), it was the college’s 14th annual White Coat Ceremony. Representing the APA at the ceremony was Scott Pace, Pharm. D., the association’s executive vice president and CEO.
More than 500 people attended, including college faculty and staff, and friends and family.
Following the keynote address, Mary Bradley, president of the UAMS American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists UAMS Chapter, also led the Class of 2020 in reciting the Student Pledge of Professionalism.
The average grade point average of the incoming class, which includes 52 males and 68 females, was 3.44.
The UAMS College of Pharmacy Class of 2020.