Pharmacy Students Earn National Award for Third Time
UAMS College of Pharmacy students staff an informational table at the 12th Street Health & Wellness Center to raise awareness of the need for increased organ donations. Students also reach out to media to increase organ donation awareness in April, including a live appearance on television.
| July 13, 2015 | UAMS College of Pharmacy students have achieved a three-peat, winning the national Organ Donation Challenge award and, in this year’s competition, surpassing 11 rival colleges of pharmacy.
April is national Organ Donation Awareness Month. In 2013 and 2014, the students also won the challenge from the American Society of Transplantation by raising public awareness of the need for more organ donors.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 123,851 people in 2014 were on waiting lists for organ donations and 29,532 received them. The gap has widened every year since.
“Donating your organs can potentially save eight lives, and donating your tissues can improve the lives of even more people. Everyday people are die from organ failure while waiting on a donor,” said Seth Heldenbrand, Pharm. D., associate professor in the College of Pharmacy. “Compared to our neighbor states, Arkansas is leading the way with more than 50 percent of residents registered as organ donors.” Improving this even more will save and improve the lives of even more Arkansans in need.
Heldenbrand advised the college’s students who volunteered for the awareness effort and organized the Organ Donation Awareness Workgroup. Some members of the work group also met with representatives of the Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency.
In 2015, the students won the national contest of pharmacy students through educational presentations at events organized by ARORA and at public schools and the UAMS 12th Street Health & Wellness Clinic. Other awareness events included a partnership with Piro Brick Oven and Barroom to distribute flyers during April; participating in a live television interview on THV 11 on Wear Blue and Green Day for organ donation awareness; participating in several health fairs; organizing a donor and recipient family day at the Little Rock Zoo; and promoting and participating in Wear Blue and Green Day.