Student participants at H-PREP
BUIES CREEK — Campbell University recently wrapped up its 9th annual Healthcare Professionals Readiness & Enrichment Program (H-PREP) hosted jointly by the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences and the Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine.
H-PREP, a week-long program featuring an intense overview of the health science programs offered at Campbell, is a formative experience that combines academic instruction with professional development in an interprofessional environment. This year’s focus revolved around community and rural practice and issues that are unique to those areas of health care.
“H-PREP was designed to address issues of underserved populations in the field of pharmacy and the health care delivery system in general,” said W. Mark Moore, associate dean for admissions and student affairs at the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences. “We focus on recruiting students from largely underserved populations in an effort to increase awareness of the need to provide greater access to health care for these communities.”
Throughout the week, participants were exposed to foundational principles of the current professional health science programs at Campbell: clinical research, osteopathic medicine, pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacy, physical therapy, physician assistant practice, and public health. Activities included educational material focused on the different programs as well as how the programs can work together to form a comprehensive health care team. Participants were given the opportunity to get involved in hands-on learning through cardiac auscultation activities and CPR training and were able to watch the CUSOM anatomists hard at work in the state-of-the-art anatomy lab in the Leon Levine Hall of Medical Sciences.
The program welcomed 64 participants from 28 colleges in nine states with an overall grade point average of 3.3. Participants were allowed to claim a focus upon applying to the program; and as a result, 29 participants selecting to focus on pharmacy were invited to attend an extra day of H-PREP. The pharmacy-focused day included seminars from the Director of Pharmacy Programs at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, Alex Adams, PharmD, and Senior Director of Strategic Academic Partnerships for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, Jennifer Adams, PharmD.
The week concluded with participants, faculty and staff working together to complete a service project to benefit starving families in Haiti. H-PREP partnered with the humanitarian food-aid organization Kids Against Hunger to assemble over 10,000 easy-to-prepare food packages containing easily digestible proteins, carbohydrates and vitamins that can feed up to six people once prepared. – Leah Whitt, director of communications for College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences
[View the story “H-PREP 2014” on Storify]