School of Pharmacy receives grant from Community Pharmacy Foundation

     The Campbell University School of Pharmacy has announced a grant in the amount of $27,526 from the Community Pharmacy Foundation. The grant will be used to benefit Campbell’s Wellness Institute in the development and implementation of a diabetes education and self-management program for middle school children. The program seeks to combine the resource available in the Harnett County schools and local community pharmacies. Three Harnett County pharmacies will participate in the project—Thomas Drug Store in Dunn, Coats Pharmacy and Angier Discount Drug.

     “The middle school years are the time when students are forming independent health habits. This is why the middle school component is so important to our program,” said Dr. Gil Steiner, director of Campbell’s Wellness Institute. Joining Steiner are Dr. Larry Swanson, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice, and Emily Bloom, associate director of Science Education Outreach for the School of Pharmacy.

     Grant funds will be used in part to provide specialized diabetes education training to a number of pharmacists at the participating pharmacies. The pharmacists will then work with several Harnett County public school nurses to implement a monitoring and education program for the students. Students and their families will make monthly visits to one of these pharmacies to learn about the many facets of diabetes care, including nutrition, exercise and medication use. In addition, there will be sessions on blood sugar testing, how to recognize and deal with complications and how to avoid complications. A unique feature of the project will be the development of an educational tool kit, including print and audio-visual materials, to be used as part of the pharmacy visit.

     According to a study published in the “Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association” in 2002, children in North Carolina are more likely to be overweight than children in other states.

     “Recent attention has been focused on the fact that children are now developing what were once considered adult medical programs such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, skin cancers, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels,” Steiner said. “The grant proposal was developed as a natural consequence of our ongoing schools’ wellness program designed to teach students about personal responsibility for their health and to help them realize that they have the power to impact their health outcomes.”

     Over the past seven years, the Campbell University School of Pharmacy Wellness Institute has reached over 8,000 middle school students in this way, Steiner added.

Bulletin 0011-5/31/07