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ELEMENTAL VALUES
The Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy opened its doors in 2010 with one
overarching purpose in mind: To care for the community. Over the past eight
years, 365 graduates have earned PharmD degrees on their way to helping serve
underserved populations.
The care that PC School of Pharmacy students, alumni, faculty and staff have shown the community are a result of the values on which the school is built. These elemental values include:
Quality education | Culture of service | Commitment to scholarship | Integrity | Teamwork
Students, alumni, faculty and staff continue to live by these values today as much as they did when the School was founded.
QUALITY EDUCATION
Each year the School of Pharmacy selects one professor who exemplifies the quality education that has been a part of the pharmacy school since its founding. Dr. Eileen Ward, associate professor of pharmacy practice, was named Teacher of the Year for the 2017-18 academic year.
“Interacting with students and patients on a daily basis makes it easy to find joy in what I do, and students tell me this is illustrated in the classroom,” Ward said. “I love teaching from my own pharmacy practice experience and providing insight into what students will soon experience as future pharmacists.”
Ward enjoys being able to teach the relevant concepts from the self-care course and community lab that students will see on rotation during their first year.
“These courses allow students to realize their roles as future professionals early in the curriculum and prepare them for their upcoming careers,” Ward said.
Teaching students how to educate their future patients is also a joy for Ward. In the classroom, she models how to break down complex issues so that they’re easier to understand. Ward often uses analogies and humor when she teaches, and she avoids medical jargon. “My hope is that students continue to use this method when teaching their own patients about complicated disease states and care management,” she said. Ward influences students outside the classroom too. She mentors students in research projects and through student organizations like APhA-ASP. She prepares them for post-graduate training by helping them gain research experience and by refining their CVs to highlight their hard work and unique abilities.
“Teaching concepts to first-year students allows me to lay a simpler foundation of relevant important information,” Ward said. “I consider this providing the students with the ‘puzzle pieces.’”
According to Ward, students gain more and more puzzle pieces as they progress through the curriculum. “Working with students again in their fourth year through APPEs allows me to show students how to put all these puzzle pieces together to create the best picture of comprehensive care for each individual patient,” she said.
Clayton Melson ’19, APhA-ASP Chapter President, has been the recipient of Ward’s quality education inside and outside the classroom.
“As a mentor, Dr. Ward has not only enhanced my passion for people and service, but she’s been a beacon of encouragement to further pursue professional service in our community,” Melson said. “Her guidance goes beyond the bounds of academia and succeeds in preparing me for the future pharmacist I aspire to be.”
EDUCATION E
SSERVICE
9 SCHOLARSHIP S
CULTURE OF SERVICE S ervice is as much a part of the PC School of Pharmacy as the practice of pharmacy itself. Students become immersed in a culture where the motto is “Care for the Community” as soon as they arrive on campus. During orientation students serve the community during Pharmacy Service Day and continue to help others in service projects while in pharmacy school.
Some students, like Darien Campbell, go on to serve others during residencies. Campbell grew up in Walterboro, S.C., and earned his undergraduate degree at a college 69 miles away from home. From there, he went on to the PC School of Pharmacy, 150 miles away from his hometown. Now, Campbell is serving his pharmacy residency 4035 miles away from home in Nome, Alaska.
“I have been localized to the southern region of the U.S. my entire life and I wanted to have the chance to experience new cultures and environments,” Campbell said. “I feel like going somewhere new can help shape me as a person.” Campbell is working at Norton Sound Regional Hospital in Nome, a city so remote you can only get there by plane. The hospital primarily serves native Alaskans in 15 surrounding villages.
Campbell came across the opportunity when looking for residency programs. He knew he wanted to carry out the School of Pharmacy’s mission to serve underserved populations and found out about the US Public Health Service (USPHS). The USPHS is a government agency that serves underserved populations in rural areas across the country. Alaska is one of the many areas the agency serves. “The mission of the pharmacy school aligned with my personal beliefs and values for giving back to the community,” Campbell said. “My experiences in the community throughout the pharmacy program allowed me to remain humble and compassionate.”
While at the pharmacy school, Campbell volunteered at the Fairgrounds Senior Village, a retirement home in Laurens, S.C. He often fellowshipped with residents after finishing classes. Campbell also volunteered on a medical mission trip in Haiti and participated in numerous health screening events in the Laurens community.
Campbell is nervous about living so far away from home but enjoys helping those in need. He may have to travel to other underserved areas across the country through the USPHS to provide health care needs but wants to stay in Alaska if he can.
“Long-term, I would like to remain an officer in the U.S. Public Health Services Commission Corps to continuously provide care to underserved populations,” he said.
COMMITMENT TO SCHOLARSHIP
APC School of Pharmacy professor and several pharmacy school students show their commitment to scholarship by participating in the school’s Pharmacogenomics Certification Program and conducting cancer research.
Now in its third year, the Pharmacogenomics Certification Program allows School of Pharmacy students to become certified in an emerging field of medicine. Pharmacogenomics, or precision medicine, focuses on matching the genetic markup of a patient’s DNA with the most effective drug therapy.
According to program director Dr. Chris Farrell, pharmacogenomics has been practiced for 30 years but has gained popularity over the last 10. “(Pharmacogenomics) is being used in multiple fields, especially cancer therapy, as a targeted approach to killing tumor cells,” Farrell said.
School of Pharmacy students take a biotechnology lab course in their first year. During the course, they isolate their own DNA and perform tests to see if their genetic markers match with certain drug therapies.
In their second year, students learn the importance of pharmacogenomics as well as online genetic resources. In their third year, students apply their genetic knowledge through case studies and online assignments. At the end of the year, students take a certification course on pharmacogenomics.
This past year, approximately 20 PC School of Pharmacy
students participated in the certification program. In addition, two students presented research at two national meetings: the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the American Association for Cancer Research.
“(The research) helps students with specialized residency programs and jobs in industry,” Farrell said.
Over the past year, Farrell has continued his oncology research with the help of PC undergraduate and graduate pharmacy students. They’re exploring the connection between chemotherapy-resistant tumors in chemotherapy naive cancer patients who are taking non-chemotherapy agents.
TEAMWORK
The PC School of Pharmacy fosters an environment of collaborative learning. For an example of this teamwork, look no further than the collaborative efforts of Melanie Routhieaux ’18, Jessica Keels ’18, and Dr. Erika Tillery, associate professor of pharmacy practice. Tillery researches psychiatric medications at her pharmacy practice site, G. Werber Bryan Psychiatric Hospital in Columbia, S.C. Tillery has wanted to complete a literature review on pharmacogenetic testing at institutions like G. Weber Bryan for a while. She wanted to see if pharmacogenetic testing would help identify an individual’s risk of developing a mental illness and predict an individual’s response to treatment.
When she was a P2 student, Routhieaux told Tillery about her own interest in psychiatry. Routhieaux asked Tillery if she could work with her on any research projects in psychiatric medications.
Over the next two years, including this past year, Routhieaux, Keels, and Tillery conducted a systematic review on the use of pharmacogenetic testing patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The three worked to identify, select, and review articles related to the possible To identify this connection, Farrell and his research team have been treating colorectal cancer cells with antidepressants for several months. Their research has shown an increase of expression and activity of multi-drug resistant (MDR) transporter proteins. This increase leads to a resistance of chemotherapy drugs, such as irinotecan and 5-fluorouracil, and caused the drugs to become ineffective in killing the cancer cells.
By identifying this connection in MDR tumors, Farrell and the students hope their discovery will result in better treatment plans for patients who may be chemotherapy-resistant before undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
correlation between genetic variations and medication response or disease predisposition for patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
“We found through this review that the sample sizes for these types of tests were very small, often fewer than 100 patients,” Routhieaux said. “It made it difficult to make therapeutic recommendations based on pharmacogenetic testing.
“There really wasn’t any current research on this topic for these disease states and through this work, I really became an expert in this area.”
Routhieaux said the research prepared her for her residency. Routhieaux honed her skills in time management, team communication and meeting deadlines set by Tillery and the journal editorial board.
“Even though I was the primary author, Dr. Tillery does a lot of research, so she was able to mentor me about what journals to approach, utilize her professional connections, and keep us on track,” Routhieaux said. “She had a unique insight in what articles to include in our review from her own work at Bryan Psychiatric hospital.”
12 TEAMWORK T
INTEGRITY J ean Whyte Goette ’15 now serves as the lead clinical pharmacist at Lexington Medical Center in Columbia, SC. When she was deciding where to go to pharmacy school, she chose PC because of the high priority placed on integrity.
“I was not a number,” Goette said. “I was valued for what I could be as a future pharmacist in my community.” While at the PC School of Phamacy, Goette noticed how the faculty-student relationships set the school apart. Goette loves math, and most sciences fascinate her. Still, she’ll be the first to tell you that the upper-level undergraduate biology and chemistry courses at USC didn’t come easily to her. In fact, they kept her from pursuing pharmacy in her early years at USC.
But she found the help she needed at the PC School of Pharmacy.
“Professors were willing to help during the late nights on campus before exams when students met in small groups and had extra review sessions before finals,” Goette said. “And professors gave students individualized attention for different styles of learning.
“The support and dedication of faculty at the PC School of Pharmacy helped me learn and succeed through the didactic portion of my pharmacy education.”
The PC School of Pharmacy’s emphasis on caring for the community resonated with Goette as well.
“Service to our community is a strong passion for me,” she said, “and being a part of the Clinton community was a rewarding component of my growth into a pharmacist.”
Goette served in leadership roles in a number of pharmacy student organizations. She made it a point that every service project or fundraiser had a direct impact on those in need in the community.
“The community welcomed us, loved us, fed us, and treated us as family,” Goette said. “To be able to show our gratitude through our time and our care was an honor.” Goette helped those in need during health fairs the PC School of Pharmacy hosted for the community. She helped children at the Thornwell Home for Children during the Halloween carnival and volunteered on a project to donate Christmas gifts to even more children in the community.
“One of my proudest moments in my role as Student Governance Association President,” Goette said, “was being able to donate enough student-raised funds to help the South Carolina Free Clinics Association to purchase new blood pressure cuffs for every clinic in our state.” Goette summed up what she learned during her time at the PC School of Pharmacy when she addressed the Class of 2015.
“Take comfort in knowing that you are becoming a part of a team that wants you to conquer the goals you set for yourself, and lead the way into the future of pharmacy,” she said. “Your journey at the PC School of Pharmacy will not simply be an education to become a pharmacist, but a leader as well.”
Goette urged her classmates to make the most of their time in pharmacy school by actively learning and taking advantage of the opportunities provided for them. “You should already be proud for taking the initiative to choose a school that values service, integrity, and you as a whole person rather than a number,” Goette said.
Goette was able to thrive in a school that places a value on integrity while a student at the PC School of Pharmacy. She says she feels fortunate to be at Lexington Medical Center now.
“Lexington Medical embodies a culture that mirrors my compassion for patients, and providing care for the whole patient – not just their medical needs,” she said.
