COP recognizes student winner of Texas Pharmacy Association contest

(KINGSVILLE, TX) — The Texas A&M Health Science Center Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy acknowledged student Jennifer Thompson’s recent win in the Texas Pharmacy Association (TPA) Patient Counseling Contest.

Thompson was awarded a certificate and recognized during the college’s awards banquet Monday, Sept. 29. She placed first in the Patient Counseling Contest at the TPA Annual Meeting in Galveston on July 17, the very first time the HSC-Rangel College of Pharmacy participated.

“On behalf of the college, we are very proud of Ms. Thompson and commend her on this accomplishment,” said Indra K. Reddy, Ph.D., founding dean of the HSC-College of Pharmacy.

Student competitors were required to counsel a patient about two prescriptions, which Thompson, currently a third-year pharmacy student, said is unusual for most competitions. Usually, student competitors are asked to counsel patients about only one drug.

“It was very true to life, a really accurate depiction of what you may have to do as a pharmacist, because people don’t usually come to you with just one medication,” Thompson said.

As she analyzed the drugs prescribed to the patient during the competition, Thompson was able to detect that the wrong dosage of medication had been prescribed. She says the knowledge she gained while studying at the HSC-College of Pharmacy, along with the experiences she had working with patients in a pharmacy setting, helped her recognize this error and counsel the patient effectively.