St. John’s University Pharmacy Students Place in Top 10 in Clinical Skills Competition

St. John’s University College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions placed in the Top 10 out of 84 pharmacy schools from across the country in the Clinical Skills Competition at the American Society of Health System Pharmacists’ Midyear Clinical Meeting in Las Vegas on December 4, 2005. “We’ve been trying to break into the upper division and have now made it,” says Dean Robert Mangione.

Sixth-year pharmacy students Sara Myones and Danielle Ferrari represented St. John’s at the Competition, after winning the College of Pharmacy competition October 14. At St. John’s, they competed against seven two-person teams to come up with the best pharmaceutical treatment plan for a hypothetical patient. After being given a case summary and access to references, they created a pharmacist’s care plan for the patient. They then presented their findings verbally and answered questions about their recommendations.

At the national competition, they were given a different case, and had to submit a written pharmaceutical treatment plan. A three-judge panel evaluated the plans and asked the authors of the top 10 plans to present their recommendations orally the next day. The St. John’s team of Sara Myones and Danielle Ferrari were required to present their therapy recommendations and rationale starting with the problem of highest acuity.

“The judges asked us to give the rationale behind our decisions,” says Sara Myones, who is the president of the Rho Chi Honor Society for pharmacy students at St. John’s.

“They asked us to defend our decisions on the spot,” says teammate Danielle Ferrari, the secretary of the Rho Chi Honor Society. “We always had an answer to any question the judges asked.” This wasn’t the case for all the other teams, Sara and Danielle indicated.

Assistant Clinical Professor Nicole M. Maisch, who is the College of Pharmacy’s faculty liaison to the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, ran the College’s professional skills contest, which she has done since 2000. She is also the Assistant Director of Drug Information Services at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY.

“Students in their fourth to sixth year of pharmacy competed at St. John’s,” she says. “Two judges evaluated their five-minute presentations, and scored them and their written pharmaceutical care plans according to the association’s guidelines.” She provided valuable feedback to the winning team before it departed for the nationals in Las Vegas.

As sixth-year students, Sara and Danielle were well prepared for the competition because they had completed most of their nine, four-week, clinical rotations, Professor Maisch indicated.

Sara Myones is applying for a one-year clinical residency at a provider of home health care pharmaceuticals in New York City. “I’m interested in doing community pharmacy work,” says the Bellmore, NY, native who decided to become a pharmacist when, in her early teens, she sought information on the medications prescribed to her father after his heart attack.

Danielle Ferrari, a Staten Island resident whose father is a pharmacist, would like a job in industry after graduation. During a summer internship at the Ortho-Biotech Division of Johnson & Johnson that involved marketing pharmaceuticals, she gave a presentation to the sales staff based on research she did identifying potential targets the company had overlooked.

Both young women say that their aptitude in science and the reputation of the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions prompted them to become pharmacy majors at St. John’s.