CPPS on the Frontlines

Outreach in Wapato

This March, third- and fourth-year Yakima pharmacy students participated in COVID-19 vaccine outreach at Horizon Pharmacy in Wapato, in the lower Yakima Valley.

Student volunteers helped prepare and administer the vaccinations, as well as counseled the patients afterwards.

Student pharmacists on COVID-19 testing in Pullman

When Misty Lefler and Shayne Fontes got the urgent call from Associate Dean of Professional Education Jennifer Robinson that volunteers were needed for COVID-19 testing at WSU’s main campus in Pullman, the third-year pharmacy students scrambled to organize their peers over one weekend. Only one week into the fall semester, and Pullman was already experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases despite going to virtual learning for the semester.

“I get really excited saying ‘I get to help out with this and I get to help our community,’” said Lefler. “As health care providers all we want to do is educate, immunize, and help provide those services.”

Flu season is here: Time to get vaccinated

In no other year has a flu shot been more important.

Immunization experts at the WSU College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences warn that the addition of another respiratory illness such as the flu on top of COVID-19 could overburden health care systems, strain local testing capacity and increase the risk of complications from either disease.

Embedded: Student pharmacist on the frontlines of COVID-19 testing in Yakima

When a spike in COVID-19 cases made Yakima county a West Coast hot spot for the disease, Yakima Doctor of Pharmacy students quickly stepped up to help with mitigation efforts. Working alongside the Yakima Health District and the US National Guard, WSU student pharmacists volunteered to help direct people in improvised testing centers. The college sat down with third-year pharmacy student Brian Wu to hear about the experience.