KU pharmacy students traveled to south-central Kansas Oct. 11 to provide free flu shots to Greensburg-area residents.
Since a tornado destroyed most of that Kiowa County community on May 4, 2007, residents in the area have been without a local pharmacy. Members of KU’s chapter of the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists have been fundraising this semester to conduct Operation Immunization: Greensburg, a one-day event providing about 400 doses of flu vaccine.
The pharmacy student group annually conducts Operation Immunization on campus. This year, Neil Young of Erie and Laura Mazur of Wichita, both fourth-year pharmacy students, suggested adding an immunization event to assist a Kansas community in need.
Young had traveled through Greensburg after the 2007 tornado destroyed the community that had been home to about 1,400 people. When he and other students learned that Kiowa County was one of the six counties in Kansas with no community pharmacy, they proposed the Greensburg project. KU Pharmacy Dean Ken Audus endorsed their plan and provided some initial funding
To raise the $4,000 needed for the Greensburg project, the student pharmacists cleaned Memorial Stadium after home football games, sold T-shirts and textbooks, and worked with KU Endowment to obtain private funding from Kansas pharmacists. The group has about 250 members.
Young and Mazur worked with Mitzi Hesser, director of the Kiowa County Health Department, to coordinate and direct Operation Immunization: Greensburg.
In addition, Kiowa County Memorial Hospital in Greensburg; two area pharmacies, Kinsley Drug in Kinsley and Main Street Pharmacy in Coldwater; and KU School of Pharmacy faculty provided professional and clinical support for the 19 advanced pharmacy students who traveled to Greensburg.
Vaccinations were given by injection. Kansas allows licensed pharmacists to administer injections for clients age 18 or older and allows trained pharmacy students to do so under the direct supervision of a licensed pharmacist. Each of the 19 student pharmacists had learned to give injections during their first year in pharmacy school.
As a registered nurse, Hesser administered injections to patients younger than 18.
The students were supervised by area pharmacists Brad Eustace of Kinsley and Lisa Gales of Coldwater and three KU pharmacy faculty members: Robert L. Emerson, director of experiential education; Janelle Ruisinger, clinical assistant professor in pharmacy practice; and Barbara Woods, director of postgraduate pharmacy education.
Eustace and Gales are also preceptors for KU’s School of Pharmacy experiential training program, and Eustace is the Kiowa County Memorial Hospital pharmacist.
Greensburg’s 5.4.7 Arts Center was the location for Operation Immunization: Greensburg. The center was designed and built last spring by KU architecture students.
