The USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy (TCOP) is calling all middle schoolers, high schoolers, and pharmacy technician students to spend one week of their summer vacation learning about the pharmacy industry during the second annual Pharmacy Career Orientation Camp, held June 19 to 23.

This four-day immersive experience will expose young students to the many opportunities available in a career in pharmacy.

The camp exposes participants to all aspects of the academic, clinical and research missions of USF Health. Experiences include:

• Lab tours
• USF campus pharmacy tours
• Student, staff and faculty question and answer sessions
• Hand-on experiences in pharmacies filling prescriptions
• Interactions with other health college students
• Understanding bioinformatics
• Introduction to artificial intelligence in pharmacy

One of the key teaching points of the camp is to address any misconceptions and make sure students understand the role of pharmacists within interprofessional health care teams, according to Angela Hill, PharmD, professor and associate dean of clinical affairs and community outreach leader in TCOP.  Discussions throughout the camp often speak about the “evolution of pharmacy,” as described by Dr. Hill, so students have a better understanding of how the pharmacy field continues to change and welcome in new innovations, including pharmacogenomics, nuclear medicine and nanotechnology.

Key topics include:

• Working within health care teams
• Prerequisites to being a pharmacy student
• Credentialing and making yourself more marketable as a pharmacist
• Non-clinical roles including research tech
• Master’s programs

The college has offered pharmacy orientation events since 2012 through the USF TRIO Upward Bound Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Last year, in 2022, was the first time they’ve taken the experiences and lessons learned, expanded and enhanced the hands on experiences and put it into a camp model.

“This would be the best time spent for any student to spend time with us.  This is bigger than us. This is about investing in our future,” Dr. Hill said. “We’re grateful to USF for embracing and supporting us.  We hope the Tampa Bay community can see that we care and we really want to help make sure we produce good citizens who can impact health care.”

The camp is $275 per in-person participant and $150 per virtual participant.  Participants whose parents are USF employees receive a $25 discount to participate.  For more information email Kareen Moreland at kareenmoreland@usf.edu.

Photos from 2022 camp:

USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS) faculty and staff took their expertise – and their technology – to Pinellas County to give emergency medical service instructors hands-on practice they could then take back to first-responders across the county.

The “train the trainer” exercise was offered by the USF Health CAMLS, to Pinellas County EMS instructors for three days as a part of a new community outreach program. EMS instructors from across Pinellas gathered for an all-day instructor development class led by Yasuharu “Haru” Okuda, MD, FACEP, FSSH, USF Health CAMLS executive director and USF Health executive director for interprofessional education and practice, and Ryan McKenna, DO, fellowship director, the interprofessional simulation fellowship at USF Health CAMLS and director of simulation, Emergency Medicine. The course focused on how to properly use and troubleshoot the technology and the best practices for simulation-based education.

Dr. Haru Okuda, MD, FACEP, FSSH, USF Health CAMLS executive director and USF Health executive director for interprofessional education and practice, taught the EMS instructors how to program and use the computerized mannequins to simulate various medical emergencies when teaching classes of their own.

“Simulation-based education is well-known to be very valuable in emergency medical services and emergency medical care in general, and we are excited to have the expertise of the USF Health CAMLS staff here to help us do a train-the-trainer,” said Angus Jameson, MD, MPH, USF Health affiliate associate professor of emergency medicine and medical director for Pinellas County EMS.

The EMS instructors gathered into two groups and ran through various scenarios with their mid-fidelity Gaumard ^®manikins. Hidden behind the television monitor used to display vital signs, Dr. Okuda and Dr. McKenna began the first round for their teams by acting as the patient, or the voice of the manikin. After a debrief, the instructors got a chance to play the roles of patient, family, and learners, while some served as facilitators who ran the simulation software.

During debrief, Ryan McKenna, DO, fellowship director, the interprofessional simulation fellowship at USF Health CAMLS and director of simulation, Emergency Medicine, goes over best-practices with the participating EMS instructors.

Shawn Tatham, EMS training coordinator for Pinellas County said, “in simulations, we can slow things down a little bit, we can get them into a structured assessment pattern and ensure that they’re doing their treatments according to our standardized protocol, and we can create a nice learning environment so they can go out and apply that for the best patient care.”

At the end of the scenario-based training, the EMS instructors will take what they have learned and apply it to their continuing education training with emergency medical technicians and paramedics across the county.

Andre Nelson, certified healthcare simulation operations specialist at USF Health CAMLS, helps EMS instructors with the behind-the-scenes technology that controls the manikin.

Video by Torie Doll and photos by Allison Long

Tamina Johnson, a USF engineering sciences doctoral student, knows a lot about the complexities of proteins, but she needed a little help when it came to choosing healthcare insurance for the first time.

Johnson, 29, was among the consumers from across campus and the surrounding community, including 15 USF students, who were assisted at the March 6 “Nav-Lab Enrollment Blowout” at USF Health.

Representatives from Enroll America offered education about the Health Insurance Marketplace, while navigators from USF Health, Florida CHAIN and Covering Tampa Bay, helped individuals and families interested in enrolling with the application process.

USF graduate student Tamina Johnson, left, discusses her healthcare coverage options with Catherine Fuhrman, a navigator with the Family Healthcare Foundation.

“There are a lot of scenarios for coverage, so coming in today really helped guide me through the options,” said Johnson, who kept her Nav-Lab appointment despite the downpour and mid-day tornado warnings.

Johnson began looking at plans online in November. She said she wants health insurance but has difficulty affording it as a graduate student.  She was pleased to find that she could sign up for a plan through the marketplace that would provide significant savings.

“This way I don’t have to pay as much, because I also need money to live on and eat with,” she said.

Jodi Ray, project director for Florida Covering Kids & Families based at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, leads more than 100 navigators across Florida, which has the second highest rate of uninsured in the country.

Jodi Ray, project director of the Florida Covering Kids & Families program at the Chiles Center for Health Mothers and Babies, USF College of Public Health, oversees the USF navigator grant, the largest in the state.

As the March 31 deadline to enroll for coverage under the Affordable Care Act this year nears, the USF navigator group continues to team with its consortium partners to push community outreach initiatives targeting uninsured Floridians, Ray said. That includes, she said, the so-called “young invincibles,” adults 18 to 34, an age range that tends to be healthier and can help balance out risk in the insurance pool to keep premiums in check.

Kristen Nash, a political science graduate student at USF, has worked at the grassroots level on campus and in the community to help get more of her young adult peers covered.

Kristen Nash, 23, a USF political science graduate student and field organizer for Enroll America, says she feels fortunate to be covered as a dependent under her parents’ health insurance plan.  But, she said, that isn’t always an option for young adults under age 26.

“A significant number of students cannot remain under a parent’s plan, either because their parents cannot afford to add them to an employer’s health insurance policy through work, their parents are retired, or for some other reason,” Nash said.

USF navigator project coordinator Xonjenese Jacobs, right, with Ryan Morris, a health organizer for Florida CHAIN.

Both Ray and Nash point out a young person injured in an accident or even hit with a sudden illness can quickly run into financial difficulty when medical bills mount.

“It’s really important to get covered,” Nash said. “Starting early with preventive care, which is free under the plans, can help us live better.”

USF Navigators will offer another onsite event to help those interested  find out about healthcare coverage from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday, March 17, at USF Student Health Services.  To register, email mchavez1@health.usf.edu or call 813-974-0176; walks-in are also welcome.

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

Dr. Mehmet Oz watches as USF medical student Adam Schwartz draws from blood from a health screening participant.

USF Health was out in force to assist Dr. Oz when he visited Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute July 12 as part of his nationwide tour checking the health of key metropolitan areas, including Tampa Bay.  Nearly five dozen USF nursing, medical and public health students, with some residents and faculty, volunteered for “Dr. Oz’s 15-Minute Physical” event.   From early morning to afternoon, they helped screen pre-registered Tampa Bay area residents for potential indicators of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, enter data into laptop computers, and explain results.

Mehmet Oz, also known as Dr. Oz, is a Turkish-American cardiothoracic surgeon, author, and television personality. Starting on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2004, Dr. Oz quickly became a leading health expert for a national audience, earning two Emmy Awards for his program, The Dr. Oz Show.

USF nursing student Matthew Hester pricks a finger for a blood sugar screening.

At Florida Hospital, an estimated 1,000 Tampa Bay area residents participated in the free 15-minute screenings, which measured cholesterol  and blood sugar levels as well as blood pressure, body mass index, waist size and neck circumference.  Florida Hospital, a strategic healthcare partner of USF Health, hosted the event along with Practice Fusion, a provider of free web-based electronic health records.

The USF Health volunteers, specifically trained for the 15-Minute Physical screening format, helped participants understand the results and whether they were good, borderline, or required further attention. Dr. Oz’s team is expected to analyze the cumulative results, noting averages, trends and other significant data points that will provide a “report card” on Tampa’s health.

USF nursing student Morgan Schmoll takes a waist measurement.

“It was a great opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills that our students learn in a classroom setting to patients in the community, before they are hospitalized in an acute care setting,” said Cheryl Zambroski, PhD, assistant dean of undergraduate studies at the USF College of Nursing.  “These activities help reinforce the critical need for prevention and screening to promote health in the community.”

“We greatly appreciate all of our volunteers for this collaborative service event between USF Health and Florida Hospital Tampa,” said Ellen Kent, coordinator for the USF Health Service Corps, which spearheaded the volunteer effort. “It is wonderful to see that we have had such a positive response and we thank our community partners at Florida Hospital for inviting us to participate in this amazing event!”

An estimated 1,000 Tampa Bay residents participated in the “Dr. Oz 15-Minute Physical” event at Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute. USF Health students volunteered at the free health screenings.

USF nursing students Tracey Spronatti, left, and Laura McKenna, right, with VA Nurse Academy faculty member Betsy Keller.

Dr. Oz with USF medical student Adam Schwartz, Class of 2015

 Photos above by Eric Younghans/USF Health Communications
Click here to view photo album by Ellen Kent/USF Health Service Corps