A team of Creighton students is participating in the month-long 2013 Script Your Future Medication Adherence Team Challenge to raise public awareness about medication adherence as a critical issue.
According to Ann Ryan-Haddad, assistant professor of Pharmacy practice, the challenge is part of a public awareness campaign launched in 2011 by the National Consumers League and more than 100 public and private organizations, including the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation.
The goal of this campaign is to emphasize the importance of medication adherence, otherwise defined as taking your medicine as prescribed by your doctor, pharmacist or other health care provider.
“No matter what your age, medication adherence is important,” Ryan-Haddad said. “A patient with high blood pressure who is not adherent to taking their high blood pressure medications runs the risk of heart attack, stroke and kidney damage.”
This year, Creighton’s team made up of pharmacy, medicine, occupational therapy and physical therapy students decided to focus on high blood pressure, as February is Heart Health Month.
Creighton’s team conducted free blood pressure screenings at various locations around campus throughout the month of February. According to third year Pharmacy student Lauren Padget, the biggest objective of the blood pressure screenings was to screen employees to ensure that their blood pressure is under control. Furthermore, the screenings served as a tool to educate the public about some lifestyle changes that they could make in their lives to decrease their blood pressure.
“One person may be willing to cut down on sodium intake by increasing their consumption of fruits and vegetables and decreasing processed foods, while a different person would rather start to go to the gym three times a week,” Padget said. “We want to give them options in order to improve their health.”
Hypertension — or high blood pressure — is an ongoing battle and staying true to the medication regimen will definitely help in the long run, Padget noted.
In addition to the screenings, Creighton’s team arranged presentations. Fourth year Pharmacy student Kerry Nekuda presented to residents of a nursing home facility, as well as a heart health cooking class at Creighton as part of Script Your Future.
“The purpose of the presentations was to teach the patients about blood pressure, why it is important to keep blood pressure controlled and the significance of medication adherence,” Nekuda said. “These presentations are important to the Omaha community because there are many unreached patients who are unaware of their blood pressure, what a blood pressure reading means and how they can effectively treat blood pressure.”
Creighton’s team, who won the contest last year, has managed to get even more creative this year with the help of the marketing department and alumni office. Some creative measures that Creighton’s team has taken include: a public service announcement at Creighton’s basketball games, coverage from local news stations and extensive use of social media.
Creighton students, faculty and staff are encouraged to support Creighton’s team by liking the Facebook page “Creighton University’s Script Your Future Medication Adherence Challenge” and following @CUScriptFuture on Twitter.
“Staff members at the national organizations monitor both of these accounts and will judge our application for most likes/followers,” Ryan-Haddad said.
The challenge runs only during the month of February, so hurry and “like” or “follow” the Facebook and Twitter pages respectively.Winners of the challenge will be announced later this spring.
To learn more about the 2013 Script Your Future Challenge, visit ScriptYourFuture.org.