OSU pharmacy students, sometimes dressed as Katy the Kangaroo (center), stress medication safety to K-2 students. Courtesy of the College of Pharmacy

Pharmacy students give kids a jump on medication safety

By RANDY GAMMAGE, onCAMPUS staff

Using props such as a full-sized costume of Katy the Kangaroo, OSU pharmacy students are learning to communicate their medical knowledge at the most basic level.

Katy's Kids is an interactive program that uses a pharmacy student dressed as a kangaroo named Katy to teach kindergarten through second-grade students the role of doctors and pharmacists in safe medication usage and to drive home the message that not all drugs are bad, said Jerry Cable, director of outreach and professional experience programs for the College of Pharmacy.

"Children need to understand at a young age the usefulness of medicines and why it is important to use them properly, following the advice of doctors and pharmacists," Cable said.

Developed by the Iowa Pharmacy Foundation in 1991, Katy's Kids was adopted in 1995 at Ohio State by the Academy of Students of Pharmacy (ASP), the local student chapter of the American Pharmaceutical Association. It is a popular choice among senior pharmacy students to fulfill part of the 10 hours of community service required and also is a community service activity for student members of ASP.

"The goal is to emphasize the importance of community service, and the satisfaction students can receive from that, and to show them that it can be performed in a reasonable amount of time," Cable said. Pharmacy students also hone organization and communication skills by presenting the workshops, he said.

Katy and her team of pharmacy students have visited the Columbus Public Schools and central Ohio suburban schools, and through OSU Extension the program has been presented as far away as New Lexington and Lincoln Elementary in Bucyrus.

Crawford County Extension Agent Lynda Fowler was instrumental in bringing Katy's Kids to Lincoln Elementary.

"The pharmacy students from OSU really made an impression on the kids because they had their lab coats on, they handled themselves professionally, showed they cared and demonstrated to the kids the type of meticulous work that pharmacists do," Fowler said.

OSU pharmacy students conduct hands-on science-oriented activities with K-2 students, such as using a mortar and pestle and reconstituting powdered medication by adding water.

Children participating in the 45-minute program go through three phases of drug education. During phase one, students watch a video starring Katy the Kangaroo, pharmacists and doctors who spread the message that medicine is good if it is used properly. Next, Katy bounds into the room and answers questions and reinforces the concepts of safe medication-taking habits.

"The kids go crazy as the kangaroo bounds into the classroom," Cable said.

During phase three, children conduct hands-on science-oriented activities regarding pills and medicine, emphasizing the difference between pills and candy. The children have the opportunity to count vitamin pills, use a mortar and pestle and reconstitute a powdered medication by adding water.

At the end, children receive a coloring book and certificate to take home to their parents.

Jessica Bollinger, third-year Pharm.D. student and ASP chair of Katy's Kids, enjoys the children's reactions and critical responses.

"For example, we ask them what they would do if they had a younger brother or sister who wanted to get into their medicine," she said. "We reinforce that it's important to not take medicine that is intended for someone else. They take that message home to share with their parents."

Bollinger said pharmacy students welcome the opportunity to apply learned medication safety at the most basic level.

"As a student you sit in class and it is easy to lose the scope of what pharmacy practice is all about," she said. "It's important to see the big picture. You can learn about the basic sciences of medicine and various disease states, but in the end it's important to be able to communicate those concepts to a patient."

Cable estimates the program has impacted from 750 to 1,000 elementary students over the past eight years. At the same time, the pharmacy program has evolved from an undergraduate bachelor's degree program into a graduate professional degree program. A revamping of Katy's Kids is underway that will greatly expand the reach of the project, with possible adjustments ranging from the creation of a Web site for elementary students to presenting the program via distance education or videos. This also will better accommodate the demanding academic workloads of pharmacy students, Cable said.

Pharmacy is involved in numerous outreach activities, including one-on-one medication reviews with central Ohio seniors, a Kroger Patient Care Center and a Faith Mission Free Clinic. For more information, contact Cable at 292-2492 or cable.1@osu.edu.

Profile: College of Pharmacy

Dean: Robert Brueggemeier

Enrollment: 250 students in the B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences; 30 undergraduate honors students; 35 undergraduate students involved in research; 105 graduate (M.S. and Ph.D.) students; 95 graduate students involved in research; 393 students in the residential Pharm.D. program; 82 students in the online, Non-Traditional Pharm.D. program

Faculty: 54 faculty; 40 research faculty, 14 clinical faculty

Faculty awards/recognitions:

Distinguished University Professor: Jessie Au

Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching: Ralf Rahwan; Dev Pathak; Norman Uretsky

Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: Jessie Au; Robert Brueggemeier; John Cassady; Popat Patil

14 Fellows of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists

Three Fellows of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy

Recent national leadership positions:

Milap Nahata, president, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy

Phillip Schneider, president, American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition

Craig Pedersen, speaker of the house, American Pharmacist Association

Research focus areas:

Medicinal Chemistry -- design and discovery of new drugs; synthetic medicinal chemistry; natural products chemistry; molecular modeling

Pharmaceutics -- study of drug effects on cells and tissues; analysis of changes in drug effects over time; development of drug delivery and targeting systems

Pharmacology -- determination of biochemical and physiological mechanisms by which drugs exert their biological effects

Pharmacy Administration -- examination of economic issues related to use of drugs; study of patients' behaviors relative to use of medicines

Pharmacy Practice -- determination of optimal therapies and dosage regimens of drugs

Interdisciplinary involvement by pharmacy faculty:

College of Medicine and Public Health; College of Veterinary Medicine; OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center; Davis Heart and Lung Institute; and the Cleveland Clinic

Interdepartmental graduate programs:

Ohio State Biochemistry program; Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology; Neuroscience

College milestones:

1998: Creation of Pharm.D. program ‚ the entry-level Pharm.D. program is a graduate professional program and constitutes four years of study. The first Pharm.D. class of 38 students graduated in June 2002.

2001: Creation of Non-Traditional Pharm.D. program ‚ this distance education program provides currently licensed pharmacists with the opportunity to upgrade their skills and credentials to the Pharm.D. level. The first class of three students graduated in August 2003.

Honoring Ohio State veterans

Above, 2nd Lt. Derek Connor, a junior cadet from Pickerington, unveils an Ohio Bicentennial Commission historical marker honoring OSU alumnus Gen. Curtis E. LeMay Nov. 6 in front of Bricker Hall. Below, members of Navy, Army and Air Force ROTC stand at attention behind a wreath honoring Ohio State's war dead. The annual Rock Ceremony lasts about 30 minutes and consists of remarks, placement of the wreath at Memorial Rock, presentation of military honors and an ecumenical benediction.

Photos by Kevin Fitzsimons