OSU pharmacy students educate the Saturday Market on health

Published:Monday, June 3, 2013

Updated:Monday, June 3, 2013 01:06

Oregon State University Pharmacy students set out to promote healthy lifestyles in the community and spread awareness about the dangers of misusing medication.

On June 1, the OSU Pharmacy school had booths at the Corvallis Saturday Market. The pharmacy students stood in white lab coats beneath a three-tent-long assemblage of information brochures, awareness games and blood sugar screenings. After purchasing local produce and baked goods, attendees could learn the ins and outs of proper medication use and poison control tips and could also have their blood pressure checked.

The pharmacy students booths consisted of multiple stations. The first station was designed to educate the public of the dangers associated with poison control. Children consuming medication they should not, often because they mistake it for candy or food, results in 20,000 deaths a year. The booth contained games and stickers to better childrens awareness of this danger.

We do this so we can show kids how similar medicine and candy can look, said Emmalee Thornton, a student of the OSU College of Pharmacy. We are trying to educate kids that they shouldnt be picking things up off the ground and eating them if they dont know what they are.

The pharmacy students also go to local elementary schools and give 30-minute presentations on the dangers of children eating medication that can potentially harm them.

The booth helped educate not only children on the dangers of consuming medication they shouldnt, but also adults. The Operation Medication Therapy Management and Medication Reconciliation section of the fair preached the dangers of misusing medication.

200,000 people a year unfortunately pass away from medication related events, and they are not always related to overdose, said Kenith Fritsche, a second year student at the OSU pharmacy school and the patient care committee chair. The fifth leading cause of death in America is medication-related events, and that is what we are trying to prevent here.

Fritsche said it is common for people to have multiple doctors and multiple pharmacists, which creates a problem because some people are receiving duplicate therapy. Many people do not keep track of what medication they are on or the doses they take.

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OSU pharmacy students educate the Saturday Market on health