Issue date: 3/7/07 Section: Career Fair

"We don't set ourselves up to be in competition with anybody _ we work with local physicians and other health care practitioners, who refer patients to the pharmacy for self-management education," he said.

Students can work one-on-one with people with diabetes, for example, to help monitor their medication, diet and exercise, Turner said.

He said he expects it to become a model for other pharmacy schools.

"Our school has taken an aggressive stance and said each student in the program should be given direct patient care acuities," he said.

Lodwick said the experiential program has benefited his anticoagulation clinic.

"We get students in their last year of pharmacy school - at least their sixth year of college - so they are really good workers," Lodwick said.

He supervises two students at a time to draw blood and test it in the clinic. Students learn to adjust doses based on the results.

"It allows me to almost be in two places at the same time because they can test one person while I'm looking at the results," he said. "It's a huge win-win situation."

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