An unwavering commitment to patient care at Ole Miss
Elizabeth “Ellie” Doucet is a final-year PharmD candidate at The University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy.
As the patient care initiatives were described at the 2026 APhA Annual Meeting & Exposition Student Kick-Off, they sounded strikingly familiar to our APhA–ASP Chapter events. I vividly remember turning to our chapter president-elect and excitedly saying “This is us!” Words can hardly capture our chapter’s appreciation and pride after receiving the APhA–ASP Chapter Patient Care Award. This gratitude reflects not only the dedication and hard work of our executive committee, but also the collective efforts of our pharmacist preceptors, faculty advisors, student pharmacists, and the communities we serve.
The University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy has a unique structure, with the first 2 professional years based in Oxford and the third year in Jackson. These distinct environments allow us to craft targeted patient care initiatives tailored to the specific needs of each community.
Interprofessionalism is a key part of success
In Oxford, our chapter is embedded within a vibrant college campus, creating opportunities to promote health and wellness early. We work closely with the William Magee Center for Alcohol and Other Drugs and Wellness Education to provide naloxone and fentanyl test strip education, training, and distribution to Ole Miss students, faculty and staff, and the greater collegiate community, educating more than 1,000 individuals. Additionally, we launched two operations this year, OTC Medicine Safety and Operation Heart, both of which relied on community partnerships to support their success. Also through community collaborations, Operation Heart and Operation Diabetes expanded their outreach to provide screenings and education to underserved and multilingual populations during community health fairs.
In Jackson, we expanded our patient care operations to better serve low-income populations through health education and community resources. Our collaboration with the Jackson Free Clinic, a student-led clinic that provides free medical services to uninsured Jackson residents, enhanced access to reproductive health care by providing contraception counseling, prenatal care support, sexual wellness education, and cancer prevention initiatives. Our Jackson campus also hosted its inaugural Sweetheart Charity Ball, fostering interprofessional relationships across six University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) professional schools while raising awareness and funds for the American Heart Association.
Further demonstrating our commitment to interprofessionalism, we partnered with UMMC’s School of Nursing to provide 232 influenza immunizations at the Interprofessional Education Campus Welcome event.
Motivated to continue our impact
This award is especially meaningful because it marks our chapter’s first year participating in all six nationally recognized APhA–ASP patient care projects. We also established our own chapter-specific operation in Jackson, Operation Read, addressing Mississippi’s health literacy crisis. By partnering with a local Head Start Center, this initiative promotes early literacy among children from low-income families through reading activities.
Ultimately, this award recognizes the unwavering commitment of our chapter members toward advancing patient care and motivates us to continue our impact across Mississippi.