ETSU’s Dawnna Metcalfe educates students on the misuse of prescription medications.
For several years, East Tennessee State University (ETSU) has been a leader in naloxone training. The ETSU APhA–ASP Chapter has strived to train as many individuals as possible on recognizing an opioid overdose, the proper use of naloxone, and decreasing the stigma associated with dispensing the life-saving medication. Through their efforts at the National Student Nurses’ Association Annual Convention, ETSU trained more than 850 meeting attendees by holding four separate interactive naloxone training sessions and two focus sessions.
Through fundraising and grant applications, the chapter distributed 2,000 units of naloxone to the local communities in east Tennessee. They were also able to increase public outreach through a local television station that profiled one of their training events in collaboration with the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists Chapter at ETSU. The television coverage reached more than 36,000 viewers in the rural region.
We spoke with Dawnna Metcalfe, the ETSU Generation Rx Chair, about the chapter’s first runner-up national award-winning campaign. “In 2017–18, we were able to expand our naloxone training to Remote Area Medical (RAM) Clinics. Through our RAM Clinics, we trained health care providers, patients, and families on proper use of naloxone and recognizing opioid overdose. During one of our visits we met with a six-year-old girl in attendance with her grandmother and great aunt. While our chapter does not normally provide naloxone training to children, we quickly found out that we had a lot to learn from the first-hand experiences of this little girl. She described in heartbreaking detail how she personally witnessed her mom overdose several times. At such a young age, she was able to articulate to health care providers what happened during her mother’s overdose, how to call 911, and how naloxone was able to save her mom’s life.”
ETSU educated more than 5,100 individuals from all 50 states through their Generation Rx projects and surpassed many of the goals set forth at the beginning of the year. However, for Dawnna, Generation Rx has forever opened her eyes to the suffering that occurs because of substance use disorder. “The one-on-one conversations with family members are the most impactful to me during our naloxone trainings. We hear all too often: ‘I wish that I heard about naloxone a year ago, now it is too late.’ Because of this, our chapter will continue to train as many people as possible.”
ETSU by the numbers
• GenRx presentations conducted: 17
• Non-GenRx presentations conducted: 9
• Medication take-back events: 0
• Number of individuals that attended presentations/events: 4,738
• Number of individuals reached through education: 5,139
• Adults: 3,500
• Teens: 53
• Children: 460
• College students: 1,126
• Number of individuals reached through public/media relations initiatives: 1,320
• Number of student pharmacists involved in projects: 550
• Number of faculty and staff involved in all projects: 58
• Number of non-faculty involved in all projects: 410
SPM interview with 2017–18 Generation Rx First Runner-up: East Tennessee State University.