Our college’s mission is to serve the rural and underserved. The college’s commitment to service has resulted in Gatton being awarded the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Lawrence C. Weaver Transformative Community Service Award, presented annually to one college or school of pharmacy across the U.S. demonstrating a major institutional commitment to addressing unmet community needs through education, practice, and research.
Students have a variety of opportunities to practice in rural and medically underserved areas. Many of the college’s affiliated practice sites are located in rural areas and the majority of local sites see patients who are considered medically underserved.
Several APPE rotations are available that offer unique experiences in working with rural and/or medically underserved patient populations. One APPE elective, Rural Primary Care, exposes students to unique challenges facing patients living in more remote areas. The Health Wagon, based out of Wise, Virginia, is one site for this rotation and gives students an opportunity to experience interdisciplinary patient care to a large medically underserved population in rural Appalachia. The rotation allows students to travel the community in the Health Wagon’s mobile clinic (a modified RV) to cover their five-county service area in Southwest Virginia or to participate in other outreach events and indigent care clinics in the region.
Our student pharmacists regularly serve at rural health clinics like Remote Area Medical (RAM), participate in Drug Take Back events, and help underserved patient populations through other patient outreach events.