History
The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) is the national professional society of pharmacists in the U.S. APhA represents the nation’s third largest health profession, comprised of more than 300,000 pharmacy practitioners, scientists, student pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians. For more than 25 years, APhA has been an active and visible organization advocating for increased immunization and public health roles for pharmacists, serving as subject matter experts, and collaborating with other stakeholders within the “Immunization Neighborhood.” APhA’s work supports the pharmacist’s role as an educator, facilitator, and vaccinator. The long-term impact of this work is highlighted within the pharmacy profession’s work in the COVID-19 pandemic during which most COVID-19 vaccines were administered by pharmacy teams.
The APhA certificate training program “Pharmacy-based Immunization Delivery” has become the gold standard of immunization training for pharmacists and student pharmacists in the delivery of immunization services across the lifespan, training over 450,000 pharmacists. With this immunization delivery program being taught in most pharmacy school curriculums, new practitioners are armed with the training they need to implement immunization programs in their practice setting. For new practitioners pursuing a post-graduate residency or fellowship, a quality improvement component is often required for successful program completion. These residency programs are extremely competitive and offer a unique experience for pharmacists to apply the knowledge and skills they have learned to real patients, situations, and practice settings.
The Impacting Immunization Implementation through Quality Improvement Grant is supported by independent educational grants from Merck and GSK.
Questions
Please contact Ellyn Terry, Director of Education, at eterry@aphanet.org with any questions.
References
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Needs Assessment. Accessed on: June 17, 2023. Available at: https://digital.ahrq.gov/health-it-tools-and-resources/evaluation-resources/workflow-assessment-health-it-toolkit/all-workflow-tools/needs-assessment