Pharmacy school adds ‘service learning’

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The University of Rhode Island’s College of Pharmacy has begun requiring juniors in its undergraduate program to take a one-credit “service learning” course that places them as volunteers in the community for at least 20 hours, with the option of up to 50 hours.
The class, coordinated by professor Brett Feret, is designed to familiarize students with health care settings and teach them to work with different patient populations. Students can choose the site, but most are placed through URI’s experiential education office.
Common volunteer sites include the Horizon Bay Senior Living chain, the South Kingstown Senior Center, URI Health Services and the Rhode Island Free Clinic. Some students have volunteered with the Rhode Island Medical Reserve Corps and helped prepare and administer H1N1 vaccinations during the state’s public-health campaign earlier this winter.
“The main purpose of this program is to get students involved with patients and different populations that they might not otherwise interact with,” Feret said in a news release. “Working in senior centers and clinics helps to show that patients have specific needs. It exposes students to real-life situations.”
The new requirement is in addition to URI’s longstanding “URI 101” freshman seminar, which requires a community-service commitment of about three hours.