Alumna Fares Well in National Pharmacy Contest

Melissa Beck Carroll ’00, currently a 4th year student at the MCV/VCU School of Pharmacy, competed along with teammate and fellow classmate Toni Coe at the 13th Annual National Clinical Skills Competition held in conjunction with last week’s meeting of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists in Orlando, FL. The MCV/VCU team, which had previously won the Virginia State Championship in October, was one of the Top 10 Finalists at the event.

The event drew a record number of 96 Pharmacy Schools that entered teams. Each two-member team spent Saturday morning analyzing and writing up a complex clinical case involving an ICU patient who developed ventilator associated sepsis and associated low blood pressure after suffering a subdural hematoma from a fall.

A 3 judge panel reviewed all written pharmacotherapy plans and selected the finalists for Sunday afternoon oral presentations, where each team was questioned by the judges. The top 10 teams were honored at a ceremony during the opening reception for the meeting on Sunday evening.

Before entering the MCV/VCU School of Pharmacy in 2005, Melissa received a B.S. degree in Biology from the University of Virginia in 2003.