Students host "Brown Bag" event for older adults

Brown Bag Event

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (December 12, 2023) — Keeping track of numerous prescription medications can be confusing and at times overwhelming for people of any age. Student pharmacists at East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy recently offered their expertise to older adults at the Johnson City Memorial Center to help them improve their health through better management of their medications.



Dubbed a “Brown Bag Event,” older adults were invited to bring their medications and supplements in a bag and meet with student pharmacists, who would then check for any potential drug interactions in an online database. Vanna Labi (’25), who planned the event, said that if the patients obtain their prescriptions from multiple pharmacies, then it’s unlikely that their pharmacists will be able to track those interactions.



Labi said she and the students also reviewed prescription instructions to help the patients understand how to take the medicines, as well as performed a medication assessment for patients, creating a list of their medications.

“If they end up in the E.R., it's really helpful for them to have their own list of medications up to date,” said Labi. “Most of the people that we saw yesterday didn't have a list, so it was really helpful for us to just get all of their meds down on one sheet so that it is possible to present that to their providers whenever they have appointments, etc …”


Labi said one of the most beneficial aspects of the event was simply getting to know the patients.



“Generally, these older adults have faced a lot of isolation coming out of COVID-19 or if they live alone,” said Labi. “Some of them just wanted some students to talk to. We had interviews that lasted over an hour.”



Labi said they partnered with Insight Alliance, which works to prevent and reduce the impact of substance abuse on the community, which provided 20 medication lock boxes to give away to the patients, as well as information on sharps disposal.



The event included numerous ETSU student organizations working together, as well as partnerships with the Johnson City Memorial Center and Insight Alliance. She said this inaugural event was so successful that they hope to continue doing it. 



ETSU Gatton College of Pharmacy has 14 student organizations and over 100 opportunities for student leadership. Last academic year, students completed over 1,100 hours of community service averaging eight hours per student. Over 800 of those hours were focused on rural areas. In 2022, the college earned the nation’s top pharmacy school award for service, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Lawrence C. Weaver Transformative Community Service Award.