PharmD students make sure Dean Guglielmo gets his flu shot

As a busy, 3rd-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) student, Henry Huang, Class of 2020, knows all too well how easy it is to forget to get his flu shot. So this fall, he made sure the dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy didn’t forget his, either. (Ouch!)

October is American Pharmacists Month, as promoted by the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), and Huang, who is active with APhA as well as the California Pharmacists Association, saw an opportunity. First, he reached out to San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s office to designate American Pharmacists Month for the city, too.

Then, to make it official, a representative of the mayor’s office trekked to the Parnassus campus to witness School of Pharmacy Dean B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD, getting his own flu shot, administered by the UCSF Flu Crew, a student-run group of medical, pharmacy, and nursing students.

PharmD student Vivian Chen, Class of 2021, was there to capture the moment, as Flu Crew elective coordinator Janelle Agustin, Class of 2021, and Crystal Zhou, PharmD, a faculty member in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy, safely administered the vaccine to the dean. PharmD students Mia Lim (Flu Crew president), Joe Li, and Joanna Choi were also present.

For Huang, the event was about promoting his profession as a resource for community health. “People generally think about pharmacists as providing medicine at a community pharmacy, and that is a critical part of our jobs,” Huang said. “But because we’re so accessible, we can serve patients in a lot of other ways, like answering medication questions, managing their chronic conditions alongside their physicians, and administering vaccinations.”

Vivian Chen

The Flu Crew with the dean. From left to right: PharmD students Henry Huang, Janelle Agustin, and Mia Lim; School of Pharmacy Dean B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD; PharmD student Vivian Chen; PharmD student Joanne Choi; and PharmD student Joe Li.