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Pharmacy students being brought in to fill vital need in pharmacies across the country

Many of the students have previously worked at their local pharmacies through internships or during a summer break.

FINDLAY, Ohio — Pharmacies across the United States, including here at home, are being inundated with people making sure they have what they need to stay healthy; and future pharmacists are already jumping in to help.

As local pharmacies are seeing more and more patients needing their services, the staffing of these pharmacies is critical, which is why many pharmacists have decided to call in current pharmacy students who are now home from college.

"They're calling them in because the community pharmacies and even the in-patient pharmacies are busier than ever right now, and they need extra hands," dean of the college of pharmacy at the University of Findlay Debra Parker said.

Parker said that almost all of her students being called in have already worked at their local pharmacies through either internships or during their summer and winter breaks. Others are being told to stand by in the event current pharmacy workers fall ill.

In all, these students are playing a vital role during a global health care crisis, and are getting invaluable experience in the process.

"(It's a) very unfortunate but important life lesson. They're living through this right now and they're going to be the health care professionals of the future that have been through this, that went through the emergency responses and the crisis and how do we deal with these things and how do we allocate resources," Parker said.

Parker said that all of the necessary hands-on lab work that must be completed for these pharmacy students will be incorporated into the fall semester.

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