Through a veterinary and social service organization, PharmD student volunteers serve both local pets and their owners with low-cost care
By Logan Underwood
Madison is home to over 66,000 dog and cat-owning households, according to The Capital Times, and those numbers intersect with the more than 600 people experiencing homelessness and 42,000 people living below the poverty line in Madison.
While pets provide comfort and companionship, pet care costs — from veterinary appointments to harnesses, collars, and food — can easily add up for their owners, becoming particularly daunting for low-income households.
Wisconsin Companion Animal Resources, Education, and Social Services (WisCARES) was created to address this very problem. This University of Wisconsin–Madison organization offers subsidized veterinary care for low-income individuals, at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, as well as free social services and temporary boarding or fostering.
“When you think of pharmacy, people usually just think about community pharmacy or hospital pharmacy. But veterinary clinics and hospitals need pharmacists as well.”
—Yoonsoo Kim
“We see people who have been coming to us for years without much change in their economic situation, and we see others who find us during a spurt of illness or unemployment until they are back on their feet again,” says Kelly Schultz, WisCARES’ medical director, veterinarian, and clinical instructor.
Third-year PharmD student Sydney Weise is just one of several UW–Madison School of Pharmacy students volunteering at WisCARES.
“I’ve seen how beneficial WisCARES has been in the community and for acquiring medications,” says Weise.
Uncommon experience
At WisCARES, Weise gets direct experience in a unique practice environment, exploring new career paths in the field while using fundamental pharmacy skills. Besides helping with inventory management and sorting through expired medication, she also helps create and distribute patient handouts focused on how to administer medication to clients’ pets.
“The student pharmacists provide such great energy to the clinic,” says Schultz. “We manage our own small pharmacy onsite, so if we have pharmacy students to help look for expired, short shelf life, or short stock medications, that can alleviate the work that our other staff can use to see more appointments.”
But Weise’s favorite part is working directly with the patients themselves — the pets.
“I’m always with the animals, which is awesome,” Weise says.
When volunteering, Weise will meet with clients and help bring the pets into the back of the clinic for treatment.
Before WisCARES, Weise volunteered at a veterinary organization during her time as an undergraduate, and she currently also works at the School of Veterinary Medicine as a veterinary pharmacy intern. Part of what makes her work at WisCARES so valuable is being able to see the direct impact that the organization has on the community. WisCARES focuses on ensuring that pets are able to stay with their owners, no matter the financial or health conditions of the owner.
“I’ve seen it through the Veterinary School — patients coming in to say ‘WisCARES has helped me so much,’” she says.
“When you think of pharmacy, people usually just think about community pharmacy or hospital pharmacy,” says fourth-year PharmD student Yoonsoo Kim. “But veterinary clinics and hospitals need pharmacists as well.”
Kim, who recruits the PharmD student WisCARES volunteers, serves as co-president of the UW–Madison student chapter of the Student National Pharmaceutical Association (SNPhA). SNPhA’s mission is to empower student pharmacists to care for underserved communities, which harmonizes with the mission of the WisCARES clinic.
“WisCARES is helping and supporting the patients who are low-income and underserved,” says Kim. “It’s really aligned to the SNPhA goal.”
While Kim has been communicating with Schultz since 2023, she has started to officially work with the organization this semester. Kim serves as the main communication link between student volunteers and WisCARES clinic workers.
Every two weeks, Kim sends out an availability form to members of SNPhA and other PharmD students who have shown interest in veterinary care. Students can fill out their availability for the upcoming weeks, and Kim organizes the responses and works with the veterinarians at WisCARES to create the volunteer schedule.
“I’m thinking of becoming a clinical pharmacist in the future and working in a hospital setting,” says Kim. “Working with WisCARES, both in terms of building a schedule and caring for patients, is really similar to the realities of a hospital.”
Career impact
Working alongside veterinarians has given Weise more practice experience with practicing as a member of a healthcare team, alongside students from the UW School of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Social Work, full-time veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and social workers.
“There are a lot of similarities between working with veterinarians and physicians, the main goal being the highest level of care for every patient,” she says. “My time at WisCARES is helping develop my interprofessional skills because they foster an open environment for communication and collaboration. I practice problem solving and critical thinking in medicine while working through patient-centered care plans in a team setting.”
Schultz hopes the experience inspires more pharmacy graduates to enter veterinary pharmacy.
“I hope that by seeing how a clinic functions, they can be a bit more prepared to help my colleagues out in the field after graduation with animal specific medications and dosing ranges,” says Schultz.
Similarly, Weise recognizes how rewarding the experiences she’s had while volunteering at WisCARES are. While unsure about where she wants to end up in the world of pharmacy, she has been excited to gain new insights into medications.
“I think this is a really great experience,” says Weise. “I’m not only supporting the community, but also learning a lot about medications that aren’t really used in humans. It’s a different side of pharmacy that you don’t usually see.”