Coronavirus RI: 100+ Pharmacy Grads Get Emergency Licenses

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, RI — At this point in a normal year, graduates of the Rhode Island College of Pharmacy would be preparing for their license exams and preparing for their careers. But in a decidedly not normal year, more than a hundred graduates are now delaying those exams and instead will join field hospitals in the fight against coronavirus.

Armed with emergency licenses, twenty recent graduates are already working in coronavirus units, according to a university news release. By May, another 122 graduates are expected to join the ranks of relief pharmacists.

The influx of trained medical staff will prove critical if Rhode Island's coronavirus cases continues to grow: To date, the state's Department of Health has reported more than 7,700 cases of coronavirus and 233 deaths.

It won't just be recent graduates called in for relief duties. Their professors, too, are taking their skills to the field hospitals.

"Once they start the surge hospitals, there will be 1,500 extra hospital beds that will need pharmaceutical services," said College of Pharmacy Dean Paul Larrat, who commended the students and graduates for taking on the challenge of confronting the ongoing crisis.

"They’re jumping into a major health emergency, performing a truly valuable service for the public," Larrat said. "Hats off to the [Rhode Island] Department of Health for allowing this and to the students for jumping right in."

Earlier this month, the URI College of Pharmacy donated dozens of iPads to local hospitals and pledged the school's IT resources to help set up hundreds of Fire tablets donated by Amazon.