One hundred fifty four students were selected for the Fall 2009 incoming class from a pool of 1490 applicants from 48 states, 49 countries and 434 schools. Forty-eight percent of the class is female and fifty-seven percent hold degrees. As the make-up of our students has changed over the years, so too have the curriculum and professional requirements leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy degree (PharmD).
In addition to attending classes and meeting faculty and classmates, students entering their First Professional Year ((PY1) are busy with activities ranging from a curricular review, a welcome BBQ, and a White Coat Ceremony which is a kick off to a year of professional study and activities.
|
|
IPPE/APPE Experiences
The School of Pharmacy has been offering introductory pharmacy practice experiences in a variety of settings for several years, but recently, the Accreditation Council of Pharmacy Education (ACPE) mandated an increase in the number of hours required for introductory and advanced practice experiences to 300 and 1440 hours respectively. Students who plan to take the pharmacy licensure exam in PA must also complete an additional 750 hours to sit for the Board.
IPPE (Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience) and Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences, (APPE formerly called rotations and clerkships) are mandated and add to the pharmacy student’s academic and employment work load. Didactic coursework does not count toward the IPPE/APPE experiences and students are not allowed to receive remuneration which prevents them from counting their job experiences as part of this requirement.
Our two experiential education coordinators, Lisa Becker and Leigh Webber, and several of our clinical faculty, have worked tirelessly to create many exciting new programs to satisfy the expanded ACPE requirement. Some of the new programs developed in conjunction with Temple University Hospital System (TUHS) are a smoking cessation program and a warfarin counseling program. The warfarin counseling program focuses on patients being discharged from the hospital on this widely used oral anticoagulant. The smoking cessation program currently focuses on reducing the patients’ risk for a subsequent (second) stroke by quitting smoking. The students provide education and counseling to the patients under the direct supervision of a pharmacist.
The types of experiences and required hours for each professional year include:
PY1-Community/Shadowing (of mentors) requiring 165 hours;
PY2-Institutional/Shadowing (of mentors) ) requiring 61 hours;
PY3-Institutional Counseling Experience requiring 56 hours
20 hours of Service Learning must be accumulated between years PY 2/3.
The PY3 IPPE provides students with experience in: anticoagulation therapy, smoking cessation therapy, communication, counseling and patient care. It also satisfies one of the Joint Commission patient safety requirements at TUHS and helps to optimize patient care.
The 20 hours required during the PY2 and PY3 years of the professional curriculum include activities such as: brown bag programs, health fairs; needle exchange programs; an immunization course; journal club with a PY4 student; and, patient centered activities.
Two of our students share their IPPE and APPE experiences below.
Divia Ninan (PY3) shares her personal reflections from the Institutional Counseling Program at TUHS, and Abbey Reeder (PY4) spent one of her seven PY4 rotations at the Indian Health Service, Crownpoint Health Care Facility, located in Northwest New Mexico on the eastern edge of the Navajo Reservation. The facility serves a population of over 20,000 Navajo people.
|
Divia Ninan 's IPPE
This summer, as part of the PY3 IPPE program, my student team counseled patients at the Temple Hospital who were on Warfarin. Each day was different and a novel experience. The very first day we were apprehensive about everything; entering patient rooms, initiating conversations, answering questions and so on. It was an excellent opportunity to meet patients from varied backgrounds. Some were completely uninformed, some well informed, some just curious. Most were highly approachable, accepting the fact that pharmacists are the best people to look to when it comes to drug information. Others not so, but it was important to educate them.
Dr. Perez, our preceptor, accompanied us the first two days. First, we looked at patient charts to identify Warfarin indication for the patient, potential drug interactions and lifestyle modifications. This helped highlight points pivotal to our counseling session. We were often required to consult primary literature or computer resources in the hospital to look up an unfamiliar medical condition or food –drug interaction. Albeit baby steps, I am positive that these exercises will help me in my Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (previously called rotations).
There were a lot of interesting moments during this IPPE. We counseled a Vietnam War veteran who seemed to know a lot about medications because he was a part of the medical unit during the war. At the end of our session, he insisted that we stay and watch a clip from the movie We Were Soldiers Once. Some meetings tended to be longer when patients had many personal stories to share. It was stirring but at times we had to redirect the discussion to the task at hand. We met a 35 year old Down's Syndrome patient with congenital heart disease, who had a heart valve replaced when he was a year old. We counseled his mother.
We also saw many patients who had undergone an orthopedic surgery. Most were in excruciating pain. We met one such patient who plainly refused counseling because she was unaware that Warfarin had been prescribed for her. She thought we were telling her that she was taking an experimental medication that she had not consented to take. We did our best to convince her that it was not the case but it was to no avail, only to learn she refused most of her medications. Here is a perfect instance when a pharmacist intervention would have been most helpful.
Not every meeting is perfect. For example, when in unbearable pain, the last thing the patient desires is a teaching session. It was challenging to speak with patients who were bitter about their illness and hospital admission and only wanted to know when their lives would return to normal. Health care providers need to remember to be empathic with all patients.
Each session had to be tailored to the patient because each has different backgrounds and views. When we are more empathic to their situations, patients are more ready to accept counseling and share their time with us.
Most importantly, I am proud of the fact that I chose Pharmacy as my profession. I felt immensely content when patients said, “Oh! Nobody told me that about my medication before!” We have a huge role in providing complete health care. When it comes to medications, it is up to the pharmacist to properly educate our patients.
|
Indian Health Services (IHS) in Crownpoint, New Mexico
By Abigail Reeder, ‘10
This past summer, I was given the opportunity to spend five weeks with Indian Health Services (IHS) in Crownpoint, New Mexico for a five-week rotation. With my partner, Becky Bartow, we left for New Mexico from Philadelphia on a Thursday in July via a tiny blue Cobalt stuffed to the brim with clothes, camping gear, sleeping bags, … basically anything we could have possibly needed for five weeks. We were excited and anxious about our rotation, a little scared of the 2200+ mile roadtrip from home to what could accurately be described as--the middle of nowhere.
Three days after our departure, we arrived in Crownpoint, New Mexico. We checked in with hospital security, were given our keys, and followed a man who showed us to what we would call home for five whole weeks. We had finally arrived.
Our first day was a Tuesday. We were told our schedule would be four ten-hour days with a one-hour lunch break each day every week. A schedule of 8a to 7p with lunch from 12-1p was the usual student schedule. A typical day for us was generally spent counseling patients, working on projects, and learning the pharmacist’s role in an ambulatory care setting.
The IHS rotation gave us the opportunity to apply the last three years of our pharmacy education as well as improve on our patient communication skills. With each patient counseled, there was the patient’s lifetime’s worth of chart sitting there to be examined. Always provided are necessary lab values, vital signs, a doctors diagnosis, everything. We were able to go through a chart and determine why exactly a patient was on a specific medication, how that medication had affected them since initiation of therapy, etc.
When not counseling patients (either in the pharmacy, ER, or inpatient-about-to-be-discharged setting), we spent our time working on numerous projects and drug information questions. Instead of projects consisting mostly of busy work, student projects at Crownpoint usually are on topics that really affect the hospital in terms of what is safest and most beneficial for patients. Our first project was a presentation to the entire med staff regarding Actos and its true benefit at Crownpoint. (A drug utilization evaluation was performed and showed that nearly 50% of patients at Crownpoint had an increase in A1C values since initiating Actos or pioglitazone).
Our preceptor, Dr. Joy Lee, treated us as colleagues and truly valued our thoughts and opinions. The team of pharmacists, technicians and other pharmacy employees welcomed us as part of their family. From each member of Crownpoint’s team, we learned many valuable lessons. We also have walked away with life long friends and even our very own Navajo mother who plans on visiting the east coast sometime in May or June of 2010.
Beyond the learning opportunity and the folks you grow to love over five weeks, you are also given the opportunity to travel and explore the Southwest on your weekends. Chaco canyon; Durango, CO; Canyon de Chelly (pronounced shay); Mesa Verde; Petrified Forest are just a few of the MANY incredible sites we were able to see, explore, hike, and climb/fall on rocks.
The food is pretty dang good, too.
|
