Sheri DiGiovanni is the Pharmacy Coordinator and Interim Manager of Oncology with the Listowel Wingham Hospitals Alliance. She and her husband Matt DiGiovanni are graduates of the vanguard class.
Where They're Working
Sheri and Matt moved to the Wingham area to pursue an opportunity for Matt who was partnering to open a new community pharmacy.
“My job was not available when we first moved,” Sheri remembers. “I was on maternity leave when he started at the pharmacy, so we told ourselves we’ll see what happens. Maybe I’d take a community job for a time in a different town.”
But serendipity struck in the form of an opening with Listowel Wingham Hospitals Alliance, and after her maternity leave Sheri stepped into the role of coordinator of the pharmacy team.
“My previous jobs at Grand River and Brantford General hospitals had given me the experience I needed to be successful in my current job. Not just informal leadership roles like my work on the emergency department team at Grand River, but also the project management skills I gained through a drug utilization role.”
People and resource management are key skills for Sheri in her position with the Hospitals Alliance. She spends her days at hospital sites in Wingham and Listowel, serving the rural communities of the North Huron and North Perth areas of southwestern Ontario.
“I am responsible for anything and everything pharmacy-related,” she says, “so within a day or even an hour I can shift between verifying orders, managing staffing, resolving backorder issues, and overseeing a variety of projects.”
Reflections on the Program
After graduation, Sheri also taught at UW and contributed to the design of the hospital curriculum, which she continues to lecture in.
“After my positive experiences at UW I like finding ways to stay involved and give back. For example, I’ve got a co-op student starting next week.”
Sheri at the Wingham Hospital
One major project Sheri coordinates is bringing the Wingham Hospital up to the latest standard of NAPRA compliance.
“Certainly the project management side of my job has taken me outside of my comfort zone,” she reflects. “When I was in pharmacy school, I’d never imagined that I’d be looking at architectural plans to make sure we were compliant for hazardous sterile preparation. I didn’t think I’d be trying to understand the significance of certain sizes of air exchangers, but I’m now the person having conversations with contractors, knowing what questions to ask to ensure our facilities are built to our exact needs.”
After living in the Kitchener-Waterloo area since 2001, the move to a rural part of the province was a shift that recalled Sheri’s early days growing up in Espanola in northern Ontario. The downsizing of cities brought with it an increase in opportunity for both Sheri and her husband.
“I’ve had so many professional opportunities that I wouldn’t have had in a larger centre. For example, we have a leadership group at the hospital that meets biweekly where I get to sit at a table with our senior leaders and CEO, discussing hospital business. It’s taught me so much about how hospitals work and given me a chance to help my colleagues realize the value of a pharmacist on the team.”
“The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is to take every opportunity that comes your way even if it seems small. Because you never know where it will lead.”
Alumni Answers
UW: Matt is an owner in a community pharmacy in Wingham. Do you have opportunities to collaborate with him in your professional life?
SD: That’s another perk of our small community. We’ve had the opportunity to work together with patients because of the close proximity of our practices (his pharmacy is right outside the Wingham hospital) and our ability to communicate well about our mutual patients has helped smooth the transitions of care between the hospital and the community.
UW: What are some of the challenges of hospital pharmacy practice in a small community?
SD: Definitely resource challenges are huge. Hospitals are strapped for staff and often we have to deal with the same operational challenges of a big hospital, such as the NAPRA compliance project I lead, with fewer resources. But we find creative ways to problem solve, and all staff wear a lot of hats. I am part of a great team and we work together to make things happen. We also make use of technical resources like telepharmacy to cover pharmacy services when the day-time pharmacists are off.
Non-Pharm Fun
