Kris Mendoza, London and Rural Health

Kris Mendoza, Rx2019 - Ingersoll and Woodstock

Navigating the region
Kris in the park

One of the best parts about the Woodstock region was that I was surrounded by UW pharmacy alumni – they’re either your preceptor or pharmacists that you work with. So either way, they make sure you have the best experience possible!

Woodstock and Ingersoll are both small cities so it was a great experience to be immersed in that environment, especially when you come from a bigger city. There’s much less traffic, relatively easier to get to places and you get to know everyone.

There were lots of networking and educational opportunities that were available within the area – PiLLS conference in London, CEs presented by physicians in the area. If you like fine dining, like I do, I also highly recommend visiting 639 restaurant in Woodstock and Elmhurst restaurant in Ingersoll! I was fortunate to visit them during CEs so I got to experience fine dining for free!

Knowing someone in the area to live with and having a car would come in handy. Ingersoll is about 15 minute drive from Woodstock.

As students in the region, we met up once a month to share our experiences and educate each other. There was also an inter-professional meeting with dietician students at the end. The RCC (Nicole) was also very approachable and opened to suggestions to further improve our experience/meetings.

Practice site descriptions 

Kris at Woodstock Hospital
Woodstock Hospital - I had minimal experience in a hospital setting so having my first clinical rotation at an institution was a big step outside of my comfort zone. In my first 2 weeks, I was in the ICU/CCU floor but for the rest of my clinical rotation, I was covering both general medicine and surgical floors - performing admission medication reconciliations, solving drug therapy problems, renal adjustments for antibiotic dosing and implementing care plans with my preceptor. Finally, I got to participate in daily clinical rounds and in weekly AMS rounds, which made it easier to communicate with physicians and nurses.

Ingersoll Pharmasave - I had a pleasure of working at the biggest Pharmasave in the area that had a Nurse Practitioner-led-clinic in the same building. In addition to checking prescriptions independently, I had the opportunity to participate in various pharmacist-led services including: Travel Health Consultation, Smoking Cessation, MedsChecks, Injections and Cannabis Education. Ingersoll Pharmasave utilizes an appointment-based model (ABM) so I was able to take my time to thoroughly assess patients’ medications and at the same time provide exceptional patient care.

Shoppers Drug Mart - My experience at SDM was mainly clinical (MedsChecks, Smoking Cessation, POPs, immunizations, Rx/OTC counselling) vs. drug dispensing so I had the luxury of having an office to do all of my professional services. Because SDM is a high volume pharmacy, I was able to initiate smoking cessation and follow-up with more patients. Finally, I had the opportunity to perform Home MedsChecks alongside my preceptor, which I thought was a valuable and fulfilling experience.

Advice for future students

Ask for any pre-readings from your preceptor so you have an idea of what to expect during your rotations. Start thinking that you’re a practicing pharmacist and you will start working like one.