Maheen Humayun, Niagara

Maheen Humayun, Rx2018 - Niagara

Navigating the region

I loved the area in general. The vineyards, wineries, beaches (Port Colborne), and the falls were all pretty close

and absolutely lovely in the summertime.

The public transit was decent in St. Catharines, but fairly non-existent if you wanted to go across the region (e.g. into Welland, the Falls, Ridgeway, etc). Most people will definitely need a car in this region to get around since you can be placed anywhere within the region. Housing was okay, it could be hard to find housing for a few months, especially if you were moving to a different area of the region after a rotation. It may be easier for people to find sublets from Niagara college or Brock University students. I don’t think anyone had too hard of a time finding housing though.

Donnie, the Regional Cl

inical Coordinator (RCC), was fantastic in setting up a lot of networking and CE events with drug companies. I saw the group a lot during the rotation time period at these events. We also organized other events within our group (going to different restaurants). My roommate and I also tried a lot of restaurants in the area (downtown St. Catharines), we went to falls a few times. I also explored the area on my own, going to vineyards/wine touring, going to Avondale dairy for ice cream, Nickel beach in Port Colborne, Montebello Park.

Donnie (RCC) was awesome! He really made our experience worthwhile. He regularly checked in with us with how our placements were going, how the preceptors were and if we felt the school had adequately prepared us etc. He also organized a lot of events for us to see each other and network as well.

Practice site descriptions

Shoppers Drug Mart 1190. The entire staff there was really nice and welcoming. I loved going into work every day. I had strictly clinical/pharmacist duties there including: checking prescriptions, counselling on OTC and Rx products, MedsChecks, making recommendations to physicians (POPs).

St. Catharines General Hospital for 2 rotations, one in emergency/antimicrobial stewardship and the other in palliative oncology medicine/intensive care unit. My duties included BPMHs, patient work-ups and care plans, pharmacist recommendations, monitoring of drug therapy, initiation/monitoring/adjusting warfarin and vancomycin, drug information requests, shadowing other pharmacists on other wards, giving presentations on newly updated guidelines or therapies, managing a pod on the palliative-oncology ward. Everyone was very nice and really wanted you to learn how to practice as a hospital pharmacist. I think they all really impacted how I learned and shaped my process for working in the hospital. I thought my time there was incredible! My preceptors were also really great teachers and mentors.

The skills I gained from my experience are time and workload management in both hospital and community placements. Polishing and refining of the care plan and patient work-up process in a methodical manner. Critical thinking and problem solving when it came to therapeutic and clinical issues. Development of research skills when doing drug info and presentations. Anticipating follow-up questions from physicians when making recommendations.

Advice for future students

I think preceptors want you to show interest in the placement, even if that is not something you see yourself doing after you graduate. You can always learn something from each placement. Other than that, I don’t really think you need to prepare much beforehand. Just be engaged and be ready to learn from your preceptors.

I think this region is a great place to learn. Many good preceptors and sites. The RCC is also great for support and any issues that may come up. I highly recommend this region.