Pharmacist Denise Kreutzwiser (Rx2011), left, created St. Joseph’s Health Care London’s pharmacy residency program to provide new pharmacists like Sumani Vij (Rx2023) with a unique opportunity to learn about the connection between chronic disease, mental health and rehabilitation, and their integral role as a member of a broad team of health care professionals. Photo Credit: St. Joseph’s Health Care London.
Denise Kreutzwiser (Rx2011) spearheads unique healthcare program focused on chronic disease and mental health
With our aging population growing each year, the demand for healthcare services is on the rise and the complexity of care required is accelerating. With approximately 130 pharmacy practice residency positions available per year, few of these programs focus on training the next generation of pharmacists to manage complex patient populations and health conditions in an interdisciplinary, academic, non-acute care setting.
The St. Joseph’s Health Care London pharmacy department, with Denise Kreutzwiser (Rx2011) leading development, created their novel year one pharmacy residency program to fulfill this educational gap.
A key part of St. Joseph’s culture and core tenant of the residency program is focused on breaking down barriers to care and working together to support wholistic patient care. The aim of the St. Joseph’s program is to graduate residents who embody these values and actively demonstrate them as they continue through their own professional journeys.
The residency program focuses on pain management, rehabilitation and mental health care, all services offered across St. Joseph’s sites.
Our interdisciplinary approach allows learners to see how we work together with the aim to build a better health-care system for our future generations. This approach allows pharmacists to see where they fit within our health-care system.
The foundational rotation of this program takes place at the outpatient chronic pain management clinic, while the residency year is finished off in the outpatient rheumatology centre.
As part of the rehabilitation rotation, pharmacy residents gain insight into how patients with chronic conditions travel through the health-care system and how pharmacists support patients during their transitions in care.
The core mental health rotation provides the resident with the opportunity to build on their mental health knowledge and clinical skills developed during their time at the outpatient chronic pain management clinic. A unique elective rotation, forensic mental health, is offered for interested residents. Through exposed learning activities and patient cases, a resident can refine their acquired mental health care knowledge, skills and attitudes.
During the palliative care rotation, the resident will learn about the final spectrum of a patient’s life journey. This rotation highlights how the goals of therapy change from functional improvement to comfort and symptom management.
St. Joseph’s has a close-knit pharmacy team, with approximately half of their staff pharmacists Waterloo Pharmacy alums and many staff pharmacists who have served as preceptors for Waterloo Pharmacy’s practicum placements.
“Residency is an intensive hands-on approach to learning. Residents are encouraged to embrace the unknown and become comfortable with uncertainty as they learn how to navigate the care of complex patients and challenging situations,” says Kreutzwiser.
Problem-solving and critical thinking are at the forefront of residency training, and these highly transferable skills will never go to waste. Residency is about developing confidence while partaking in a vast array of clinical, leadership, and project/research opportunities and refining one’s skillset through deliberate practice and mentorship.
The program is designed to help continuously emphasize learning and knowledge building as the trainee moves through the residency program. The overarching design concept of the St. Joseph’s pharmacy residency program is for the resident to see, understand, and appreciate the full journey a patient may take as part of their healing process.
“Seeing a resident deliver care and apply what they learned the day before is really rewarding. Witnessing them put the pieces together is a mark of their development and you know they are set up to train the next pharmacist learner,” says Kreutzwiser.
The first pharmacy resident at St. Joseph’s, Sumani Vij (Rx2023) started in September 2023. Kreutzwiser is looking to grow the program to include two to three residents per year soon.