Waterloo Pharmacy and Optometry students collaborate interprofessionally with McMaster Medicine and Physiotherapy learners to showcase healthcare careers for high school students
Three Waterloo Pharmacy students participated in an interprofessional education outreach event alongside students from Waterloo Optometry and McMaster Medicine and Physiotherapy. The healthcare students engaged high school learners in grades 10 to 12, while gaining firsthand experience in how different health professions work together to support patient care.
Learning from one another
Beyond educating high school students Holly Derks (PharmD’27), Judith Thomas (PharmD’27) and Rosanna Yu (PharmD’27) worked side by side with other healthcare learners to understand each profession’s scope of practice, limitations and strengths, and how those differences support effective team-based care.
“One of the biggest things we noticed is that people don’t know what pharmacists do,” Thomas says. “Being a pharmacist is more than just dispensing medications. We adapt prescriptions, manage minor ailments, support medication decisions in hospital and contribute to the safety and quality of medications before they even reach patients.”
“We weren’t just educating the high school students,” Yu adds. “We were also connecting with other health care learners, learning more about what they do, explaining what pharmacist’s can do and where our roles intersect.”
The collaboration helped build professional trust and reinforced the importance of recognizing each profession’s boundaries. The students say that understanding when and how to lean on other professions can improve patient outcomes and helps prevent burnout among providers.
“When we work together, patient care goes a lot further than if we all stay siloed,” Derks says.
Inspiring the next generation
Derks, Thomas and Yu know recognize that early exposure to healthcare careers, especially through an interprofessional lens, can help students better understand which profession they may be interested in. Connecting with high school students at this stage gives them the opportunity to explore different professions and speak to students who have experienced it.
“We could tell the high school students really wanted to connect with us because we had been in their shoes not too long ago,” says Thomas. “We talked about how to get into pharmacy, what the program looks like and what university life is really like.
Waterloo Pharmacy students highlighted the Conditional Admission to Pharmacy (CAP) program and outlined the application process for CAP, undergraduate studies and pharmacy school. They also shared their personal experiences getting into pharmacy school and during pharmacy school, including coursework, co-op work terms and the benefits of attending Canada’s only co-op pharmacy program.
L-R: Holly Derks, Judith Thomas and Rosanna Yu at Kitchener Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School. Photo credit: Kimia Mofid, McMaster medical student.
During the presentation they walked students through a typical day in the program, showed photos of their cohort and demonstrated common pharmacy-related skills. High school students had the opportunity to learn how to read prescriptions and try medical devices including inhalers and insulin pens, while gaining an understanding of pharmacy’s expanded scope of practice in Ontario and the wide range of career opportunities available including: hospital, community and non-traditional paths such as industry, family health teams, government and more.
Speaking directly to high school students opened a safe space for honest conversations about career uncertainty.
“It felt like I was speaking to them as an older sibling,” Yu says. “I myself didn’t know I wanted to pursue pharmacy until a friend during my undergraduate degree suggested I look into it.”
Derks mentions that reassuring the students was as important as explaining the profession.
“Many of the students didn’t know exactly what they wanted to do, and we wanted them to feel confident in their ability to explore different courses during their undergraduate degree,” she says. “Pre-requisites overlap across many healthcare programs, which gives students time to find the career that fits them best.”
Future opportunities
Looking ahead, Derks, Thomas and Yu hope to see the event expanded to include additional professions such as nursing, dieticians and health management.
“Seeing the full healthcare ecosystem would help high school students understand how interconnected these roles are and which career they see themselves in,” Thomas says.
Derks suggests incorporating a panel or mock interprofessional case. “Observing how each profession approaches the same patient scenario would show learners how collaboration improves care and which approach they resonate with themselves.”
Yu expressed collaborating again to present to early undergraduate students. “It would give other struggling students a starting point to help them decide their next career steps.”
Derks, Thomas and Yu are looking forward to building their own careers in pharmacy while working together with other healthcare professionals. This event helped them see that when more complex patient care cases arise, healthcare professionals can use their entire set of knowledge and connection to lean on other professions and each of their strengths to find the solution that’s best for the patient together.