Each year Waterloo Pharmacy presents awards to celebrate our outstanding partners in experiential education. These awards recognize preceptors and co-op supervisors who show exceptional dedication in their mentorship of Waterloo Pharmacy students. This year's outstanding mentors are Phil Hauser and Mark Pasetka; they received their awards at the PxP conference in Toronto earlier this week.

Co-op Supervisors and Preceptors like Mark and Phil are the backbone of our experiential learning program. They model superb patient care, collaboration and leadership for our students. Their forward-thinking practice sites and teams encourage our students to push the boundaries of what pharmacists can do.

Nancy Waite, Associate Director, Clinical Education

Preceptor of the Year Award for 2018: Phil Hauser

Phil Hauser is a pharmacist, owner, and co-founder of Whole Health Pharmacy Partners, Canada’s newest pharmacy banner. Phil has been a preceptor for Waterloo Pharmacy students on rotation since 2016 – in that time he’s served as preceptor to six students.

“Phil goes above and beyond for his patients, taking the time not only to identify and resolve drug therapy issues, but also to establish a great relationship with them,” said one nominator. “He’s completely changed the way I view community pharmacy.”

Dave, Nancy, Phil, Ken

Dave Edwards, Nancy Waite, Phil Hauser, and Ken Manson

Nominators cited numerous examples of how Phil consistently goes above and beyond, interacting with patients in supportive, compassionate, and non-judgemental ways. He is also a strong advocate for practicing to full scope, encouraging students, technicians, and pharmacists on his team to leverage their scope to its fullest extent.

As co-founder of a new banner and owner of two busy pharmacies, Phil is an exceptional team player. His students describe how he modelled good leadership and efficient and effective interprofessional collaboration with other health care providers. He consistently provided interesting projects for his students, ensuring that he was available to them for support, but also trusting them to complete work independently.

“Phil showed me what a good pharmacist can do for their patients in the community,” said a nominator. “I will always remember him as someone who changed the way I view the profession.”

Co-op Supervisor of the Year Award for 2018: Mark Pasetka

Mark Pasetka is a Clinical Pharmacy Coordinator at the Odette Cancer Centre in Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. Mark has supervised students on co-op and rotations for over seven years, supporting learners from both the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto. To date, he’s taken 69 students on co-op, many of whom have returned to work with him for a second term.

Dave, Mark, Nancy, Anthony

Dave Edwards, Mark Pasetka, Nancy Waite, and Anthony Miller

According to nominators, Mark creates an outstanding learning environment where students are encouraged to asked questions and to work independently.

“I didn’t have previous oncology knowledge when starting my co-op,” says one nominator, “but Mark always made time to teach myself and the other co-op student about chemotherapy, side effects, and how to manage them.”

In particular, Mark is a proponent of self-guided learning, encouraging students who work with him to trust in themselves and their own knowledge.

“Mark guides students in the right direction, probing us to use our previous knowledge to find solutions to drug therapy problems,” says a nominator.

Whether it’s their first co-op or their third at Sunnybrook with Mark, students are thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from and work alongside such a supportive and inspiring pharmacist.