Professor Brett Barrett appointed clinical lecturer
For the last several years, Barrett’s time was split between two half-time positions: working as a clinician at Grand River Hospital and teaching at Waterloo Pharmacy.
“Having two jobs was very challenging – somehow the “math” of two 0.5 full-time equivalents always added up to a lot more than one,” says Barrett. “As a result, I struggled to find the time to explore opportunities at the School that interested me, like evaluating the impact of new things I was trying in the classroom or contributing to curriculum development in a meaningful way.”
By moving to the School fulltime, I’m able to devote the majority of my energy to those endeavours, as well as take on additional teaching in the area of institutional practice.
In her new role, Barrett will continue to deliver the infectious disease and antimicrobial stewardship components of the PharmD curriculum. She will also be responsible for overseeing the hospital pharmacy and institutional practice elements of the program.
“Brett’s experience as a hospital pharmacist for the past 15 years will be invaluable as she takes the lead in coordinating courses in the PharmD curriculum related to hospital pharmacy practice,” says David Edwards, Hallman Director. “We will continue to rely on her expertise in infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship to deliver instruction in these areas as well.”
Barrett’s research will explore elements of pharmacy practice that impact both clinicians and pharmacy students. One of her ongoing projects in collaboration with Professor Nardine Nakhla examines the way that the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process is taught throughout Waterloo Pharmacy’s PharmD program.
“I am a big believer in the value of a structured process for identifying and addressing medication-related problems, both for pharmacy students who are just learning to think like clinicians and for seasoned pharmacists who are dealing with complex patients,” she says. “Our work will serve to provide students with a single thought process that can be used for all patient scenarios in all settings. I’m looking forward to facilitating alignment between how the IPFC and Professional Practice series teach, use, and assess the thought process.”
Barrett began in her full-time role in January of 2019. Congratulations, Professor Barrett!