Roommates Darian Rahimpour (Rx2026) and Philip Chung (Rx2026) travelled to the Yukon for their second University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy co-op work term. They spent four months together, learning, living and exploring together.
“When I saw the job posting I thought it would be a great experience,” Darian says. “You see so many other co-op students across Waterloo travelling outside of Ontario to do their co-op, but not many go to the Canadian territories.”
“Darian and I made a pact to go together,” Philip adds. “In class we discuss the healthcare difficulties in rural communities, this was a chance to immerse ourselves and implement what we learned in practice.”
Darian and Philip worked at Shoppers Drug Mart in Whitehorse Yukon. Each store has a different patient population that required them to implement different skill sets from their classes and they had a project to complete during the co-op work term.
Their goal was to implement a system that allows pharmacists in each of their pharmacies to spend more time doing clinical work and conducting medical reviews to optimize patient medications, as opposed to paperwork and medication dispensing tasks. Darian and Philip spent their time automating systems, to make it easier for the pharmacist to conduct conversations with patients, and to train assistants to recognize eligibility requirements to aid the pharmacist in minor ailments prescribing.
“We saw a lot of success from implementing the medication review system,” Darian says. “We saw first-hand an increase in the quality of life of patients."
Darian Rahimpour, co-op supervisor Edmund Tan and Philip Chung at Shoppers Drug Mart in Whitehorse, Yukon. Photo credits: Edmund Tan and Shoppers Drug Mart employee.
“During our co-op work term, we created a medication review form that includes initial assessment and follow-up appointments. When a pharmacist pulls up the patient’s profile, they can quickly search the document and see the patient’s complete history, including all their meetings with the pharmacists,” Philip says. “This helps the pharmacists see the progression of the patient’s health to further optimize their medications.”
They also enhanced the billing system, making it easy to bill and communicate with patients. Automating these systems allows the pharmacists to spend more time focusing on patient’s health and less time on dispensing tasks that pharmacy assistants can do.
“The biggest challenge was implementing change,” Darian says. “Pharmacy is an evolving practice and working together to improve the functionality of the team was key.”
Darian and Philip were also given the opportunity to present to the Council of Yukon First Nations on the benefits of minor ailment prescribing and sending relief pharmacists to remote First Nations communities to increase access to care through this service.
“The Council and our co-op supervisor are working together to make this a reality,” Darian says.
After this co-op work term, Darian and Philip are looking forward to finding out what pharmacy field is perfect for them.
“This experience was very eye-opening, and I thought I wanted to do community pharmacist but now I’m considering my other options,” Philip says. “A great piece of advice my supervisor told me was that I need to accumulate more experiences to know what it is I want to do for my future. I’m looking forward to trying a new area of pharmacy during my third co-op work term.”
Darian and Philip spent their free time exploring nature, hiking with their supervisor in the mountains. Their classmates and Waterloo Pharmacy friends joined them for a weekend where they visited a nature reserve, to see a different part of Canada together.
“If you’re thinking about accepting a co-op work term outside of Ontario, go for it! You’ll see a different part of Canada or the world, experience pharmacy in a different setting, apply your learned skills on the job and get paid!” Darian says.
“It can be scary at first, but once you immerse yourself in a new place and a new role, there’s so much you can learn personally and professionally,” Philip adds.