Senior pharmacy students are supporting Ontario’s health-care system in the fight against COVID-19. These students are completing their rotations, a requirement for senior pharmacy students where they are placed in health-care sites across the province for six months.
Here are some of their stories:
Ridwaan Safi in the Owen Sound Region
“My experiences on my first rotation highlighted the downstream effects of how COVID-19 impacts the health-care system. I worked alongside an extremely supportive team and preceptor, Barb Avery. We saw an increase in phone consults as COVID escalated, most significantly from worried patients seeking information, but also from various practitioners navigating telemedicine and drug shortages.
As most dental offices were closed, there was an increased need for antimicrobial and pain management stewardship for patients with recurrent tooth infections. Management of drug shortages, especially potentially life-saving medications like Ventolin, posed a challenge. Telephone hospital discharge medication reconciliation was of utmost importance, as patients’ families were unable to visit loved ones during hospital admissions.
Responding to atypical inquiries, as well as being a reliable source of information for the entire community, has honed my communication skills. The increased demand for pharmacy services has also increased how efficiently I work. The pandemic has clearly demonstrated the value of the pharmacist in health care and as a pillar of the community.”
Ridwaan and the team inside Shoppers Drug Mart
Saara Manji in the Ottawa Region
"I’m currently on rotation at Hybrid Pharm, a wellness pharmacy located in the Westboro Village area of Ottawa. Hybrid Pharm is a unique business that provides a multi-modal approach to health care including access to medical cannabis, compounding and wellness and lifestyle modification programming. My preceptor at Hybrid is Rahim Dhalla and he’s been a fantastic resource for showing us how to think outside the box and how to innovate the future of pharmacy.
At Hybrid, we do our patient consultations virtually, so the pandemic has definitely challenged me to be creative and resourceful. I’ve come to learn how technology and telemedicine can play a pivotal role in delivering care and bringing pharmacists closer to their patients.
A key lesson I’ve taken from all this is to make mental health a priority during the pandemic. It’s entirely normal for individuals to feel increased stress and anxiety during these uncertain times. Taking time out of our days to check in and support our patients and each other is necessary – now more than ever."
Rahim and Rx2020 rotation students Valerie and Saara inside Hybrid Pharmacy
Aiden Fung in the Niagara Region
"Working as a pharmacy student during this pandemic has definitely been a unique experience. With pharmacies remaining open and pharmacists often becoming patient’s primary contact for health care, I found myself making many more recommendations and addressing situations I hadn’t been faced with before. I was lucky to be placed at two great locations at Hauser’s Pharmacy and Meadows IDA Pharmacy, two community pharmacies in the Niagara Region. Both pharmacies were quick to adapt to the changing situation and always made sure that the safety of both patients and the pharmacy team were a priority.
In community settings like these, medication shortages were a challenge we were often faced with. Working with the team, including my preceptors Phil Hauser and Sarah Blythe, and Marcus Walz, we had to determine how to manage mass drug shortages and situations where even the typical alternative medications we’d recommend were also unavailable. We occasionally had to recommend alternatives that were outside the class of the originally prescribed medication. It was a learning experience for sure, and as a result I’ve become more comfortable with different options to treat various conditions and the pros and cons of prescribing each one."
Marcus Walz, Rx2015 alumni and preceptor, and Aiden Fung at Meadows IDA Pharmacy