News

Experience-based learning is Waterloo Pharmacy’s claim to fame, and delivering outstanding practical experiences for students is only possible because of the co-op supervisors and preceptors who support our program. Each year, the School recognizes exceptional mentors with two awards.

The 2019 award recipients are Melissa Sayed, the Outstanding Co-op Supervisor of the Year, and Ginette Dutrisac, the Outstanding Preceptor of the Year.

Michael Kani (BSc ’07, MSc ’09, BScPhm ’14) is the 2019 recipient of the School of Pharmacy Alumni Achievement Award. Michael is a community pharmacist who is owner of Michael’s Pharmacy in Saskatoon and co-owner of Idylwyld Pharmacy in Saskatoon and Langham Pharmacy in Langham, Saskatchewan, a small community located about a fifteen-minute drive from Saskatoon.

Hear Michael's reflections on the award:

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:

Lauren Tailor in Hamilton Region

“I completed block three at McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario in the General Pediatric ward under the preceptorship of Nicole Clarke and Sara Yousaf.

Rui Su is used to rejection. The Rx2018 pharmacy grad has worn many hats over the years, but the one that suits her best is trailblazer. Su is an entrepreneur committed to improving Canada’s health-care system. On this journey, she’s learned that rejection is part of the process.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo are developing a new method to decrease the likelihood of contracting HIV.

Professor Emmanuel Ho of the School of Pharmacy has developed a gel that contains nanoparticles that can be applied directly to the vaginal tract, where HIV is contracted in women.

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:

Meghan Coon in Kingston-Belleville region

“My block 3 rotation has taken place at Bayridge Shopper’s Drug Mart, a high-volume pharmacy in Kingston, where my preceptor is Kaitlyn McCullough (a Waterloo Pharmacy alumni) and the associate is Scott Ford.”

Six professors at the School of Pharmacy recently received funding through the Dean’s Undergraduate Teaching Initiative (DUTI) to introduce educational innovations into their courses. Though the transition to online learning necessitated by COVID-19 disrupted some of these plans, instructors at the School have quickly adapted their activities to an online environment.

Pauline Bal (Rx2019) didn’t plan to start her new job at Credit Valley Hospital in the middle of COVID-19. But when she showed up for her first day at the hospital, one of the three main Trillium Health Partners sites in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), it was mid-April and COVID-19 was in full swing.

Pauline was assigned to the COVID-designated medicine and surgical floor, an area created in the hospital specifically for COVID-positive patients so that they wouldn’t come into contact with others in the hospital.

Six professors at the School of Pharmacy recently received funding through the Dean’s Undergraduate Teaching Initiative (DUTI) to introduce educational innovations in their courses. Though the transition to online learning necessitated by COVID-19 disrupted some of these plans, instructors at the School have quickly adapted their activities to an online environment.