Heather’s present work focuses on transitions of care, ensuring a continuous process of healthcare support for patients who move out of the hospital and back into the home.
Where They’re Working:
As a student, Heather was active on many committees and in the Society of Pharmacy Students. As a new grad, she won OPA Outstanding New Practitioner Award. Her early successes set the tone for her career and her passion and drive has taken her to many practice settings.
After completing her residency training in 2012, Heather worked as a clinical pharmacist at the Leamington Hospital and the Chatham Kent Family Health Team (FHT). She also spent a year as a community pharmacist at the Windsor Regional Hospital outpatient pharmacy, and acts as a Regional Clinical Co-ordinator for the School of Pharmacy.
At the hospital, I had a lot of opportunities to make pharmaceutical interventions and to become a real asset to the physicians that I worked with.
That interprofessional teamwork has been a part of her experiences, both in hospital and on a FHT level.
Reflections on the Program
My co-op experience really set the bar for my career, and influenced my career choices to date. My co-op preceptors have turned out to be my mentors and colleagues now, and have shaped the kind of professional I aspire to become.
My communications class was invaluable in developing a skill set that has carried through in everything I do, every day. I know those skills really set Waterloo students apart. Thanks, Elaine!
It’s very rewarding that you have a skillset that is valued by other healthcare professionals and patients.
Heather is also breaking ground as a pharmacist case manager out of the Chatham Kent Family Health Team. A role typically reserved for nurses or social workers, case managers in this setting are responsible for patients who have been admitted at least three times in the last year.
Heather meets these patients and assists them in developing individual care plans. The goal is to identify the circumstances that result in hospitalization, and to collaborate with the patient and their network of healthcare providers and family to create a strategy to avoid readmission.
"A large component of their care comes back to mental health and social work,” Heather explains. “I’ve really enjoyed the exposure to these new areas of practice for me. But for so many of these patients, their reasons for readmission surround medication management. That’s where I’m finding I’m having a massive influence – using my skill set as a pharmacist to help patients and providers with enhanced medication management.”
Alumni Answers
UW: What do you enjoy most about your work as a case manager?
HF: About 90% of my appointments are home visits with patients and their families. Developing an action plan involves investigative and detective work. When I attend appointments with patients, I have the opportunity to be an advocate for them in the healthcare system, both in and out of hospital. It’s rewarding, and I never have a day that looks the same.
UW: You're a Regional Clinical Co-ordinator for our fourth year clinical rotations in the Erie St Clair LHIN. What prompted your interest in this mentorship role?
HF: I had a great experience at Waterloo and wanted to take any opportunity to remain connected to the school. I thought that as an alumnus, I’d have something to offer students because I’ve been through the program and can relate to many of their perspectives.
Also, as a practicing pharmacist in the area, I could relate to the perspectives of the preceptors as well. I am really enjoying the experience as it has allowed me to better network with the local pharmacists as well as the students placed in the region.
UW: Transitions of care is an important topic for you. Why do you think pharmacy students to be aware of this topic?
HF: Bottom line is that as pharmacists, we all need to be involved in transitions of care, regardless of practice location.
My advice for any pharmacy student going into practice is to always remember that your patient moves through the healthcare system; they are not just a ‘hospital patient’ or a ‘community patient’. Always remember that your patient is a person outside of the environment you are witnessing them in. In order to provide optimal patient care, try to remain cognisant of other factors that influence them beyond the current physical location.
Non-Pharm Fun
Heather is an avid adventurer who takes her days off to explore provincial parks and photograph wildlife like birds and bugs. She also spends time with her family in New Liskeard, some 900km north of Windsor.