Kim Chvala is a Clinical Pharmacist at the New Vision Family Health Team in Kitchener. She also has extensive experience as a Clinical Consultant Pharmacist for long-term care and retirement homes.
Where they’re working:
Geriatric pharmacy was always an interest for Kim Chvala.
“There is so much complexity involved in supporting the geriatric population,” she says. “There’s lots of polypharmacy, deprescribing considerations, drug interactions, dealing with renal dosing and more. Older patients give you a little bit everything, and I enjoy the challenge, which is why I became a Board Certified Geriatric Pharmacist (BCGP).”
That interest drew her to the Medical Pharmacies Group, an organization that provides pharmacist consultation services to long-term care and retirement homes. Kim joined their team the year after she graduated pharmacy school. As a consultant pharmacist, she supported retirement communities and long-term care homes across Waterloo Region and beyond, driving to outside London, to St Catharines and more.
“Every day was different,” she says. “I conducted medication reviews with residents and provided education for both staff and residents on clinical topics policies and procedures.”
The role also came with big-picture considerations: Kim was responsible for conducting root cause analyses, helping homes reduce medication errors and medication usage issues. She was also responsible for auditing some of the homes, ensuring that they met the Long-Term Care Home Act and Retirement Home Act regulations.
“There was lots of learning on the job, especially getting up to speed on the Acts,” she says. “But it came with experience, and, over time, I built strong relationships with the healthcare practitioners in the home. There were times when I had to be tactful or creative in describing areas for improvement.”
Working with geriatric patients meant that Kim witnessed how the nature of care and therapeutic interventions evolves over time.
“When we started out, many patients’ medication regimens were based around prevention,” she says. “But over time that evolved – as side effects occurred or patient status changed, we’d talk about deprescribing and how taking drugs away could improve quality of life. It was rewarding to help patients navigate their struggles and to help provide them with dignity at the end of their life.”
After six years with Medical Pharmacies Group, Kim felt it was time for a change.
“I knew I wanted to expand my skills and to work with a more diverse population,” she says. “I also heard that New Vision was developing a geriatric complex care program. The ability to work with community-dwelling patients, versus residents in homes, was a big draw for me.”
Kim joined New Vision’s team in 2019. And though her workplace has changed, every day still looks different.
“My day could include anything from diabetes education, lung health assessment, supporting the pharmacist-managed anticoagulation clinic, medication reviews and MedRecs, answering drug information questions, preceptoring students, and more,” she says. “The learning curve took some getting used to, but I’ve enjoyed getting to build longer term relationships with patients, as opposed to being a consultant coming in and out of homes.”
While with New Vision, Kim also supported the local vaccination effort; the team delivered nearly 10,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses.
Alumni Answers
UW: While changing jobs, your family also grew a little! How did you manage transitioning back to work from parental leave during the COVID pandemic?
KC: It was an interesting experience coming back from leave to a world of COVID screeners, PPE and virtual patient appointments. An added challenge was having my daughter in daycare and having her come home with a cough or runny nose. We’ve had to be so much more vigilant both in watching my daughter’s symptoms and in terms of considering what we’re bringing home to her.
UW: You’ve supported the school as an admissions interviewer for many years. Why?
KC: It’s always inspiring to hear from prospective students and what their passion is for pharmacy. It’s a helpful reminder of why I’m doing this in the first place, and it’s exciting to be part of the process that helps choose the next generation of pharmacists.
Non-Pharm Fun
“Playing, learning and exploring with my daughter, my husband, and my puppy – well, he’s five years old, but a puppy at heart – have been key de-stressors, especially with COVID. Lately, we’ve done a lot more outdoor exploring and nature walks. I also enjoy playing soccer and volleyball and make time for reading.”