Preceptor Newsletter Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy
My Favorite Rotation - Adrianna Cody While P4 students are on the Academia APPE, they are tasked with writing about their favorite rotation and share information related to the success of the rotation to share in this newsletter. Adrianna Cody, Class of 2024 “Practice makes perfect'' is the phrase I think of when I consider the experiential rotations I have been on during pharmacy school. Being able to actively participate in patients’ lives while having the guidance of a mentoring pharmacist has been an inspiring and confidence-boosting experience. At the time of writing this article, I have participated in 5 IPPE and 4 APPE rotations. Already, friends and family are asking me “which was your favorite rotation?” While I hold a fond appreciation for my Academic APPE rotation with Dr. Mary Douglass Smith, my APPE rotation at New Horizon Family Health Service (NHFHS) is certainly my favorite experiential rotation to date. To explain why this is my favorite rotation, let me tell you about my experience at that site and how I was able to really learn from my month there. The rotation at NHFHS is classified as an ambulatory care rotation and is precepted by Dr. Chris Downey, a graduate of Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy (PCSP). His position at this site is as clinical pharmacist who sits in a suite with the doctors and nurses for that group of patient exam rooms. The rotation at its most basic level covers what you would expect from any rotation since it has topic discussions, patient SOAP note work-ups, and direct patient interaction in various forms. What sets this rotation apart is that I experienced two major things: A preceptor who actively engaged
me while also showing me what to do and a team who purposefully included me. Dr. Downey, from day one, asked me questions and consistently included me in almost every detail of his work day. When interacting with patients, he had a three step process. The first interaction he would always explain to me what he does and then show me how he interacts with the patient. The second time a patient needed the same thing, he would allow me to step in in his place as “pharmacist.” While with patients, if I had any gaps or missed any talking points, he was there to enhance my counseling instead of blatantly correcting me. By the third or fourth patient interaction, I was trusted to independently work with the patient. This trust in my ability to work with patients helped me gain confidence in my skills. Along with this, the topic discussions we had throughout the rotation helped me to solidify my use of guidelines since I used the preparation time to summarize guidelines for future reference. The questions he asked to evaluate my understanding were relevant to actual situations and not just the standard patient you would imagine as a textbook case. Also, whenever a nurse or a doctor asked him a question, I was immediately pulled in to help find an answer