Renu Singh, Pharm.D., Associate Dean for Experiential Education

SSPPS and OEE UPDATES: Welcome to the Winter/Spring 2023 issue of our Office of Experiential Education (OEE) Newsletter. The Class of 2023 received their Doctor of Pharmacy degrees on Saturday, May 13 at their commencement ceremony. There were many smiles, tears, and cheers as our graduating students walked across the stage at the Price Center Ballroom on the UC San Diego campus. After the ceremony, we enjoyed meeting with families and friends of our new graduates at the reception on the Skaggs east lawn, and were delighted to greet many of our preceptors who had also come to congratulate the graduates.

In other news, we are very proud to share that SSPPS is #9 in the United States for highest all-time passing rates on the North American Pharmacist Licensing Examination (NAPLEX). Thank you to all of our active preceptors for your dedication to training our students at your practice sites. Your high quality training sites and engagement as preceptors has ensured that our students gain applied knowledge and essential skills that have helped them graduate successfully, as well as perform well on their licensure exams. 

 Article: Top 20 Pharmacy Schools by NAPLEX Pass Rates

The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) has requested that all schools of pharmacy distribute their biannual Preceptor Survey to all active preceptors. You should have received this email request from our school last week. We would appreciate your participation in the survey.

OEE UPDATES:

Our students continue to follow UCSDH guidance for COVID-related concerns. We have instructed them not to report to their rotation site if they are exhibiting any symptoms concerning for COVID-19. In this case, they should notify their preceptor immediately, as well as OEE. If you have any COVID-related concerns regarding our students during the year, please contact us immediately for guidance. As a reminder, all UCSD students are fully COVID vaccinated with their boosters, which is tracked by our office for compliance.

STUDENT UPDATES:

The  Class of 2023 have done very well matching for residencies, fellowships and career positions. Our ASHP match rate for Phase 1 and 2 was 81% for 2023, and seven of our students were awarded a Fellowship. We thank each of our preceptors and clinical faculty  who have mentored our students on rotations, reviewed CVs and LOIs, written letters of recommendations, and provided mock interviews  for our students. We know this is a significant time commitment and we are very grateful for each of you. 

Thank you for partnering with our school’s Office of Experiential Education to train the next generation of highly skilled, compassionate, and caring pharmacists.

APPE UPDATES:

Getting Ready to Welcome New P4s!

We are getting excited to kick start a new year of APPE rotations! Students from the Class of 2024 (Co2024) and preceptors have received their APPE student schedules for 2023-2024 within CORE-ELMS.

The students are eager to begin rotations and we appreciate your willingness and support as their preceptors. We could not train the students without you, and we are grateful for your dedication to training the next generation of pharmacists.

APPE Orientation

The Co 2024 are currently completing a four-part APPE orientation series this quarter. Topics covered include transitioning from the classroom to experiential setting, providing and receiving feedback, tips from a recent graduate, experiential policies and guidelines, professionalism on rotations, wellness and counseling resources, and patient workups. We are planning to devote an extra hour this year to allow students extra time to practice working up a patient in both acute and ambulatory care settings using electronic health records. If you have any suggestions on additional orientation topics to help improve our students’ APPE readiness, please feel free to share them with the OEE team.

P4 Navigating the Launch Series

For the third consecutive year, our P4 students participated in a mandatory wellness series that included three sessions throughout the year. Students participated in facilitated small group activities to reflect on challenges faced during the P4 year and listened to faculty and alumni share stories about their failures, successes, and career journeys. The wellness series gives students an opportunity to reconnect with their classmates and faculty during their P4 year and glean healthy coping strategies for managing their stress.We appreciate your continued support in releasing them early from rotations on these days and allowing their attendance.

Housekeeping and Precepting Tips

As a reminder, students are advised to contact their preceptor two weeks in advance of each rotation to confirm the location and time of arrival for their first day.

Students complete the Pre-rotation Self-Assessment Form that we provide them, but don’t always share it with their preceptors. Please be sure to ask them to send it to you at the beginning of their rotation for information regarding their perceived strengths, areas of improvement, career goals, and interests. This will also give you some good insight on their motivation and experiences.

Feedback is most impactful when it’s specific, actionable, and measurable.

Example feedback: “Increase diabetes knowledge.”

Improved feedback: “Compare and contrast medications for diabetes according to the ADA 2023 guidelines with respect to A1c lowering, indications, and adverse effects by midpoint of rotation. By end of rotation, be able to titrate basal and bolus insulins for patients using insulin and counsel on symptoms of hypoglycemia and appropriate hypoglycemia treatment.”

Example feedback: “Be able to work up all patients assigned to you.”

Improved feedback: “Work up and present tentative assessment and plan for four patients by the end of week 2, six patients by the end of week 3, eight patients by the end of week 5…”

Have a wonderful summer and thanks again for all that you do!

IPPE UPDATES:

Our IPPE program is moving right along this Spring. Two-thirds of the P1 class have completed their longitudinal community pharmacy IPPE, and our last group of P1 students are completing their experiences right now. Once again, we thank all the pharmacy sites that have hosted our students this year, and for providing them with fantastic learning environments and invaluable mentorship. The feedback from our students so far this year has been overwhelmingly positive. We look forward to a successful Spring Quarter and another year completed of our longitudinal community pharmacy IPPE program!

We are also looking forward to the upcoming summer. Many of you will be hosting students for both community and health-system IPPEs. You should have received your IPPE schedules by now. If you have any questions, please email Pam McGlynn at pmcglynn@health.ucsd.edu .

If you are not currently scheduled for IPPE students, but interested in hosting at your site, please let us know! We would be happy to discuss our syllabus with you and answer any questions you may have. IPPEs provide a great way to share your expertise with students who are starting out in our profession and eager to learn from your mentorship.

Our team will be reaching out to pharmacy sites towards the end of June to begin planning for the next round of longitudinal community rotations in Fall Quarter 2023. As always, please let our IPPE team know of any questions or feedback for us. Thank you again for your support – I hope everyone has a productive, safe, and enjoyable Spring and Summer.

Training: Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, CA

Current Position: Pharmacy Team Leader at Ralphs #235

Winner of 2022 IPPE Community Pharmacy Preceptor Excellence Award

SSPPS: What inspired you to become a preceptor, and how long have you been precepting?

Dr. Walker: I was lucky enough to have several exceptional preceptors when I was in school. Those experiences really showed me how important and influential that position can be. In addition to teaching, preceptors act as role models and mentors. Before I wanted to be a pharmacist, I wanted to be a teacher. Being a preceptor gives me the best of both worlds. I can nurture and inspire future pharmacists while giving back to the profession the same way that my preceptors did. 

SSPPS: What is the most satisfying aspect of precepting students?

Dr. Walker: The most satisfying aspect of precepting is definitely seeing students mature and grow in confidence over the course of the rotation. It is the best feeling as a preceptor to see them confidently apply things that you have taught them in practice. The important thing that I always try to remember is that in a short amount of time these students are going to be my peers, so it is my duty to help them put what they learn in school into the context of real life situations to the best of my ability. 

SSPPS: What advice would you give to new preceptors of pharmacy students?

Dr. Walker: Never stop learning! As much as the rotations are about students learning from us, we learn quite a bit from them as well. Each student is different and learns differently, which makes each rotation a unique experience. Being a preceptor has taught me a lot about myself and my style of teaching. Much like the profession of pharmacy, it has evolved over the years. Whether it is collaborating with students or just keeping up to date with new drugs or laws, it is important to never stop learning.

With our summer IPPE rotations and APPE 2023-2024 cycle starting in mid-late June, please join us for some important experiential updates via webinar on Thursday, June 8 from 12:00-12:45 pm. This webinar serves as a just-in-time update for preceptors, and will include accessing training materials for new preceptors, updated process documents, evaluation tools for IPPEs and APPEs, and how to access your evaluations completed by your students from the past year.

Topic: Preceptor Updates from the Office of Experiential Education

Time: Jun 8, 2023 12:00-12:45 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://uchealth.zoom.us/j/89825829491

Please plan to join us for a virtual preceptor development conference for CAPE credit August 5, 2023 from 9:00 am-12:00 pm. More details will be emailed to preceptors in the coming months.

The 2023 APPE Rotation Fair was held virtually on February 22, 2023. It provided our P3 students an opportunity to talk to site leaders and preceptors and learn about rotation offerings at their practice sites. Invitations to sign up for the 2024 Rotation Fair will be emailed to preceptors and site coordinators beginning November 2023, but interested sites are welcome to email Ezra Blaize  (eblaize@health.ucsd.edu) ahead of time.

On April 22, 2023, the Office of Experiential Education presented "Translating Positive Classroom and Workplace Culture to Precepting: Strategies to Create Safe Learning Environments", a preceptor development event presented by Dr. Jennifer Namba, PharmD, BCPS, Associate Clinical Professor of Pharmacy at SSPPS. Preceptors from San Diego and LA/OC joined us for this virtual presentation that identified components of a positive workplace culture that translate to precepting, and showed how to modify precepting techniques using evidence-based approaches. If you weren't able to join us for this presentation, and would still like to earn CE credit for it, you can access it in our online learning platform.

On-demand preceptor development programs, including this presentation, are now available in the CORE-ELMS Document Library section at left under the heading “On-demand Preceptor Development CE.”

CORE Document Library

The 2023 Preceptor Excellence and Special Recognition Awards were presented during the April Preceptor Development Event. Preceptors received awards based on several internal criteria, including strong student evaluations, and commitment to precepting SSPPS students. The awardees were:

IPPE Community Pharmacy Excellence: Stephanie Han and Emiley (Hang) Pham

IPPE Hospital Pharmacy Excellence: Danielle Ishihara and Timothy Chow

IPPE Special Recognition for Service Learning: Casey Tiefenthaler and Mark Bounthavong (SSPPS Faculty)

APPE Community Pharmacy Excellence: Ron Scott and Tim Diep

APPE Hospital Pharmacy Excellence: Tu Tran and Laura Aykroyd

APPE Ambulatory Care Excellence: Kari Abulhosn, the AHF Team (Savi Toma, Ian Santos, Christopher Talbot), and Linda Awdishu (SSPPS Faculty)

APPE Acute Care Excellence: Kaitlin Krisik, Gale Romanowski, and Doug Humber (SSPPS Faculty)

APPE Elective Excellence: Karey Kowalski and Amit Patel

APPE Special Recognition: Jessica Jones, Kevin Kavanagh, Charisma Urbiztondo, Kyle Fox, Christina Dang, and Caitlin Richardson

"Volunteer Faculty Member of the Year Award" from SSPPS ASP Students: Juan Toledo

We congratulate all our preceptor awardees on their outstanding precepting skills and dedication to teaching our students!

Rotation site and preceptor: Point Loma Cabrillo Drug, Dr. Michael Saad

My very first assigned rotation of pharmacy school was a longitudinal community pharmacy IPPE that was to take place over the course of nine weeks consisting of a total of 72 hours during my first Fall quarter of pharmacy school at UCSD SSPPS. The rotation site I was assigned was Point Loma Cabrillo Drug, and my preceptor was Dr. Michael Saad, RPh, the pharmacy’s owner. I think the most unique aspect of this rotation site is that it is an independently owned community pharmacy and, therefore, has a different atmosphere compared to a chain community pharmacy, which I had previously been familiar with and had worked in. With this unique environment, I feel as though there was a deeper connection with patients, and you could sense that patients valued the pharmacists and staff at Point Loma Cabrillo Drug and felt they were a pillar in the community. This aspect of building a strong relationship with the patients as trusted healthcare professionals is what I liked most about this rotation site.

Everyone that I was able to meet and work with at Point Loma Cabrillo Drug was a pleasure to be around and they were all supportive of my learning and rotation experience. I enjoyed the times when my preceptor would ask me “pop quiz” style questions during my shifts. Although I did not always know the answer as a P1, this would really facilitate my learning experience and spark my interest in particular topics, such as antibiotics. Based on this being my first rotation experience, the advice I would give preceptors is to also engage students in an interactive way, like I got to experience. Finally, I think the biggest challenge I faced in my first rotation as a P1 was asking questions of my own. I always wanted to learn more or ask questions, but sometimes I did not always know what the good or valuable questions were to ask as a student new to pharmacy school. As I navigate my way through pharmacy school, I am looking forward to all the future rotations I will get to experience and what I will learn from them!

Rotation site and preceptors: UCSDH Population Health, Dr. Natalie Halanski and Dr. Fon Hokanson

What did you like most about this rotation?

One aspect I appreciated about this rotation was the diversity of patients and challenges that I had the opportunity of working with. Given that this rotation was in the ambulatory care setting, I encountered numerous patient specific barriers that I helped address. These were issues that were seldom addressed in our academic curriculum - financial access, health literacy, technology - but nonetheless significantly impacted the care of my patients on a daily basis. This experience allowed me to be more comfortable with skills and resources that go beyond what’s required of my pharmaceutical knowledge as a student pharmacist. 

Explain how the team and facility enhanced your learning experience?

My primary preceptors went above and beyond in their roles to make this rotation one of the most enriching rotations that I have had. There are ample benefits and challenges associated with providing care to patients in a telehealth model, and part of what made this program such a success was the level of communication and experience that my preceptors passed down to me. For example, Dr. Halanski showed me the importance of motivational interviewing and empathy when speaking to patients. These are invaluable skills that enhanced my learning experience as well as the care of my patients. 

What advice would you give to preceptors of pharmacy students?

Push students to be open minded to various learning opportunities because we never know what skills may come in handy down the line in our careers. In addition, setting student-specific expectations at the beginning of the rotation based on career choice and skill set was something that I’ve found to be empowering in my rotation. 

What about this rotation surprised you?

What surprised me about this rotation was the evolving role of pharmacists that go beyond the management of medications. My patients frequently asked about the role of lifestyle modifications and miscellaneous factors that may contribute to their conditions and it was my role to educate them about these variables. It was a valuable experience working with dedicated dieticians, social workers, and nurses to provide a multidisciplinary level of care that patients deserve at UCSD. 

What skill or knowledge will you take from this rotation that you believe can apply to other professional areas?

This rotation pushed me to adapt to a model of care that I had not been exposed to before (telemedicine & remote healthcare). This opened my eyes to the evolving healthcare industry and changes that are taking place within the pharmacy profession. Therefore, I gained a greater appreciation for qualities such as flexibility and perseverance that I think will be crucial in my future endeavors as a pharmacist. 

We were saddened to learn of the passing of Dr. Kimberly Tallian in January 2023. Dr. Tallian served on the UC San Diego Health pharmacy team as a leader of medication safety and quality, and was a psychiatric pharmacist at UC San Diego Health. More recently she was a psychiatric pharmacist at Scripps Mercy Hospital.

Dr. Charles Daniels, Associate Dean for Professional Practice, noted that Dr. Tallian, "was committed to education and training for pharmacy residents and students. She was a frequent volunteer at SSPPS. She also served as faculty in the early years of Keck Graduate Institute’s PharmD program." Additionally, she spent limitless hours on service to professional organizations such as ACCP, CPhA, and SDSHP.

We at SSPPS extend our sincerest condolences to Dr. Tallian's loved ones.

Benefits of an Affiliate Faculty Appointment include:
• Physical and VPN access to the UC San Diego library system
• Utilize the UC San Diego shuttle bus service (shuttles serve campus, UC San Diego medical centers and key points off campus)
• May be eligible for reimbursement for poster presentations and/or professional meeting registration
• Eligible to register for SSPPS Preceptor Development Programs, with CAPE or ACPE credit
For more information visit our Experiential Education website at:
SSPPS Experiential Education and Preceptors

Renu Singh, Pharm.D., Associate Dean, Experiential Education:             rfsingh@health.ucsd.edu
858-822-5585

Christina Mnatzaganian, Pharm.D., Director,APPEs:                           cmnatzaganian@health.ucsd.edu                                                                               858-822-5642

Alex Luli, Pharm.D., Director, IPPEs:                                                          aluli@health.ucsd.edu
858-534-5750

Jennifer Le, Pharm.D., Coordinator, LA/OC:                                                                    jenle@health.ucsd.edu
858-534-3692

Pamela McGlynn, IPPE Experiential Education Coordinator:
pmcglynn@health.ucsd.edu
858-822-7803

Ezra Blaize, APPE Experiential Education Coordinator:
eblaize@health.ucsd.edu
858-822-2458

Reminder: If your contact information changes please
email Pam McGlynn at pmcglynn@health.ucsd.edu to up-date

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