Preceptor News

Meet Our 2013-2014Preceptors of the YearMeet Our 2013-2014Preceptors of the Year

Preceptor News

Winter 2014-2015

At the start of this New Year I would like to express my sincere appreciation to everyone for all of your hard work and dedication to the UConn School of Pharmacy and our students throughout the year. We would be unable to provide our pharmacy students with high quality experiences without your involvement and participation in our experiential programs. We appreciate your continued commitment from everyone who participates in our various Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPE) and Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPE).

I would like to take this opportunity to update you on a particularly unique and benefi cial service learning/community outreach activity that a select group of our students have been involved with this past year. As most of you know, UConn is a land grant university with a commitment to giving back to our communities and the citizens of the State of Connecticut. At the UConn School of Pharmacy we honor this commitment by actively engaging our students with their communities throughout the state.

This past year, a group of dedicated UConn pharmacy students, under the direction of Educational Outreach Coordinator Peter Tyczkowski, were involved in helping the uninsured citizens of Connecticut to obtain health insurance coverage as part of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Connecticut’s health exchange, Access Health CT. These students received special training in the new law and in community outreach and as a result became “UConn Assisters” who’s primary focus was helping people obtain health insurance at the non-profi t Access Community Action Agency in Willimantic, Conn. The agency is the regional outreach offi ce for Windham and Tolland counties, one of the areas in the State of Connecticut with the highest rate of medically uninsured.This experience allowed our students to view the larger world of health care policy and its impact both on the profession of pharmacy and the patients that our pharmacists serve in their communities. Our UConn assisters visited the Access Community Action Agency approximately once per week to provide in-person assistance to individuals seeking help in

From the Office of ExperientiFrom the Office of Experienti

Preceptor News is the offi cial magazine of the UConn School of Pharmacy Offi ce of Experiential Education. Contributors: Elizabeth Anderson, Peter Baines, Serena Conforti, Jacqueline Dakin, Jeffrey Even, Samantha Hitchcock, Philip Hritcko, Allison Pratt

Editor: Elizabeth Anderson, Director of Marketing & CommunicationsPhoto Credits: Elizabeth Anderson, Kim Bova, Lisa Bragaw, Peter Morenus, Peter Tyczkowski, Jun Wang

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selecting health care coverage. In addition these same students participated in regional health insurance enrollment fairs on weekends.

U.S. Representative Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, praised the UConn pharmacy students’ efforts during a recent visit to an enrollment fair in Rockville, CT. Courtney highlighted the fact that Connecticut had taken a lead in the country in health insurance enrollment under the Affordable Care Act and that our students shared in this success. UConn President Susan Herbst, who joined Courtney at the Rockville event, stated that the students’ outreach mission is a great example of the kind of community engagement university leaders encourage of students as part of the school’s academic plan. “A research university like UConn should be a leader in trying to solve society’s biggest problems – energy, poverty, health care,” Herbst said. “I could not be more proud of our students today.”

ial Educationial Education

We are also extremely proud of the students who were involved with this community engagement project. Their

success in helping the citizens of Connecticut will help them in their future roles as

pharmacists. Becoming good citizens as health professionals within their

communities is one of the goals of their education at the UConn School of Pharmacy. On behalf of the UConn Offi ce of Experiential Education, I want to offer our sincere thanks to all of our preceptors who enhance the education of UConn pharmacy

students and are dedicated to the development of the next generation

of pharmacists.

Sincerely,

Philip M. Hritcko

Assistant Dean for Experiential Educationand Associate Professor, Pharmacy Practice

Office of Experiential Education Staff

Philip HritckoAssistant Dean of

Experiential Education

Mary MorytkoField Coordinator

Mary Ann PhaneufAssistant Director ofExperiential Education

Peter TyczkowskiEducational Outreach

Coordinator

On the Cover: Preceptor Lisa Bragaw loved Gina Shah so much that she sent her off with a cake! Bragaw said, “It was a pleasure precepting Gina this month! She did a fabulous presentation at Stone Ridge in Mystic, Conn., an elderly residence facility.” Have a precepting story to share? Email us at pharmacy@uconn.edu!

Mina BooneAdministrative Services

Specialist III

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UConn Student Tackles Law APPEIt’s funny how the future works. Nothing is ever certain; new, exciting opportunities are always waiting to present themselves to those prepared to put themselves out there. This is exactly what happened to Tim Cavanagh, Pharm.D. ‘14 who found himself on rotation at the law fi rm Foley & Lardner while a pharmacy student. While Foley & Lardner is a general practice law fi rm, Cavanagh’s time was spent working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) team, led by David Rosen ‘78. This team provides services to health care companies involved with the FDA and life sciences. The team represented H&P Industries Inc., producers of over-the-counter medical products, and gave regulatory and business advice to the company Spectra Medical Devices. “The team was very welcoming,” Cavanagh explains. “It certainly wasn’t my fi rst rotation and I still had fi rst day nerves, but I immediately felt at home.”

First day nerves are certainly understandable. A rotation like this diverges from most other advanced practice placements and opens up a whole new world of opportunities. “I’d done quite a bit of preparation going into the module,” explained Cavanagh. “I went back over my previous work in law modules I had taken in the past, and spent a lot of time on the FDA website. I don’t think any amount of prior research could really have prepared me for this particular rotation.”

Cavanagh’s time was occupied with a variety of projects over the month he spent with the fi rm. Upon arrival, he was tasked with re-evaluating the effi cacy of certain drugs which were approved by the FDA prior to the 1952, when new standards for drug safety information were implemented. “The company producing these drugs thought that the current standards were actually too stringent. They needed someone to go back over the chemistry because not all of the necessary data is available for drugs approved prior to 1952.” This was where Cavanagh’s experience as a pharmacy student was useful. “It was great being able to apply knowledge that I’d picked up from my time studying pharmacy and use it in a law environment. I was able to work on the project much more effi ciently because of this”.

Over the next month, Cavanagh would get involved with projects ranging from researching the labelling requirements for food & medical products, to reviewing clinical trials. “The clinical trials were particularly

interesting,” said Cavanagh. “I know I was just a small part of an ongoing process that would be in place for a long while to come, but to know I was part of the development of pharmaceuticals that could potentially change lives was highly rewarding.” Cavanagh was also involved with reviewing the recent approval of the opiate Zohydro (Hydrocodone) by the FDA. “The approval was extremely interesting given the work of the Anaesthetic and Analgesic Drug Advisory Committee in the approval process. You just don’t get that kind of experience in other rotations.”

A highlight of his time at Foley and Lardner was attending a conference on controlled substances. It was an opportunity for Cavanagh to gain fi rst-hand experience with the wider life sciences and FDA community. “On the second day Dave (Rosen) was giving a speech regarding abuse deterrent formulations. It was one that I had helped develop and I was very proud to see that work being presented to such a well-respected group of people.”

From Cavanagh’s perspective, going off the beaten path in their fi nal year is one of the best things pharmacy students can do. “I wish I had more time on this rotation. I learned so much and felt like part of the team from the start.” More than anything, rotations like these are eye-opening experiences. “They show you that there are more avenues open to a Pharm.D. than behind the counter work and clinical research.

Pharmaceuticals are such an important part of the modern world that we can fi nd opportunities in such a diverse range of fi elds.” Cavanagh continued, “If my experience leads to someone else trying something a little different and discovering a new passion that would make me very happy.”

Story By: Peter Baines

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Pharmacy 55Pharmacy Five fun facts about…

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Prior to his return to UConn, his experience included a 25 year career in pharmacy including serving as vice president of pharmacy for Pelton’s Inc.

Still plays with cars and trucks including his Model A hot rod and old pickup truck

Loves working with pharmacy students in choosing their experiential placements as well as visiting these students while they are actively learning at them

Educational Outreach Coordinator

1 5Recently celebrated his 10 year anniversary as coordinator of educational outreach at the UConn School of Pharmacy

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Made the smartest move of his life marrying Barbara Upton who he met while they were both students at UConn

Pete Tyczkowski4

SERVICEBy: Allison Pratt

Through an interdisciplinary program at the Central Connecticut Area Health Education Center, UConn School of Pharmacy students Gresa Ajeti, Kaitlyn Herman, and Ken Lin helped manage the Covenant Soup Kitchen Clinic’s pharmacy. This includes attending board meetings, taking inventory of supplies, and ensuring that community members receive the medications they need.

Education is an Essential Tool for Helping Those in Need

The Covenant Soup Kitchen Clinic gives underprivileged in the community the opportunity to receive medical treatment

that is otherwise diffi cult for them to obtain. Many of the soup kitchen’s regular attendees don’t have consistent access to primary care; the clinic

offers not just the physical means to that care, but also practical education that they can apply to their own lives. This is particularly important because improved health literacy will increase their ability to maintain long-term wellness.

“We’re providing the immediate need of [treating] a medical issue, but we’re also educating them,”

adds Herman. “We try to give them practical resources that they can use.”

The clinic strives to provide its patients with treatment options that are consistent with their lifestyles. “You have to take a lot into consideration,” says Herman. “Sometimes [your patient] isn’t going to be getting a refi ll from the pharmacy in thirty days because they don’t even know where they’re going to be living next week.

How are you going to provide them with treatment that’s actually going to work?”

It’s also crucial that the students keep prices in mind while recommending medication to the clinic’s visitors. “One thing that classes never taught us is how diffi cult it is sometimes for patients to get the right medications,” says Lin. “Five bucks is nothing to us, for example, but it means a lot to them. We’re trying to give them the best choice … and we’re trying to help them

fi nd affordable medications.”

The clinic’s services include basic care that many people take for granted, such as routine checkups and treatment for minor ailments. “It gives them an opportunity to keep their health in check,” says Ajeti. “Even though they’re mostly

concerned about having shelter and food, by providing a clinic where that is available, we’re giving them more.”

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LEARNING

In addition to providing students with a chance to help the community, the soup kitchen’s clinic allows them to apply their education in a practical setting. “You can sit in class and hear things like, ‘This is how you treat this disease state—it’s answer B on the exam,’” says Herman. “And we need that foundation and that knowledge, but with this, you’re out there, and you’re not just fi lling in a Scantron sheet. You have this person in front of you, and you don’t have this number-one solution that you thought was the answer.”

There are a number of diffi culties that the students must overcome while working at the clinic. Because Covenant Soup Kitchen doesn’t have continuous access to supplies, for example, appropriately distributing medication can be diffi cult.

“Given that we have such a limited supply,” says Ajeti, “we kind of have to think outside of the box as to what we give the patients or the quantities that we give them.”

Another challenge is fi guring out ways to locally promote the clinic. Most people who visit the soup kitchen already know about its medical services, so spreading the word across the area requires creativity and persistence. Furthermore, the number of people who attend the clinic often depends on external factors such as fl uctuating weather patterns.

While assisting at the clinic, the pharmacy students work alongside nursing and medical students and licensed pharmacist preceptors. The cooperative skills they

gain from this will prepare them for their future careers, where they will regularly collaborate with other health care professionals.

“I feel that working in the clinic has shaped me to become a better team member with physicians and other health care providers,” says Lin. “And that, teamwork between different members of the health care fi elds, is really the best way to provide care to patients.”

Ajeti, Herman, and Lin agree that working at the Covenant Soup Kitchen Clinic was an irreplaceable learning experience and an integral part of their pharmacy education. They are passionate about helping people, and fi nd that being able to provide care for those without the means to seek it out on their own was incredibly rewarding.

The experience not only enhanced their practical education but also gave them a new lens with which to view the world. “A lot of these people have incredible stories,” says Ajeti. “[Working with them] just gives you so much insight into what they go through and the hardships that they face. It’s defi nitely humbling, and I know that I will remember some of the stories I’ve heard for the rest of my life.”

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While a student, Jennifer Crowley ‘14 transformed a small fraternity program into a much broader system for her entire class. Before she became the professional chair of Alpha Zeta Omega in 2011, the pharmacy fraternity put on fi ve to ten educational presentations at local senior citizen centers every year. Crowley knew that AZO could do better, and once she attained a leadership role, she decided to expand the presentations in a big way. Crowley researched all of the senior citizen centers within an hour’s drive of UConn and planned over twenty presentations including: hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and drug interactions. With the increased number of both centers and topics, Crowley knew that this project had to expand past the AZO fraternity. So, she offered the opportunity to the entire P3 class.

Feedback from both the senior citizens and students involved was phenomenal. Crowley says, “The students loved doing it, and some centers requested monthly appointments.” She found that students who volunteered to present early in the year to help meet their service learning requirement hours tended to keep signing up for more presentations. Crowley, however, didn’t stop at educational slideshows. A second dimension of the P3 students’ new outreach projects was a brown bag program, in which Crowley and her classmates met one-on-one with the senior citizens and all of their medications. The School of Pharmacy’s curriculum prepares the students with a general knowledge of any of the possible medicines that might be found in their cabinets. Crowley explains that many senior citizens have questions and concerns about their prescriptions. They might be skeptical about how much they are taking or what side effects they may be experiencing, so they appreciate the students’ input. A licensed pharmacist accompanied the team to help with any advanced questions that the students may not be comfortable answering.

Crowley also worked with Educational Outreach Coordinator Peter Tyczkowski to bring ‘File of Life,’ to the seniors. Using this system, the students entered in the senior citizen’s important medical information, including emergency contacts, current prescriptions, and medical conditions. Two forms are printed out on special paper stock, one large size meant to put on a refrigerator, and a smaller copy for

a wallet. Medical response teams are trained to look for these convenient forms in the case of an emergency. Due to the highly confi dential nature of the information used in File of Life, the nature of the system is to effectively destroy the data it has received after the printing has taken place. This way, the senior citizens can have their important information all in one place, without worrying about their identity being stolen. Crowley earned the Provost’s Award in Public Engagement (Advanced Degree Student Award Winner) for her work.

Crowley’s choice of the pharmacy profession was inspired by an international experience. “I realized it was what I wanted to do while I was on mission with my church in Mazatlán, Mexico. That experience changed everything. We saw the poverty, the housing conditions, the lack of medicine and immunization; everything I saw I wanted to fi x. After researching more into medical professions, pharmacy just seemed so applicable.” Later, while on mission to Ocean Springs Mississippi, seeing the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina and the poverty and conditions of people in her own country solidifi ed Crowley’s ambitions. “That was harder to see because this is happening in our own backyard. It made me realize how much there is to be done and how hard I was going to have to work.”

These experiences prompted Crowley to enroll in UConn’s Urban

their service ep signing up er, didn’t stop ension of the P3 own bag program,t one-on-one withations. The School tudents with a e medicines that y explains that concerns about cal about how s they may be ents’ input. Am to help withs may not be

utreachFile of Life,’udents enteredinformation, rescriptions, and ed out on special on a

p gMississippi, seeing the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina and the povertyand conditions of people in her own country solidifi ed Crowley’s ambitions. “That was harder to see because this is happening in our own backyard. It made me realize how much there is to be done and how hardI was going to have to work.”

These experiences prompted Crowley to enroll in UConn’s Urban

Student Leader Continues Student Leader Continues Jennifer Crowley, Pharm.D. ‘14 Pursues a Pharmacy Practice Residency at

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Service Track, an interprofessional program of health care students committed to providing care for those in urban settings or underserved patient populations. Crowley’s dream job was to work in ambulatory care in an urban, Spanish-speaking community. “Many Hispanic communities are extremely underprivileged and lack access to healthcare,” said Crowley. She wanted to bring her skills in pharmacy together with her fl uency in Spanish to people who may not be able to receive adequate care due to a language barrier.

Arguably, the culmination of her work as a student was her development of the school’s fi rst international APPE placement in Costa Rica, in November 2013. Before Crowley, UConn pharmacy students had done rotations in France, Spain, and China but never in Latin America. With the help and fl exibility of the Offi ce of Experiential Education, and the International Health Central American Institute (IHCAI), Crowley developed the fi rst Central American Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience in San Jose, Costa Rica “I knew I wanted to work abroad, and it was through a UConn School of Medicine contact of mine that I was able to make that happen. Arranging it on their side was actually very easy: we had a Skype conversation in Spanish with the director of the program in Costa Rica to make sure I would be able to communicate while out there, and they were able to confi rm my place soon after that. It was more challenging on the school’s end because international placements are extremely challenging. I felt like I was in the Offi ce of Experiential Education every day for about six months before everything was arranged.”

Crowley worked in the pharmacy in a women’s hospital, Hospital de Las Mujeres de Dr. Adolfo Carit Eva. Using her fl uency in Spanish, she was able to interact with patients in this multifaceted facility, including serving women from the hospital’s attached outpatient clinic as well as supplying medications to the inpatient women in the hospital. She was also able to interact with students from the University of Costa Rica, School of Pharmacy, and attended classes and interacted with their faculty for a day. Additionally, she spent a day working with the pharmacists in a pain/palliative care clinic, Centro Nacional de Control del Dolor y Cuidado Paliativo. Crowley’s experiences as a student culminated in her receiving the United States Public Health Service Excellence in

Public Health Pharmacy Practice Award. The award was established to recognize pharmacy students’ contributions to public health pharmacy practice.

Currently Crowley is a PGY-1 Pharmacy Practice Resident at the Veterans Affairs Caribbean Healthcare System (VACHS) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She just passed the “half-way” point in the residency and recently started a required management rotation. Crowley says, “I feel like I’m really learning a lot, and I am so happy and grateful to have matched here.” She’s also using her Spanish language skills. “All of the oral communication here is entirely in Spanish. Everything from talking to my co-residents, directors, and other health care providers, to the presentations I give. The only English I use is for documentation in our medical records. Since the facility is part of the federal VA system all documentation must be in English.”

Crowley loves her work at the VA and could see herself remaining in Puerto Rico if the opportunity presents itself. She is settling into life on the island and recently hosted some of her School of Pharmacy friends for a visit. “In my free time I love exploring different parts of the island and learning about the culture. I’m also taking salsa classes!”

Jeffery Even, Samantha Hitchcock, and Elizabeth Anderson contributed to this article.

to Shine After Graduationto Shine After Graduationthe VA Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico

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Her students say that her enthusiasm makes her a phenomenal lecturer and preceptor. It is evident to her students that she strives not only to give quality pharmaceutical care to her patients, but to provide students with the knowledge and skills that will prepare them for their future careers.

As a preceptor, Eyler oversees students at Yale-New Haven Hospital as they interact with the medical team and care for geriatric patients. She supervises students as they reconcile medications, evaluate medication regimes, and counsel patients. In addition to these activities, she and her students review the interventions that were made and discuss general medicine topics. Despite having to fi t such a great

deal of patient care and learning activities into one short month, students say that Eyler still manages to keep things fun and interesting. According to her students, her great wealth

of knowledge on all aspects of internal medicine gives way to an impressive ability to explain complex concepts. They say that Eyler “makes it easy for students with little background knowledge on the subject to understand.”

Eyler was honored to receive the Preceptor of the Year Award and happy to be a part of the student’s APPE experiences. She views this relationship as mutually benefi cial, saying, “It is incredibly rewarding to see students learn the difference that they can make in their patients’ lives and become advocates for their profession.”

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Eyler’s passion for helping people is not limited to her career in geriatric pharmacy. It is also what makes her a successful educator.

Story By: Jacqueline Dakin

Dr. Rachel Eyler, the full-time faculty “Dennis J. Chapron Advanced Pharmacy Practice Preceptor of the Year,” is an assistant clinical professor at UConn. Her clinical practice site is on the Acute Care for the Elderly Unit at the Yale- New Haven Hospital. In this position, she counsels patients on their medications and conducts medication reconciliations. She was attracted to a career in geriatric pharmacy because it allows her to serve a vulnerable patient population. Older patients can be especially prone to side effects as well as polypharmacy - the use of multiple, sometimes uncoordinated, medications. Eyler feels she can use her knowledge and skills to make a genuine difference in their lives by helping them

Dennis J. ChapronPreceptors of the Year

UConn Faculty Member, Rachel Eyler, and Adjunct Faculty Member, Ruth Lacasse Kalish, Exemplify What It Takes To Be a Great Preceptor

Rachel Eyler and Ruth Lacasse KalishAdvanced Pharmacy Practice Preceptors of the Year

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Ruth LaCasse Kalish is this year’s recipient of the School of Pharmacy’s Adjunct Faculty Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience Preceptor of the Year. Currently, Kalish holds multiple job titles at UConn Health primarily focusing on medication safety and patient quality. In addition to working as a medication safety pharmacist, she conducts investigational studies and collects data. Kalish’s students admire the amount of work she does at the UConn Health Center, describing her as being the fi rst person to enter the pharmacy in the morning and the last one to leave at night.

Kalish believes that working as a preceptor allows her to explore another one of her passions, teaching. She particularly enjoys students who are enthusiastic about their work. “The students leave their mark here, and they are able to know that what they did here will be used in the future.” As someone who was infl uenced by a biology teacher to experiment with the pharmacy fi eld, Kalish understands how infl uential role models can be on a student’s future. Working as a preceptor allows her to combine her love of science with teaching.

The independence and responsibility that Kalish allows is one aspect of her rotation that students found made the experience so positive. They commented that she was always supportive and allowed them to take pride in the work that they accomplished.

Apart from her success as a medical safety pharmacist, including being recognized for her medication reconciliation pilot program just last year, Kalish is a photographer and loves to travel. Her favorite place to visit in the U.S. is Jackson Hole, Wyo. She has also traveled abroad to places such as Greece, Italy, and most recently, Scotland.

Kalish’s passion served as an inspiration to her students. “I only hope that I can be as good of a preceptor to my future students as Ruth was to me,” said one nominator.

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Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences

Our Preceptors of the Year

Rachel EylerAPPE Faculty

Preceptor of the Year

Melanie HoneggerIPPE

Community PracticePreceptor of the Year

Ruth Lacasse KalishAPPE Adjunct FacultyPreceptor of the Year

Jose ScarpaIPPE

InstitutionalPreceptor of the Year

Colleen TeevanIPPE

Service LearningPreceptor of the Year

Story By: Serena Conforti

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Melanie Honegger’s 15 years of experience as a pharmacist have made her an invaluable preceptor for UConn’s School of Pharmacy students, earning her the IPPE Community Preceptor of the Year Award. Honegger is currently the pharmacy manager at the Seymour Stop and Shop. As a manager, she is responsible for overseeing the staff, making sure all state requirements are met, and ensuring that all corporate policies are followed.

Although Honegger has several duties as a manager, her primary goal, as a pharmacist, is to help people. This, she says, is what attracted her to a career in pharmacy at age 17 and is what makes her career so fulfi lling. With such a strong

commitment to customer service, she and her staff help improve the health and overall well-being of their customers by providing them with comfort and counsel.

As a preceptor, Honegger passes along the great wealth of knowledge she has garnered over

the past 15 years to her mentees. She says that she attempts to provide her students with real-life experiences and a realistic view of her career, hoping they will see that

the demands of community pharmacy can be diffi cult but also rewarding. “I try to show the good and the bad of my job, so that they can make informed decisions on what

type of pharmacist they want to be,” explains Honegger. Her students’ comments prove that she does so successfully, saying that the experience helped to shape and expand their views of pharmacy and where they would like to go within the fi eld.

Honegger’s desire to help people does not stop at the pharmacy counter, or even at her position as a preceptor. Honegger has been a troop leader for the Girl Scouts of Connecticut for 4 years. Her members of her troop recently earned their Silver Award for taking care of graves that have no family members to care for them. In addition to this, they earned a community service award for helping teachers within the town set up their classrooms for the 2014-2015 school year. She is proud of their passion for helping others and serving the community, qualities that she undoubtedly instills in them, as well as the UConn students she works with.

Melanie is not only a pharmacist, preceptor, and troop leader, she is also a dedicated mother, wife, and believe it or not, gardener and handywoman. Her family has adopted six fl ower gardens at St. John the Evangelist, where her daughters attend school. As a family, they take care of the trimming, mulching, and general landscaping of the gardens. On her days off from work, she is her husband’s apprentice, helping him renovate their basement, rebuild their bathroom, among other projects.

Melanie says that she is both honored and surprised to receive this award, as she feels fortunate to just play a role in helping her students in their journey to becoming pharmacists

Preceptors of the Year

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Story By: Jacqueline Dakin

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Practice ExperiencesIntroductory Pharmacy

Story By: Serena Conforti

Jose Scarpa is this year’s recipient of both the IPPE Institutional Practice Preceptor of the Year Award and the Pharmacy Alumni Association Exceptional Service Award. Scarpa currently works at Natchaug Hospital, where he wears several hats including pharmacy director, staff pharmacist, and clinical pharmacist. Adding the responsibility to precept UConn students is a benefi t, not a burden, according to Scarpa. It is a busy work environment and students must be prepared to complete a variety of tasks in their rotations. “Expect the unexpected from me,” says Scarpa.

Scarpa makes his position as a preceptor a priority, which is evident by the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the students. He wants to teach students all that he can during the time he has with them. He fi nds that students are very helpful to him as well, including assisting him with several work projects he may not have as much time to complete himself. The students note that they enjoyed this hands-on experience with drug research, as well as the autonomy that Scarpa allows them. They describe him as “an ideal preceptor who went above and beyond to make the rotation as benefi cial as possible.” Scarpa indicates that the Natchaug staff and leadership are very supportive and welcoming to the students.

Scarpa’s nicotine cravings management group, among others, is another routine he has his students work on. “It gives them a chance to hone their counseling skills in a group setting particularly with sometimes challenging individual’s present.” Students fi nd these group counseling rewarding when some individuals get so engaged and actually wish to pursue quitting after learning about the harm of this addiction.

Originally from Uruguay, Scarpa came to the United States when he was 18 years old and he has resided in Connecticut ever since. His wife is also from Uruguay, so they make a point to return every so often to visit with a large extended family. Scarpa believes that fate brought him to Connecticut. He distinctly remembers one of his teachers mentioning the odd sounding name of ‘Connect-ī-cut’ and the reactions of the boys afterwards on the playgrounds as they bobbed their heads like roosters repeating ‘Connect- ī -cut.’

He said, “Little did I know then how much this state would come to mean in my life.”

A well-traveled man, Scarpa most recently travelled to Thailand. The next place on his list is Italy, because his father was born in a town near Milan and he wants to travel back to his roots. He hopes to one day make it to Liverpool, so that he can follow the footsteps of his favorite band across the Beatle’s Abbey Road Crosswalk.

It is no surprise that Scarpa’s students have such a positive experience working with him. He is an extraordinary representation of what the School of Pharmacy strives for in a preceptor.

InstitutionalInstitutional

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ServiceLearning

ServiceLearning

Story By: Jacqueline Dakin

Colleen Teevan, Pharm.D. ‘10, a recent graduate and proud UConn alumna has already successfully given back to the School of Pharmacy as a dedicated preceptor. For her efforts, she was the recipient of the Service Learning IPPE Preceptor of the Year Award. Although Colleen has been precepting migrant farm worker clinics, she works as an ICU Critical Care pharmacist at the Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain, Conn. where she rounds with the physicians and nurses to make recommendations about patient medications patients. Teevan fi nds this job extremely rewarding as she is given the opportunity to help so many people in vulnerable states.

While some may be intimidated or worn down by the crazy environment, Teevan thrives in it. She has always wanted to work in the ICU, as well as being able to teach students. In her role as a preceptor, she is able to do both.

For the past two years, Teevan has been precepting migrant farm worker clinics. Migrant farm workers often have little to no access to health care. She, and her students, work on interdisciplinary teams with medical and nursing students to attend to the health care needs of this population. She fi nds this experience rewarding. Not only does she get to help individuals who desperately need it, she also enjoys working with students and teaching them how to apply what they learned in the classroom to a very real-life setting. Her students fi nd “her empathy and genuine concern for patients inspiring,” and say that it is evident she is “extremely passionate about the profession.” She fi nds that the most challenging part of her job as a preceptor is the limited resources at these clinics. This, however, helps her and her students learn how to utilize what they have to get the best results.

This year, Teevan will continue precepting migrant farm worker clinics. In addition, she will be taking fourth year pharmacy students into the ICU with her. She is excited for this transition.

Beyond her position as a preceptor, Colleen continues to stay involved here at the University of Connecticut. She is a member of the UConn School of Pharmacy Alumni Board, as well as a huge UConn women’s basketball fan, remaining a season ticket holder every year since she graduated! Teevan takes pride in the University of Connecticut as a whole, which shines through in

the excellent work she does as a preceptor.

13

Serving our Veterans at the West Haven VA

Alumna Rebecca Neville Curtin, Pharm. D. ‘07, fi rst considered the fi eld of pharmacy after excelling in math and science in high school. While she wanted to pursue a career in medicine, she was not sure she was ready for the hands-on experience a surgeon or a nurse would encounter. There was a lot more to pharmacy than she had initially expected. At UConn, she was able to participate in many extracurricular activities both within the fi eld of pharmacy, such as the Pharmacy Student Government and the American Pharmacy Association, as well as other organizations such as the marching band and the basketball team’s pep band. Proud of her accomplishments both inside the classroom and out, Curtin says that her time at UConn prepared her well to pursue residency training and apply for a clinical position.

Today, Curtin has a variety of responsibilities at the Veteran Health Administration (VA) hospital in West Haven, Conn. She works as a clinical pharmacist for surgical intensive care, meeting with doctors regarding the patients and managing their prescriptions after surgery. She is also the acute care clinical coordinator, managing all of the inpatient clinical pharmacists at VA Connecticut. In this role, she is involved with policy development and one of her more recent projects is improving the facility’s stewardship program.

Curtin also serves as the residency program director. There are several postgraduate residents in her care, for whom she coordinates schedules and manages expectations. This teaching role extends to her preceptor duties; students who have rotated into her program can expect to work closely with Curtin in her admission and clinical management tasks. With so many objectives to accomplish in the workday, Curtin tries to instill lessons of time management into her students, “What’s important is understanding the time frame and having the ability to determine what is most important on any given day. A lot of the policies and different projects are directly related to patient care.”

Curtin would like her patients to have a better understanding of their medications after

they are discharged to minimize any adverse drug effects or hospital readmissions while in their vulnerable state. She is always looking for new ways to grow the residency program, including the recent addition of a resident in mental health to provide pharmacists-in-training with an opportunity to help veterans with psychiatric illnesses. A new experience with three consecutive one-month rotations is also being offered to students within the facility, to provide a more longitudinal experience within a VA setting. These exciting changes will be sure to improve rotations at VA Connecticut by adding to the students’ experience there. The enthusiasm Curtin has for her work will continue to help serve the brave veterans of Connecticut and enrich the

education of those who will enter the fi eld of pharmacy in just a few years.

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rotations is also being offered to students within the facility, to provide a more longitudinal experience within a VA setting. These exciting changes will be sure to improve rotations at VA Connecticut by adding to the students’ experience there. The enthusiasm Curtin has forher work will continue ttoo o o o heheh lp serve the brave veterans of Connecticut and enrich the

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Serving our Veterans at the West Haven VA

Story By: Jeffrey Even

14

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