ABOUT
Continued Collaboration as Academic Practice Partners
Aug 28, 2009The University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy and Norton Healthcare in Louisville recently partnered for a unique training program aimed at helping pharmacists counsel heart failure patients with complicated drug regimens.
A standardized patient encounter was developed and implemented by UK College of Pharmacy faculty members providing an opportunity for Norton pharmacists to develop and improve their communication, patient assessment and counseling skills and document competency in providing heart failure education to patients. During the session, Norton pharmacists reviewed discharge instructions for accuracy, completed patient counseling for all drugs (heart failure and others), discussed common adverse effects and interactions. The UK faculty members observed the interactions and provided feedback.
The program was developed as part of a continuing collaboration between the UK College of Pharmacy and Norton Healthcare. Since 2006, the College of Pharmacy has based a Clinical Education Center (CEC) in Louisville at Norton Healthcare's downtown campus. The Louisville CEC enables fourth-year UK College of Pharmacy students the opportunity to complete their advanced clinical pharmacy practice experiences in the Louisville area.
Besides working to educate future pharmacists, the patient counseling training program is an example of the College and Norton exploring other venues to benefit from their partnership, said Trish Freeman, Ph.D., director of professional practice programs at the UK College of Pharmacy.
"We were able to capitalize on our collaboration with Norton and provide them with expertise of pharmacists from UK who teach patient counseling to pharmacy students in our curriculum," Freeman said. "Norton pharmacists benefitted from the training and now that we have created this case study, UK pharmacy students will also benefit by utilizing it as a learning activity."
Overall, 25 Norton healthcare pharmacists participated in the program counseling standardized patients and received continuing education credit including Amanda Castle, Pharm.D., pharmacy clinical coordinator for Norton Suburban Hospital. "Many pharmacists in hospitals typically do not interact with patients," Castle said. "However, as more pharmacists become engaged in patient care at the bedside, they will need to have the skills necessary to communicate effectively and this will bridge that gap."
Paul Allen, Pharm.D., associate vice president of pharmacy services for Norton Healthcare, also contributed to the development of the program. "The training was unique because it provided a controlled situation that allowed pharmacists to practice both their clinical skills as well as their communication skills," Allen said. "Most live CE programs are traditional lectures so this actually allowed the pharmacists to actively participate in the training."
To further assist in Norton's Heart Failure Program, fourth-year pharmacy students assigned to the Louisville Clinical Education Center will also complete the training in preparation for their participation in the heart failure initiative while on rotation at Norton, Freeman said.
"By having this academic practice partnership with Norton, we hope to continue to find ways to develop opportunities to assist and support each other in advancing pharmacy and patient care," Freeman said.
The UK College of Pharmacy is among the top 5 pharmacy schools in the nation and students graduating from the program have consistently had the highest first time pass-rates in the U.S. on the national licensing board exam (NAPLEX). The College is an international leader in pharmacy education, clinical care and pharmaceutical research and currently enrolls 514 students in the Doctor of Pharmacy program as well as 72 students in the UK Pharmaceutical Sciences Graduate Program (Ph.D.).
Currently, a new 286,000-square-foot College of Pharmacy building is under construction on the UK campus. The new state-of-the-art academic and research facility will open to students in January 2010.
Norton Healthcare is the Louisville area's leading hospital and health care system and second largest private employer. The not-for-profit system – the largest in Kentucky and rated one of the top 100 integrated health care delivery systems in the country – includes four large hospitals in Louisville, 11 Norton Immediate Care Centers, 9,500 employees, more than 300 employed medical providers at some 50 locations, and nearly 2,000 total physicians on its medical staff. Norton Healthcare serves the Greater Louisville metro area, including Southern Indiana and patients throughout Kentucky.