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Adaptability, teamwork, and a culture of lifetime learning are required virtues in our rapidly evolving medical landscape.
Interprofessional collaboration in pharmacy practice is essential. Pharmacists work with multidisciplinary teams of physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, therapists, and other integral professions to provide high-level patient care. Adaptability, teamwork, and a culture of lifetime learning are required virtues in our fast-changing medical environment. Despite its importance, teamwork in the US medical system can be fragmented. A strong example and consideration of interprofessional learning early in training are important in creating an environment for continued collaboration.
Pharmacy School, Medical School, Pharmacist, Student | Image Credit: © Ахтем | stock.adobe.com
During medical school, students are skilled in these qualities. However, exposure to interprofessional teamwork is largely relegated to the clerkship years, when students function directly within these teams. On the other hand, the preclinical years of medical school are almost exclusively run and taught by professionals holding the credentials of doctor of medicine and doctor of philosophy. A major focus of curricula at most medical schools is the integration of basic science information with clinical relevance. There is a role in this space for pharmacists as medical school faculty due to their unique perspectives and skill sets.
According to Lerchenfeldt and Hall, there is value in utilizing clinical pharmacists in medical education in areas outside teaching pharmacology, such as curriculum integration.1 However, there are limited data regarding the role of specialized pharmacists—those with advanced training and expertise in a particular area—in medical education, particularly in areas outside drug information. The success of pharmacists teaching residents and students during the clinical years is well described.2,3 In the same way, this approach can be applied to the preclinical curriculum. Due to their unique perspectives and skill sets, specialized pharmacists can serve effectively in medical education in 3 independent ways.
ROLE 1: A Prototype for Future Interprofessional Collaboration
The integration of specialized pharmacists into preclinical medical education serves as a prototype for future interprofessional collaboration. Specialized pharmacists act as liaisons between various content areas of medicine and the faculty who teach within them. A specialized pharmacist as faculty at a medical school serves to model the experiences student physicians will have in practice. As a member of a mini multidisciplinary team, a specialized pharmacist on the faculty can serve as an example of the breadth, depth, and scope of an ideal physician–specialized pharmacist relationship. Class workshops and other activities that include discussions between physicians and specialized pharmacists can highlight the nuances of pharmacotherapy as well as the relationships that impact them.
ROLE 2: Enhanced Development of Integrated Curricula
An additional role for specialized pharmacists in medical education is contributing to the development of integrated curricula. Specialized pharmacists are uniquely positioned to serve as a bridge between basic science and clinical subject matter. They have typically demonstrated advanced knowledge, skills, and experience in subjects through a combination of training, credentialing, and experience. Because of this unique perspective, they have spent time on medical teams with physicians, student physicians, and other health care professionals. They are intimately versed not only in the pharmacology of the utilized drugs but also in the pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy of the specific disease state. These advanced skill sets serve to equip pharmacists to increase the scope and depth of their impact when educating across disciplines. In the Venn diagram of learning, these types of pharmacists have experience that allows them to identify and channel complementary overlap in various scientific and therapeutic areas.
ROLE 3: A Unique Clinical Perspective
Specialized pharmacists can supplement and teach areas outside pharmacology, including pharmacotherapy of various disease states, therapeutic drug monitoring, and pathophysiology with relation to pharmacodynamics. They serve to complement a team of clinicians, scientists, and other health care professionals with qualities that pharmacists often offer: leadership, a strong clinical background, and a frontline understanding of the connection among diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring.
Our institution recognized the benefit of the approach recommended by Lerchenfeldt and Hall and serves as an example of the valuable clinical perspective pharmacists bring as medical school faculty. As a PGY-1 and PGY-2 infectious diseases (ID)–trained pharmacist, I have had the opportunity to work closely with ID physicians and multidisciplinary health care professionals in a variety of inpatient and outpatient settings. ID pharmacists need a deep understanding of ID pathogenesis, anti-infective pharmacotherapy, clinical pharmacokinetics, and microbiology.
Kimberly Miller, PharmD, MPH, is an assistant professor of pharmacology and microbiology at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She uses her background in infectious diseases pharmacotherapy as the longitudinal content lead for microbiology.
My teaching and leadership responsibilities encompass and expand beyond pharmacology, as I serve as the content lead for microbiology and as one of the course directors for an integrated preclinical course. My current role allows me to effectively connect basic science microbiology and clinically applicable infectious diseases. On the education side, I develop curricula, create content, and facilitate active learning exercises. On the leadership side, I use my background to collaborate with faculty and practicing clinicians in and out of the classroom. Due to my unique skill set, I am able to connect the dots among various educational programs (master’s and medical level) and discipline areas (pharmacology, microbiology, and clinical infectious diseases).
Specialized pharmacists offer a unique clinical perspective and resource for preclinical medical education and curricular delivery. Previous calls to include pharmacists in preclinical medical education have described the benefits of the integration of these health care professionals due to their advanced drug information skills.4 Our institution describes additional roles for an impact of the integration of a specialized pharmacist into preclinical medical education.
