Pharmacy Perspectives - Winter/Spring 2015 - (Page 7)

PR ECEP TOR PERSPEC T I V E S WINTER/SPRING Yampa Valley Medical Center in Steamboat Springs Growing opportunities in rural practice As healthcare and the economy continue to change, the demand for rural practitioners is likely to increase. F rom the Western Slope to mountain towns like Steamboat Springs, rural practice offers a wide array of opportunities for pharmacists. "Those looking for a challenging and meaningful practice should consider rural opportunities as a place to build a career," says John Breitnauer, PharmD, and owner of Cedaredge Pharmacy. "I love the texture of small town life. I get to know my patients and their families," says Breitnauer. As an independent business owner, he is an integral part of the community. "The perspective of rural pharmacy is very different than an urban practice facility." Located in Cedaredge, Colo., just outside of Delta and 60 miles southeast of Grand Junction, the pharmacy serves a community of approximately 5,000 residents in Delta County. Even though Cedaredge is a small town - only 2,000 residents - it boasts three dentists and two primary care practices. For fourth-year pharmacy student Felecia Hart, her rotation in Cedaredge allows her to live among her patients and really see the outcomes associated with the care she provides. Both Hart and Breitnauer agree that a rural rotation offers a unique experience to work with other providers. In addition to measuring blood pressure and testing A1C and cholesterol levels, pharmacy students work with local physicians. Twice a week, the students are on rotation in the local physicians' offices, accompanying the doctors during scheduled patient appointments. "There are not as many resources here, so you manage all disease states. I've had the opportunity to develop relationships with practitioners and guide therapy. That's exciting," says Hart. Breitnauer precepts eight students a year and loves it. "I treat my students as if they are pharmacists. My job is to help develop and enhance their skills." Planning to go into rural practice upon graduation, Hart says she likes being some place where she recognizes faces and knows names. For Wes Hunter, director of Pharmacy at Yampa Valley Medical Center in Steamboat Springs, "There's nothing like smaller town living. When there's a big powder day, one of us will cover the pharmacy and the rest will go skiing for an hour or two." A mountain man at heart, Hunter graduated from The Ohio State University in '89 with a BS in Pharmacy, took his Boards and headed West. And except for five years at Children's Hospital in Denver, he's made a career of practicing pharmacy in ski towns. According to Hunter, the real advantage of working in a smaller town is, "You know the nuts and bolts of the hospital and get to see everything that goes on in the day, and don't see the same things over and over again." Hunter has an extremely varied schedule, which includes everything from dealing with dispensing problems to working with internists to housekeeping. An average day for students is spent learning the patient and their individual cases, going on rounds, completing medication reconciliations and later in the day meeting with patients in the anticoagulation clinic. "There's never a dull moment," says Hunter. One reason he takes students is to see settings like his. "I don't think I saw anything like this when I was in school." He says, "The average student is exponentially better prepared than 20 years ago." Because Hunter has a Master's degree in organizational management his career has focused on the administrative side and was even the director of support services at Summit Medical Center in Frisco where he oversaw pharmacy, process improvement, imaging, laboratory, environmental services and patient safety departments - which is unusual for a pharmacist. "The market right now allows us to do a lot of things traditionally we wouldn't do - MTM, anticoagulation clinic, etc." In fact, Hunter opened an outpatient pharmacy this year and will offer Medication Therapy Management in the near future. "If you want to excel you can do it in smaller market. It's easier to do as part of a team." Wes Hunter His advice to students interested in working in a rural hospital is to get experience somewhere else. "Go to a big, good hospital and work there for a while. Then transition to a rural hospital. Learn to think on your feet and take the best practices with you to a small hospital." www.ucdenver.edu/pharmacy 7 http://www.ucdenver.edu/pharmacy

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Pharmacy Perspectives - Winter/Spring 2015