St. Mary's Duluth Pharmacy

APPE Experience Types
Acute Care

Address
407 East Third Street
Duluth, MN  55805

Phone
218-786-4000

Main contact

Jim Tomsche
Pharm. D., BCPS

Main Preceptor

Jim Tomsche
Pharm. D., BCPS

Phone
218-786-4097

Teaching Philosophy

We believe the most important role we play during the PD-4 rotations is to help the student “connect the dots.”  During school, pharmacy students are taught many different topics in isolation with little guidance on how they interrelate.  We have the students dive into evaluating the medication regimens of patients in our hospital then have them present the pharmaceutical care problems to preceptors.  The preceptors then explain to the student what they did well on and what they missed helping them make the connections in their head and remember the concepts for the next time they see the same/similar issue.  This approach helps the student “make sense” of the mountains of data they learned in school and understand how to apply this to practice.  We supplement this “real world” case based learning with having the students attend regular student teaching sessions covering critical topics we may or may not see in practice.  The students are also taught how to critically evaluate the primary literature for a case based presentation they do before the end of the rotation.

Detailed Site Information

Institution
Located in Duluth, MN, St. Mary’s Medical Center has been providing quality, compassionate health care to the residents of Northern Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin, and the upper peninsula of Michigan since 1888.  St. Mary’s operates 380 beds, 46 bassinets, and has 6 intensive care units including neonatal and pediatric units.  St. Mary’s is part of the SMDC Health System, which employs more than 6500 healthcare professionals, including 400 physicians.  SMDC serves a population of approximately 600,000 people. 

Pharmacy Services
The St. Mary’s Department of Pharmacy provides comprehensive patient care services and is an excellent department for student learning.  The Department maintains a clinical, decentralized pharmacist model with 6 pharmacists regularly working on the floors (day shift) and provides 24-hour coverage.  The floor, decentralized pharmacists are further supported by 2 full-time pharmacist managers, 2.5 FT clinical specialist, and 2 PGY-1 pharmacist residents.  The St. Mary’s Pharmacy Department is known nation wide for its cutting edge inpatient anticoagulation program and provides many other clinical patient care services in line with similarly sized facilities (clinical pharmacokinetics, nutrition support, etc.).

Professionalism and Assessment
All students receive a midpoint interim evaluation.  The students are asked to critically evaluate themselves, and then the preceptor offers their perspective.

Resources
Students receive adequate workspace and computer access.

Acute Care

Primary Preceptor
Jim Tomsche, Pharm. D., BCPS

Preceptors
Jeff Pykkonen, Pharm. D.

APPE Structure
3-4 weeks rounding with the internal medicine teaching service of the Duluth Family Medicine Residency Program
3-4 weeks rounding with the critical care team in the Neuroscience/Trauma ICU
3-4 weeks rounding with the pediatric medicine teaching service of the Duluth Family Medicine Residency Program
Student learning rounds 3 days a week
Observing cath lab procedures
Preparing a didactic, case based presentation

Student Roles and Responsibilities
Students will round with medical teams, review charts, interview patients, counsel patients, improve drug therapy for individual patients, participate in journal clubs and other student learning rounds, and do presentations.  This list is not comprehensive.

Educational Opportunities:
Students are expected to attend grand rounds on Friday mornings.

Other Requirements
There are no additional requirements for entrance into this APPE.