Austin Medical Center Hospital Pharmacy

APPE Experience Types
Ambulatory Care
Institutional Practice

Address
1000 1st Drive North West
Austin, MN 55912

Phone
507-434-1970

Region
Rochester

Link to Site Home Page
Austin Medical Center

Main Contact
Laura Brown
brown.laura1@mayo.edu, 

Robert Holt
holt.robert@mayo.edu

Teaching Philosophy

Students are expected to take an active role in their education.  At Austin Medical Center we have a wide variety of responsibilities.  Students who are motivated will have a successful learning experience here.  We expect student to complete tasks independently after some guidance.  We look for students who are eager to learn and ask questions.  At our smaller institution, students will need to communicate and interact with nurses, physicians, technicians and other staff.

Detailed Site Information 

Institution
Austin Medical Center is a 99 bed hospital with 870 employees, and 70 medical staff in a community of 22,000.  The pharmacy department consists of an inpatient and clinic pharmacy.  The inpatient pharmacy has 5 full time pharmacists and a director and assistant director.  The pharmacy department runs a highly successful anticoagulation clinic and manages over 600 patients in this ambulatory setting.  Rotations are available for an institutional practice in the hospital pharmacy or in the ambulatory care setting in the anticoagulation clinic.

Institution Mission Statement and Vision
Mission: Caring, For Your Life.  Vision: To be the best at providing integrated, high quality healthcare in a small community setting that is patient-centered, compassionate, affordable, and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Pharmacy Services
AMC employs 6 full time pharmacists (including the assistant director) in a rural community hospital with pharmacist coverage 14 hours per day. Some of the pharmacist duties include: vancomycin and aminoglycoside dosing, checking appropriate doses of medications based on CrCl, appropriate use of antibiotics, TPN management, pain management in conjunction with our hospice program, medication reconciliation, monitoring and dosing of anticoagulants including heparin and warfarin.  Students will learn distribution duties and computer order entry, bar-coding of medications and patients, and electronic MAR’s.  Students can gain experience in IV and chemotherapy preparation.  Students will have the opportunity to spend a day in surgery and various other departments to see how we interact with them.

Professionalism and Assessment
Students are graded at the end of the rotation and are routinely given feedback by pharmacists and managers throughout the rotation.  At midpoint in the rotation, we review information on the evaluation and see if other areas need to be covered.  Grading is primarily based on a student’s willingness to learn, their professionalism, and the ability to show improvement in knowledge.  A project or case study will be presented to the department near the end of the rotation based on a student’s interest.

Resources
Students will be provided locker space, computer and library access, and on campus parking.  A desk area will be provided to work on projects.  Students should wear their student ID badge.  A cafeteria, refrigerator and a pharmacy break area are available.

Institutional Rotation - Hospital Pharmacy Services

Primary Preceptor
Laura Brown, RPh., CACP

Other Preceptors
Students will also be working under the guidance of five other pharmacists employed at AMC:
Brad Bachmeier, R.Ph. (Assistant Director)
Michael Pryor, PharmD
Michelle Christenson, PharmD
Kelsey Jensen, PharmD
Jill Sathre, PharmD

APPE Structure
Students will be spending about 50% of their time decentralized, about 10% of time with chemo and IV prep (if wanted), 10% on order entry and interpretation of orders and learning pharmacy workflow, 20% learning the role of pharmacy in other departments, 10% completing assignments or presentations.

Student Roles and Responsibilities
Students are expected to complete 40 hours per week at this rotation, learning pharmacist competencies and distributive functions in a hospital pharmacy department. A patient case or project will be presented near the end of the rotation.

Educational Opportunities
Students will attend rounds, hospice meetings, committee meetings, and Tuesday morning medical meetings if pharmacy related

Other Requirements
Students should report previous pharmacy experience in order to get a beneficial experience.

Ambulatory Care - Anticoagulation Clinic

Primary Preceptor
Laura Brown, RPH CACP    
507 434 1970

Lisa Johnson, RNC, CACP  
507 434 1173

Other Preceptors
Kathy Schulstad, RN
Connie Nelsen, RN

APPE Structure
Students will be spending 90% of their time working in our anticoagulation clinic and interacting with patients, 10% of the time will be working on a case presentation.

Student Roles and Responsibilities
Students are expected to learn how to perform a finger stick Protime, interpret results, and interact with patients and document results and decision making in the computer program.

Educational Opportunities
To be assigned as the opportunity arises for meetings associated with anticoagulation.

Other Requirements
A project or case study will be presented near the end of the rotation.  Several books and references will be reviewed to learn in-depth information about anticoagulation management.