Brainerd

Essentia Health - St. Joseph’s Medical Center (SJMC)

For well over a century, St. Joseph’s Medical Center has served the Brainerd Lakes Area providing high-quality health care services in a compassionate environment. St. Joseph’s Medical Center is a 162-bed hospital and Level III Trauma Center with a 24-hour emergency room. Also home to the Marilyn Covey Heart & Vascular Center and the St. Joseph’s Cancer Center, we take pride in bringing a wide range of services to residents and visitors of the Brainerd Lakes Area. 

St. Joseph’s Medical Center is part of Essentia Health, an integrated health system serving patients in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. The Essentia Health organization lives out its mission by having a patient-centered focus at 14 hospitals, 79 clinics, 6 long-term care facilities, 6 assisted and independent living facilities, 7 ambulance services, 29 retail pharmacies, and one research and education institute. At Essentia Health - St. Joseph’s Medical Center we are called to make a healthy different in people’s lives by adhering to the values of hospitality, stewardship, respect, joy, justice, teamwork and quality.

GuidePoint Pharmacy 

GuidePoint Pharmacy is an independent pharmacy known for its patient-centered care and innovative services. Our mission is to assist our patients to achieve the best possible outcomes from their healthcare decisions by providing them with exceptional education and guidance. GuidePoint has 4 locations in the Brainerd Lakes area, including Brainerd, Breezy Point, Crosby, and Longville. Students often enjoy engaging in multiple locations due to the appeal of having the same platform while observing how the community needs differ from pharmacy to pharmacy. 

We specialize in clinical services including medication synchronization, blister packaging, and medication therapy management (MTM).  Our staff can work closely with patients, offering advice, medication counseling, administering immunizations, and monitoring for better health outcomes. We actively partner with many community resources to optimize the health of our patients. GuidePoint is also a leading site within Clinical Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network (CPESN), which is a group of independent pharmacies committed to expanding the role of community pharmacy across the US.

Karlie Willprecht, PharmD (Lead Preceptor)

Karlie received her Doctor of Pharmacy in 2018 from North Dakota State University and went on to complete a PGY-1 Acute Care Residency at Essentia Health - SJMC in 2019. After completing residency, she stayed on as a clinical pharmacist. She now also serves as an Acute Care Team Lead and the PGY-1 Residency Program Coordinator for SJMC. Her primary practice is critical care, general medicine, and emergency medicine. She is passionate about patient care and precepting pharmacy learners. 

Karlie grew up in the Brainerd area and loves taking advantage of all the outdoor recreational activities it has to offer including spending time on the lakes, running on the trails, and golfing. She especially enjoys spending time with her husband and 2 daughters.

Erin Host, PharmD (Supporting Preceptor- GuidePoint Pharmacy)

Erin received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 2022 with a leadership emphasis from the University of Minnesota. She attended courses on the Duluth campus and was an active member of student ambassadors, MPSA, Phi Delta Chi, and Phi Lambda Sigma. She completed 2 rotations at GuidePoint Pharmacy as a fourth-year student and enjoyed her experience so much that she joined the team after graduation. Erin currently serves as a clinical pharmacist for all GuidePoint locations, as well as precepting students, and is passionate about diabetes education, mental health, and women’s health. Erin also currently resides on the board of directors for Minnesota Pharmacists Association as a member-at-large, supporting the Editorial Advisory committee. Erin grew up in Aitkin, MN and enjoys spending time with her family kayaking, traveling, gardening, and brewing her own kombucha.

Laura Schwartzwald (Supporting Preceptor- GuidePoint Pharmacy)

Laura is a pharmacist, pharmacy manager, and co-owner of GuidePoint Pharmacy with her husband, Mike. She has a diverse background with over 30 years of experience in pharmacy and public health. Laura has previously served on the MN Board of Pharmacy for 8 years; is active with the adult immunizations advocacy group; and is currently on her second term with the Rural Health Advisory Committee. She is honored and humbled to have received the “Preceptor of the Year” award from previous UMN students and enjoys seeing students expand their clinical knowledge during topic discussions. Away from the pharmacy, Laura enjoys spending time with her grandchildren and nurturing her garden.

All students will start by completing their required 5-week community and 5-week ambulatory care rotations at GuidePoint Pharmacy. Students will then complete their 5-week institutional and 5-week acute care rotations at Essentia Health - SJMC, which is an integrated experience.  The preference would be for students to complete their required rotations prior to moving into elective opportunities; however, depending on electives chosen and availability of each elective, this is subject to change. The experience will be tailored, to the best of our abilities, to each student’s preferences. 

Students will work with lead/supporting preceptors to select elective opportunities. These opportunities range from 1–2-day shadowing experiences to full 5-week rotations. 

Required learning experience descriptions

Community & Ambulatory Care, Site: GuidePoint Pharmacy

1. Description of pharmacy services provided: As a fully staffed pharmacy, during our business hours of 9am-5:30pm M-F and Sat 9-2pm, we have ample opportunity for one-on-one student-to-preceptor interaction. We have both a semi-private booth for simple questions from our patients, and a private counseling room for in-depth consultations. We service ambulatory patients as well as area group homes and nursing homes. Patient services such as blood pressure screening and blood glucose screenings are offered by appointment. Partnering with local providers, we offer immunization services for the local community at the pharmacy as well as through our extensive outreach program. Students interested in the area of mental health will have opportunities to work in collaboration with local mental health clinics, specifically serving ACT and MSHS clients. We are proud of our extensive clinical programs, including MedSync and individualized bubble packaging, to support medication adherence and chronic disease management. We currently perform MTM services through UCare, BlueCross BlueShield, MN Medical Assistance, DocStation, and Outcomes. It is our goal to increase students’ confidence in transitions of care, as well as topically expanding their knowledge on diabetes, cardiology, mental health, women’s health, neurology, and immunizations.
2. Interprofessional opportunities: Students will be involved in creating care plans for drug therapy problems and reaching out to area providers with their recommendations. Great opportunities to build relationships with Essentia providers in resolving common conflicts we see through inpatient and community dispensing. Opportunities to build a program for hospital admissions of Essentia patients to assist with medication reconciliation, as well as assessment of their outcomes to prevent future hospitalizations.
3. Typical patient demographics: rural and aging, with diverse income backgrounds. Common disease states include mental health, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. 

Acute Care & Institutional, Site: Essentia Health – SJMC

1. Type(s) and description of pharmacy services provided: Students will rotate through various departments to gain exposure to providing care to a variety of patients including general medicine, outpatient oncology, intensive care/intermediate care, surgical, and emergency medicine. They will also gain exposure to medication distribution while spending time in central pharmacy. Students will directly participate in inpatient clinical pharmacy services including, but not limited to, code response, medication reconciliation, and management of anticoagulants, electrolytes, aminoglycosides, and parenteral nutrition in a decentralized setting. Students will participate in patient care rounds on critically ill patients. Students will also gain some exposure to oncology services by caring for patients presenting to our outpatient oncology clinic.
2. Interprofessional opportunities: interactions with nursing, providers, dietitians, social workers, laboratory technicians, respiratory therapists, and more! Students will have the opportunity to shadow other departments such as the cardiac catheterization lab and more depending on interest and availability.
3. Typical patient demographics: elderly, rural to semi-rural MN population. Socioeconomic status widely varies among patients. Common disease states include heart failure, diabetes, ACS, infectious diseases, and more!

Elective learning experience descriptions

Cardiology, Site: Essentia-SJMC

1. Duration offered: Can offer a range of 2-5 weeks depending on the learner’s interest level. Two weeks is sufficient for basic understanding, up to 5 weeks to review more in-depth topics and understand complexities of caring for this patient population.
2. Type(s) and description of pharmacy services provided: Students will work alongside our decentralized pharmacist to provide pharmacy services to patients admitted to the both the intensive care unit and the intermediate care unit with a special focus on the management of pharmacotherapy for cardiovascular diseases.  Students will directly participate in inpatient clinical pharmacy services including, but not limited to, medication reconciliation, evaluation of pharmacotherapy, and management of anticoagulants, electrolytes, aminoglycosides, and parenteral nutrition. Students will also respond to all codes (stroke, STEMI, trauma, code blue, and rapid response) and critical patients with our ICU pharmacist.
3. Interprofessional opportunities: students can anticipate at a minimum, they will interact with nursing, providers, specialty providers, dietitians, social workers, laboratory technicians, and respiratory therapists.
4. Typical patient demographics: elderly, rural to semi-rural MN population. Socioeconomic status widely varies among patients. Common disease states include stroke, acute coronary syndromes, ventricular and atrial arrythmias, and chronic and acute heart failure. 

Critical Care, Site: Essentia-SJMC

1. Duration offered: Can offer a range of 2-5 weeks depending on the learner’s interest level. Two weeks is sufficient for basic understanding, up to 5 weeks to review more in-depth topics and understand complexities of caring for this patient population.
2. Type(s) and description of pharmacy services provided: Students will work alongside our decentralized pharmacist to provide pharmacy services to patients admitted to the both the intensive care unit and the intermediate care unit with a special focus on the management of pharmacotherapy for critically ill patients.  Students will directly participate in inpatient clinical pharmacy services including, but not limited to, medication reconciliation, evaluation of pharmacotherapy, and management of anticoagulants, electrolytes, aminoglycosides, and parenteral nutrition. Students will also respond to all codes (stroke, STEMI, trauma, code blue, and rapid response) and critical patients with our ICU pharmacist. Students will actively participate in interdisciplinary patient care rounds on critically ill patients.
3. Interprofessional opportunities: students can anticipate at a minimum, they will interact with nursing, providers, specialty providers, dietitians, social workers, laboratory technicians, and respiratory therapists.
4. Typical patient demographics: elderly, rural to semi-rural MN population. Socioeconomic status widely varies among patients. Common disease states include acute respiratory failure, acid-base disorders, septic shock and various other infectious diseases, acute renal failure, and diabetic ketoacidosis.

Emergency Medicine, Site: Essentia-SJMC 

1. Duration offered: Can offer a range of 2-5 weeks depending on the learner’s interest level. Two weeks is sufficient for basic understanding, up to 5 weeks to review more in-depth topics and understand complexities of caring for this patient population.
2. Type(s) and description of pharmacy services provided: Students will work alongside our decentralized pharmacist to provide pharmacy services to patients being evaluated in the emergency department. Services include evaluating pharmacologic therapies, completing medication reconciliations, consults for therapeutic drug dosing and monitoring (e.g., anticoagulation, pharmacokinetics, etc.), and communicating therapeutic recommendations to other healthcare team members. Students will also assist in evaluating pharmacotherapy for positive microbiology cultures for patients previously seen in the ED and respond to all codes (stroke, STEMI, trauma, code blue, and rapid response) and critical patients with our ED pharmacist.
3. Interprofessional opportunities: students can anticipate at a minimum, they will interact with nursing, providers, paramedics/EMTs, tele-medicine specialty providers (neurologists), social workers and respiratory therapists.
4. Typical patient demographics: Our emergency department sees a wide variety of patients ranging from pediatrics to geriatrics and from all socioeconomic classes. We primarily service a rural to semi-rural patient population. Common disease states include strokes, toxicology, respiratory/cardiac failure, a variety of infectious diseases, and more. 

Patient Care Elective, Site: Varies based on opportunities selected by student

1. Duration offered: 1-4 weeks depending on the learner’s interest level in opportunities offered.
2. Type(s) and description of pharmacy services provided: Students will have the opportunity to develop their own patient care elective based on the opportunities listed below.
   1. Anticoagulation management services (Essentia Brainerd clinic/remote): Students would shadow a pharmacist who specializes in anticoagulation management. Activities may also include shadowing anticoagulation nurses during patient visits for warfarin or DOAC management.
   2. Specialty pharmacy (Essentia Brainerd clinic): Students would work alongside a specialty pharmacist in the outpatient setting caring for a wide variety of patients with chronic specialty diseases and complex conditions. Activities may include topic discussions, clinical assessments, and medication education sessions.
   3. Pharmacogenomic consults/Medication therapy management (Essentia Brainerd Clinic): Students would shadow a clinical ambulatory care pharmacist in an outpatient primary care clinic. Visits include comprehensive medication reviews, chronic disease state management (diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia), opioid and benzodiazepine tapers, and hospital follow ups. There would also be opportunities to shadow clinic visits for pharmacogenomic testing, including referrals related to psychiatric and oncology indications. Students may also shadow project management pieces such as processing pharmacogenomic results and creating medication reports, integrating results into electronic health records, and reviewing guidelines/literature for updating medication reports and results integration.
   4. Population Health (Essentia Brainerd clinic/remote): Due to limitations in student access, students would primarily be shadowing a population health pharmacist whose work is focused on value-based & quality care. Activities may include adherence reviews, patient phone calls, chart documentation, high-cost medication reviews, high risk medication reviews, and assistance with biosimilar reviews/transitions.
   5. Essentia Retail Pharmacy (Essentia St. Joseph’s Medical Center retail pharmacy): Students would provide direct patient care working alongside a retail pharmacy team. Essentia SJMC retail pharmacy is a meds-to-bed pharmacy that provides discharge medications delivered directly to a patient’s bedside. Activities may include immunization, medication therapy management appointments, patient counseling, and medication dispensing.
3. Interprofessional opportunities: Variable depending on student’s individualized selections but generally opportunities would include collaboration with providers and nurses.
4. Typical patient population/demographics: Depending on practice areas, populations may include chronic specialty diseases and complex conditions, cardiovascular diseases, behavioral health, etc. Most patients are adults with a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds. For population health opportunities most patients speak English, but interpreters are available for those who need it.
   

Practice Management, Sites: Essentia Health – SJMC and GuidePoint Pharmacy

1. Duration offered: Can offer a range of 1-5 weeks depending on the learner’s interest level. At least two weeks is recommended. Two weeks is sufficient for basic understanding of practice management, up to 5 weeks to review more in-depth involvement.
2. Type(s) and description of activities: During this rotation, pharmacy students will be offered experiences in both community and acute care practice management. They can expect to attend and participate in departmental, institutional, and system-wide leadership meetings and as well as participate in the daily operations of the pharmacy department. This is a non-patient care elective.

EH SJMC activities may include:

• Medication safety event reporting and follow-up
• Formulary & inventory management
• Regulatory/compliance activities – tracers and audits
• Staff training and support
• Completing at least one process improvement project, such as a protocol, policy, or procedure update
• Attending several intra-disciplinary meetings, such as
  • EH Brainerd Lakes Daily Safety Huddle
  • Acute Care Weekly Huddle
  • Pharmacy Department Weekly Huddle
  • Drug Shortage & Planning
  • Pharmacy & Therapeutics/Medication Safety
  • Automated Dispensing Cabinet Committee
  • Acute Care Pharmacy Leadership
  • Clinical Pharmacy Advisory Group
  • Leader touch bases

For GuidePoint  Pharmacy, activities may include

• Implementing clinical initiatives across multiple locations with CPESN
• Internal audits for safety reporting
• Policy and procedure reviews
• RHAC and MPhA meetings
• Layered learning with IPPE students
• Training guides for other staff/students
• Inventory management
• Needs assessments
• Administrative insights to independent pharmacy
• Providing feedback on optimizing longitudinal rotations

Oncology & Infusion Therapy, Site: Essentia- St. Joseph’s Medical Center Infusion Center; 5^th floor of hospital

1. Duration of elective: Can offer a range of 1-5 weeks depending on the learner’s interest level. One week is sufficient for basic understanding of operations, up to 5 weeks to learn more extensive information on pharmacotherapy regimens, follow patients and build a knowledge base.
2. Type(s) and description of pharmacy services provided: Students will work alongside a de-centralized pharmacist - observing, researching questions, exploring patient histories and treatment options. There is potential for involvement in our oncology clinic with an oncology clinical specialist pharmacist (if available - TBD).
3. Interprofessional experiences: Answering medication questions from infusion center providers and nurses. Opportunities for shadowing providers and/or nurses if desired.
4. Typical patient population/demographics: Wide range of disease states (not just oncology) and ages (excluding pediatric patients).

Immunization, Site: GuidePoint Pharmacy

1. Duration offered: 2-5 weeks, best offered in the fall for traveling clinic experience but can also be held at any time of the year.
2. Type(s) and description of activities: Students will be directly involved in preparing and executing vaccination clinics. Students will gain valuable experience educating patients on immunizations, increase their confidence around vaccine hesitancy, assess for current and future immunization schedules through MIIC, provide safety counseling, and administer immunizations. If rotation is not during traveling clinics, we will involve the student in our cycle programs to assess patients for vaccine opportunities and gain experience within the pharmacy. Students will also gain experience with our MNVFC/UUAV programs, which are programs designed to get immunizations to individuals who are uninsured or underinsured as a low-cost option. Given the changing landscape of CDC and ACIP, we will also encourage students to educate our team on updates to vaccination recommendations.
3. Interprofessional opportunities: Some clinics are held at the local community college, where nursing students also learn alongside pharmacy students for experience in administering vaccinations.
4. Typical patient demographics: immunization clinics are held in a variety of settings, including local businesses, community colleges, assisted living facilities, and low-income housing.

There are many local resort options, many with reduced rates during fall/winter.

• Quarterdeck Resort
• Cragun’s Resort on Gull
• Gull Four Seasons
• Kavanaugh’s Sylvan Resort
• Shady Hallow Resort
• Sullivan’s resort
• Pine Ridge Beach Resort
• Reel Livin’ Resort
• Gull Lake Resort
• Train Bell Resort
• Rock Bay Resort
• Cuyuna Bike House
• Central Lakes College, Brainerd MN has additional resources available.
• Essentia rental housing may be available, for additional information contact Karlie ([email protected])