The improbable triumph of experiential education

Picture a driver on the last lap at the Daytona 500. Her tank is on fumes and her tires are on threads. One clean pit stop and she’ll win the race she’s dreamed about her whole life! She pulls into pit road and… it’s empty.

Her pit crew has heroically climbed over the wall to battle a fire in the stands, where they are saving hundreds of lives.

Pharmacy students all over the country found themselves in a similar situation this spring, when the preceptors they needed to complete their experiential education got pulled into the COVID fight and were forced to cancel or postpone rotations. At the MUSC College of Pharmacy, the experiential team of Elizabeth Weed and Celia Dennison went into a mad scramble to find solutions. Incredibly, every single student got the rotations they needed.

“We immediately focused on the students and how to be there for them,” said Weed, director of the experiential program. “We talked daily about what we each were doing or managing.”

In March, every student on rotation had to finish virtually or by being placed in another rotation. In April, 16 Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) rotations were cancelled. In May, 55 APPE or Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE) rotations were cancelled or switched to another month.

Rotation sites began implementing new policies in mid-March that limited the number of people having patient contact. The experiential team reached out to the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) for guidance on what was possible. Their main goal was to make sure those fourth-year students (P4s) on the last lap got the rotations they needed to get across the finish line to graduate.

“The P4 students reacted with such grace and gratitude,” Weed said. “It was so clear that they were ready to graduate and be pharmacists. They showed flexibility and concern. They were ready for the real world with all the tools they needed to be amazing leaders and people who make a difference.”

The difficulties were immense. Some students were returning from international rotations and had to be quarantined on their return. Some students were heading out of state and had to be quarantined on arrival. A 14-day quarantine dramatically changes the nature of a 30-day rotation.

Both students and preceptors showed initiative and creativity. Some of MUSC’s Alaskan preceptors changed the length of the day to 10 hours and added weekends so quarantined students got all the hours they needed. A site in Cleveland provided alternative tasks for the student that helped with COVID-19 while also filling the required hours.

The other key factor was the faculty of the MUSC College of Pharmacy and the resources of the state’s leading academic medical system.

“We were also super fortunate to have faculty who were willing to do whatever they could to help students continue a rotation virtually or otherwise,” said Weed. “What saved us was our faculty, our dedicated preceptors, and MUSC Health. Their attitude was ‘I will do whatever I can, I know what it was like to be a student.’ We had new preceptors come on board. We were blessed with amazing people who happen to be our preceptors.”

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The College is celebrating its preceptors by designating June as MUSC College of Pharmacy Preceptor Appreciation Month.