Chicago State University Students Complete First Internship At J.F.L.

ST. CROIX — Three visiting interns in the pharmacy department of the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital and Medical Center (J.F.L.) concluded their first hospital institutional rotation Friday, the hospital made known via press release Saturday. Their on-site rotation began on June 13 and is a partnership between J.F.L. and Chicago State University (C.S.U.).

J.F.L. Director of Pharmacy Services Laura Forbes said this program is helpful for both J.F.L. and the students.

“The interns are able to gain the necessary practical experience that compliments the theory they learned in the classroom,” said Ms. Forbes. “For JFL, they assist us by complementing our current staffing. Their clinical knowledge allows them to participate in making recommendations, and it also means the pharmacy has a greater presence on the patient care units.”

The hospital became an Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (A.P.P.E.) site for C.S.U. on September 1, 2015. As an A.P.P.E. site, the facility will host fourth-year pharmacy students during a six-week rotation as they complete their final requirements to obtain their pharmacy degrees, according to the release. The program is the first of its kind for J.F.L., and it is an important partnership, it adds.

According to Ms. Forbes, many institutions have implemented pharmacy-based initiatives such as this one to help improve the safety and overall patient care experience. Those programs can include medication reconciliation, discharge education, and outpatient anticoagulation clinics.

Alli Shafran, Mey Saeteurn and Janelle Sulaiman are all seniors and fourth-year pharmacy students with CSU, and it’s their first hospital institutional rotation. They assisted with many duties including: (1) rounding with clinical staff on patient care units, (2) monitoring patients on Vancomycin, (3) reviewing medication error reports, (4) entering medication orders, (5) IV room compounding, and (6) assessing patient safety initiatives. The interns all agreed that the program was helpful because it allowed them to see all aspects of the hospital pharmacy.

“The rotation at J.F.L. provided me with many opportunities to experience all aspects of Institutional Pharmacy to ensure a better understanding of how an inpatient pharmacy should function.” said Sulaiman.

“I think for people who’ve never been exposed to hospital pharmacy and you have only one idea of what a hospital pharmacist does, you get to see that there’s more than just clinical, and more than just filling prescriptions,” said Saeteurn. “For this rotation, we also got to see the administrative side of it, so it does help you to decide that if you do want to go into hospital pharmacy, there’s more than just clinical.”

“I’m so grateful to have had this experience. All three of the preceptors, Ms. Forbes, John and Stacey have really taught us a lot, and I’m just happy that I was allowed to come here and experience this in general,” remarked Shafran.

The preceptors for the program are Laura Forbes, RPh. John Foltz, RPh., and Stacey Wiggins Malone, PharmD. The three interns are the first group of students that J.F.L. has hosted since entering into the agreement with C.S.U. in September 2015.