June 4, 2008
The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a prestigious national award recognizing the high quality of an experiential education rotation at Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C.
The Crystal APPLE Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy recognizes the contributions pharmacy schools and their practice partners make in successfully conducting and supporting quality experiential education in settings focusing on patient care.
“The Crystal APPLE Awards are the most coveted academic-practice partnership award in pharmacy education,” says Lucinda L. Maine, AACP executive vice president and CEO. “With an increasing number of applications each year, the rigorous process for selecting the recipients can be extremely difficult. However, I firmly believe that the high level of competition for this award accurately reflects the incredible work in pharmacy practice partnerships across the country.”
The most important factor in determining the quality of the site’s program is the preceptor, according to the AACP description of the award. That person is Elizabeth Michalets, PharmD, a 1991 graduate of the School and a clinical pharmacist practitioner. Preceptors are practicing pharmacists who serve as instructors for pharmacy students, giving the students hands-on experience. Michalets teaches students in a one-month, advanced-pharmacy rotation where they learn to care for patients in the hospital’s Neurotrauma Intensive Care Unit.
As a clinical pharmacist practitioner at Mission, Michalets is able to initiate and modify drug regimens on her own without waiting for the approval of a physician. She is able to respond quickly to the needs of patients while freeing physicians for other duties, she says.
“I care for up to fourteen patients at a time who could be in the ICU for anywhere from twenty-four hours to two months,” Michalets says. “There are very in-patient CPPs in North Carolina. This is the cutting edge of progressive pharmaceutical care, and our students get to experience that.”
Michalets has been a preceptor with the School since 1992. She has been a member of the faculty since 1995 and is a clinical associate professor. She has precepted more than one hundred pharmacy students during her career.
“I cannot tell you how gratifying it is to see Dr. Michalets and our partner Mission Hospitals honored with this award,” says Bob Blouin, dean of the pharmacy school. “Strong preceptors and practice sites are crucial to the education of our students. You cannot produce highly qualified pharmacists without them.”
The School and the hospital will be honored with a Tiffany & Co. crystal apple and plaque, as well as an honorarium for professional development during the 2009 AACP Interim Meeting Awards Ceremony on February 23, 2009. Individuals recognized by the award include Michalets; Blouin; Joseph F. Damore, FACHE, CEO of Mission; Kim Leadon, director of the School’s Professional Experience Program; and Ellen Williams, RPh, MBA, director of pharmacy at Mission Hospital’s Pharmacy Services.
Founded in 1900, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy is a national organization representing the interests of pharmacy education and educators. AACP comprises all 108 U.S. colleges and schools of pharmacy including more than 5,000 faculty, 50,000 students enrolled in professional programs and 3,900 individuals pursuing graduate study.
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