Children's Pharmacist Panel
Amy Crawford
Undergrad at North Dakota
PG1 General
PG2 Children’s Pharmacy
Mayo Clinic in Rochester
Started at UW last summer
Jess Poehls
Originally from WI
Went to Drake Uni
PG1 Minnesota Children’s
PG2 Texas Children’s Hospital
Started at UW 2 years ago
Nathan Sippel
Undergrad at UW Greenbay
Pharmacy at UW Madison
PG1 Mayo
Started at UW 5 years ago
Brian Laroe
North Dakota State Pharmacy School
Originally from Montana
Residency at rural hospital in Fargo Minnesota
Went to get a masters.
Directory training program in Houston
Director of hospital in Baton Rouge but unstable company
Worked at Mayo after for 6 years, then switched to peds
Came to Madison in 1988
Enjoys the ICU but now works in the central pharmacy
Challenges in Peds:
Kids doses make everything more complex, can’t just half or third the dose (they are still developing!)
So many factors to consider (example: kids are 80% water, adults are 60%, affects water soluble drugs)
Literature is not as strong so takes a lot of personal judgement for decisions
Causing harm to children may seem more scary than elderly patients
What if they can’t take the medication? 3x a day will they be able to take it at school? Things to consider when deciding medication plan
How to get into Pediatric Pharmacy:
First year residency - more broad (like fourth year rotations on steroids), take this time to see what you like
Second year residency - more specific, in one or two areas, but find a hospital that has a developed program in the area you want to work in (example: PICU or NICU)
How to be more competitive for residency programs:
Maintain GPA, publishing, extracurricular or projects, leadership roles, volunteering in areas you are interested in, overall a wide range of experiences, work experience, internships, and who you know (get this by doing these things!)
Talking to pediatric patients… adults you talk to at a 6th grade health literacy level, pediatric matters more about their developmental stage with what age they are at.
Usual Day:
Come in the morning, see what patients are there, any admissions over night
Medication history when each patient comes in
Spend morning look at each patient's chart, why did they come here, pertinent issues, what medications they are taking, monitoring issues, labs, imaging, vital signs
Rounds when entire medical team meet outside each patient's room, talk about what happened (what brought them here, what happened the night before), new labs, any changes, come up with a plan for that day, opportunity to make recommendations or discuss issues found when looking at the patient's chart that morning
Verify orders from physician prescribed to patients before made in the hospital central pharmacy, can catch mistakes or wrong prescription
Lunch time either circling back to previous patients for followups, discharges to counsel on their new medications, make sure it’s correct for them to go home
Teaching with students, go to some meetings such as committee work
Hand off to evening person to any anticipated things and what is happening
You are the drug expert when you leave pharmacy school compared to first year medical interns that only took one or two semesters of pharmacology
You can look up information every day and may have to 6 - 7 times before it is engrained in your head. Lots of independent studying and staying on top of things compared to adult.