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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pharmacy school’s local prescription


Pharmacy student Laurie Booth works with John Woon at Kootenai Medical Center, part of a six-week adult medicine rotation she is completing for her degree in pharmacy from Idaho State University.
 (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)

The most striking thing about the satellite pharmacy on the second floor of Kootenai Medical Center is the complete absence of drugs.

No bottles of pills, no vials of liquid, not a single intravenous drip bag waiting for use.

To a casual observer, it’s more office space than apothecary.

But to Laurie Booth, an Idaho State University student in her final year of pharmacy school, the empty shelves are ample evidence she’s receiving cutting-edge clinical training through a new partnership in Coeur d’Alene.

Here, instead of taking orders and dispensing drugs, the would-be pharmacists are learning complex analysis and communication skills at the heart of the rapidly expanding industry.

“This is a very progressive place to practice pharmacy,” said Booth, 39, one of the first two students to train at the hospital under the direction of John Woon, an ISU faculty member and KMC pharmacist.

Starting last fall, the ISU College of Pharmacy began placing graduate students at KMC, its only North Idaho training site.

“The mechanism of distributing drugs is changing, and it’s changing the way the process works,” said Woon. “Now pharmacists are involved in helping medical staff and nursing staff with the provision of drug therapy.”

The ability to research and to recommend the course of drug treatments at the outset of injury or illness is becoming as important – or more important – than the ability to guide and monitor treatment after the fact, Woon said. Of course, students also learn traditional pharmacy skills, he added.

The students’ studies reflect the larger philosophical shift. Booth, of Pocatello, and Kory Vanderschaaf, 23, of Salmon, have both spent much of a recent six-week module studying patient charts and reviewing literature for appropriate action.

In conjunction with Woon, they’ve spent hours out on the hospital floor, working on a laptop computer tucked in an accessible corner, available to interact with other medical professionals.

“The value of being here is if (other staff members) have a question, you’re right here,” Woon said. “Rather than being a remote resource isolated from patient care, we’ve become part of the team for patient care.”

Organizers hope that KMC will be able to host as many as 10 pharmacy students in the future. It’s good for the students, who take seven six-week clinical classes specializing in subjects such as cancer treatment, community care and adult medicine, said Denis Yost, KMC director of pharmacy.

Students are invited to participate in high-level meetings to determine patient care, and they’re given freedom to work on complex projects such as crafting algorithms used to collect patients’ medical histories.

The amenities are aimed, in part, at attracting students to KMC and North Idaho in hopes that they’ll stay.

An acute shortage of pharmacists continues, with a predicted nationwide shortfall of an estimated 157,000 pharmacists by the year 2020, according to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.

Competition to get into pharmacy programs is fierce. This year, the ISU program received 520 applications for 60 spots, Woon said. When they’re done with school, newly trained pharmacists can take their pick of full-time jobs earning $70,000 to nearly $90,000 a year.

That makes competition for new pharmacists fierce as well, Yost noted.

“I’ve had a position out for nine weeks and not one application,” he said. “And that’s in Coeur d’Alene.”

Booth, who is making a mid-life career switch after years in sales, insurance and investments, said those factors, plus an affinity for graduate-level science classes, influenced her decision. She’s eagerly anticipating graduating with a doctor of pharmacy degree in May.

“There’s just so much opportunity,” she said.

Reach JoNel Aleccia at (208) 765-7124 or by e-mail at jonela@spokesman.com