Lauren Tailor
Doctor of Pharmacy Candidate
University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy
Interested in Global Health and Health Equity
Using empathy to create positive change in healthcare
Skills Spotlight
assignment 1: Leadership
assignment 2: oral Communication
assignment 3: Critical-thinking
Skills Reflection
assignment 1: Leadership
Kawasaki Night Case
The President of Kawasaki Disease Canada Opening our Event
My photo on the UW PPAG Website
Situation/Task
As president of the University of Waterloo’s Paediatric Pharmacy Awareness Group, I demonstrate leadership skills while organizing events and managing my team. Our club raises awareness on paediatric illnesses and advocates for the role of pharmacists in paediatric care. It is my role to motivate and encourage others while providing constructive feedback and also ensuring everyone understands important information. A specific event I organized with my team was a Kawasaki Disease Interprofessional Education (IPE) Night in February 2019.
My Actions
To organize the Kawasaki event, I first contacted the President of Kawasaki Disease Canada to ensure her availability and willingness to educate students at the pharmacy school. I then presented my team with the idea and informed them of the specifics of this rare, but severe disease. Once I was sure everyone understood the information provided, I opened the floor for discussion to see what ideas my team had for the event. I think an important part of being a leader is actively listening and encouraging your team, so I made sure to support people’s ideas and give everyone a chance to share. I then delegated tasks to each member based on their roles and organized member-specific schedules (e.g. treasurer was in charge of budgeting the event and would do so after her midterm). As the leader of the team, I ensured that everyone was comfortable and happy with their responsibilities because a happy team is a successful one.
Since Kawasaki disease is such a rare condition, I thought it would be a good idea to invite other healthcare students (i.e. medicine, nursing, optometry, social work) to the session and make the event qualify for IPE points. I emailed various leaders and representatives from nearby professional faculties and explained that attending the event would not only build connections between the schools but also help educate on a severe disease that does not often get a lot of attention. Extending this invitation was a bit of a challenge logistically, but I am happy to have had the experience of leading a discussion with other healthcare professionals. To make the night more interesting, I created a patient case on treating Kawasaki disease in an interprofessional setting and encouraged my team to contribute any thoughts they had on the case. I am very fortunate to have such a hard-working and dedicated team who was open to any constructive feedback I had about creating the slides in the patient case. I then presented the case and led the dialogue with the attendees.
Result
The event was very well-received with many people congratulating and thanking us for providing education on such a unique topic. My ability to organize and delegate tasks, fortunately, led to a very smooth and interesting evening. Taking the initiative to invite people from other programs allowed the pharmacy students to consider patient care from different perspectives and make connections with other future healthcare professionals. Ultimately, my ability to motivate and encourage the team helped us create a very successful event and I learned how to time manage, create an interprofessional case, and lead a team.
assignment 2: Oral communication
In March 2018, I presented a journal article that I critically appraised to my preceptor and the pharmacy team.
This video is a re-enactment of the opening of my presentation. I spent quite a bit of time rehearsing for the real presentation in order to improve my confidence, tone, and projection
This is a screenshot of one of my slides, which includes the speaker notes. While I tried to have my presentation memorized, I found it reassuring to know that I could turn to the speaking notes if needed to remind or guide me through the presentation.
Situation/Task
During my first co-op at Sunnybrook Hospital, I presented a critical appraisal of a journal article on olanzapine use in oncology, which enhanced my oral communication skills. Although initially nervous, I gained confidence by using precise, clear, and appropriate language to present the information in an engaging and memorable manner to my preceptor and team (3 pharmacists, 5 students (masters/pharmacy). This presentation had important consequences, as it was not only for my learning, but also part of my evaluation. Therefore, I practiced, prepared, and used the appropriate supporting material to enhance my presentation.
My Actions
To prepare for my presentation, I thoroughly analyzed the article, as I believe a public speaker must know their topic inside out. Unfortunately, I had never critically appraised a journal article before and was the first student to present, so the stakes were high, and I wanted to prove myself despite my lack of confidence. I consulted my preceptor, Y, and the pharmacy resident, X, to ask their advice on critically appraising an article. Y and X provided excellent tools and resources, which I used to create the basis of my presentation. I created a Microsoft Word document to logically organize my results, and I compiled my supporting materials in a professional and memorable manner using animations and images to highlight key features on PowerPoint.
Completing the physical presentation gave me the knowledge to feel confident in my oral communication skills. However, I was nervous about my performance, so I practiced my oral presentation as much as possible! I presented in the shower, in the car, to my parents, and even in bed! I then watched Youtube videos on public speaking and practiced exhibiting clear tone of voice, proper speed and pronunciation, and engaging expressions. Finally, I rehearsed in front of a mirror to make sure I maintained eye contact, had good body language and movement, and proper facial expressions. I found it helpful to record and time myself so I could note any excessive gestures, fast pace, or imprecise language.
During the presentation, I read and interpreted non-verbal cues of my peers to gauge whether my own presentation skills were organized, clear, and engaging. After the presentation, I responded to people’s questions in a way to make them feel validated (“thank you, that is a really great question”), as active listening is an important aspect of oral communication.
Result
After the presentation, I was commended for my performance and my preceptor expressed how natural and engaging I was. My preceptor noted that I add value to conversations, and present in a very clear and professional manner. I hope to use these oral communication skills in my pharmacy practice. For example, I would love to lead journal clubs as a hospital pharmacist or teach a course at a pharmacy school and use the skills I learned such as maintaining good tone of voice and eye contact.
assignment 3: Critical-thinking
Figure 1. The databases and search terms I used to create a robust literature review.
Figure 2. This is a PICO analysis I created for the Cochrane Review, which shows the population, intervention, comparisons, and primary/secondary outcomes.
Figure 3. This video is a re-enactment of me explaining the biases and quality of the evidence. I had to critically appraise each article for inconsistencies and level of quality.
Situation/Task
I created a Grand-Rounds Presentation on vaso-occlusive (VOC) sickle-cell crisis pain, which allowed me to develop my critical-thinking skills. In groups of 4, we divided the work into logical tasks and presented to our Hospital Pharmacotherapeutics class. My task was to critically appraise the current literature on pharmacological options for VOC pain and translate the evidence into practice to treat a patient. Thorough evaluation of the literature was essential to the assignment, so my appraisal skills had important consequences, as I did not want to disappoint my teammates. This was challenging for me because I had to conduct a robust search in a systematic and consistent way to make connections between evidence and practice.
My Actions
Before I conducted my literature search, I had to determine my clinical question, which was “what is the best pharmacological analgesia for VOC sickle-cell crisis pain?” I then performed a thorough search of databases such as Cochrane, PubMed, and Ovid to find clinically relevant and reliable randomized control trials or systematic reviews. Using the search terms highlighted in figure 1, I found a Cochrane review that analyzed 9 randomized, controlled, double-blind trials on pharmacological treatment for adult sickle-cell crisis patients.
Next, I determined the importance and relevance of arguments and ideas in the review in relation to our case patient. Since our patient was receiving IV morphine, I connected the results found in morphine studies to that of my patient and pretended I was her actual pharmacist in real life in order to make evidence-based connections to clinical care. I noted that there were inconsistencies and areas of bias in the research, as only 4 trials adequately described their randomization methods and 7 trials had a high risk of size bias with less than 50 participants. I approached this problem in a consistent and systematic way by going through the findings of each of the 9 trials and analyzing the data they provided with respect to the primary outcomes.
Since the results were largely inconclusive and the evidence was of low quality, I had to use my critical-thinking skills and reflect on the justifications of my own assumptions. The guidelines for VOC pain indicate that opioids such as morphine are recommended, but the data supporting this is limited and of low quality. I consulted my other group members (Ron, Jeff, and Alex) to get their opinion on the inconsistencies in relation to our assumptions about morphine. We decided to search uncontrolled trials and found an article demonstrating positive outcomes with morphine therapy, which supports the use of morphine for our patient.
Results
After the presentation, we received positive feedback from our professor on my critical analysis, and were praised for our use of evidence-based medicine. I am proud of my critical-thinking skills and will use an evidence-based approach to treat future patients by making connections and approaching problems in a systematic way. I will also perform literature searches and critically appraise journal articles for pharmacy journal clubs.