In April, the Pharmaceutical Care Lab published a journal article in “Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning” describing their academic fellowship. After four years, the program has come to an end.
The team, lead by Kelly L. Scolaro PharmD, created a fellowship program to bridge the gap that existed when new faculty are hired directly into academia without experience in education. The paper describes the process of creating a fellowship and offers perspectives from key players.
The former fellows contributed significantly to the growth of simulation around campus through their own program as well as active participation in the Interprofessional Team Course (IPT). The IPT course is a collaboration between the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy as well as some interaction with first year Law students.
All four of the fellows were also recognized as American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Walmart Scholars. The AACP and Walmart began the program in 2004 to “ensure there is an adequate number of well-prepared individuals who aspire to join the faculties at our expanding number of institutions across the country.”
Each graduate of the UNC fellowship has gone on to take a role at an academic center. Their academic leadership and published work continue to show the excellence in education gained during their time at UNC.
Jennifer (Jenn) Wilson went on to the Wingate University Levine College of Health Sciences where she serves as an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy. Dr. Wilson researched perceptions of drug information during her fellowship.
Jamie Shelly is on faculty at the St Louis College of Pharmacy where she is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice. Dr. Shelly evaluated professionalism and interprofessional teamwork as part of her fellowship.
Abby Matulewicz of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Pharmacy. Dr. Matulewicz researched medication therapy management performance during her fellowship. She has applied her academic leadership skills gained as part of this program into the VCU Academic Pharmacy Residency program.
Courtney Bradley is starting at High Point University this month as Assistant Professor in the School of Pharmacy which will be starting its first class in Fall 2016. Dr. Bradley was part of a team that published an article in Pediatrics this May on improving population health interventions to improve asthma treatment via community based pharmacies.
UNCsim extends a HUGE thank you to all four of the fellows and Dr. Scolaro for the impact this program has had on growing future pharmacy educators and simulation at UNC. We are sorry to see this excellent program come to an end but appreciate the incredible value it brought to the School and interprofessional teams while it was here.
Publications from the program include:
Wilson JA, Scolaro KL. Evaluation of perceptions regarding top 200 drug information exercises in a pharmaceutical care lab curriculum. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning. 2014 May-June;6(3):442-448.
Woodyard D, Scolaro K, Durham C, Shelly J, Hobgood C. b-SAFER: a systematic approach to delivering effective interprofessional handoffs. Simulation in Health Care. 2013;8(6):506.
Woodyard D, Chaterji D, Cowherd S, Durham C, Scolaro K, Barrick J, Shelly J. Teaching interprofessional root cause analysis using simulation. Simulation in Health Care. 2013;8(6):506.
Shelly JL, Scolaro KL. Utility of a professionalism assessment form activity: a survey of students and teaching assistants. AJPE. 2013;77(5):Article 109, page 101.
Beck AF, Bradley CL, Huang B, Simmons JM, Heaton PC, Kahn RS. The pharmacy-level asthma medication ratio and population health. Pediatrics. 2015 Jun;135(6):1009-17. doi: 10.1542/peds.2014-3796. Epub 2015 May 4.
Wilson JA, Shelly JL, Matulewicz AT, Scolaro KL. Development of a one-year academic fellowship in a skills lab environment. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning. April 1, 2015 doi:10.1016/j.cptl.2014.12.008