Bianna Sallemi, in her final year in the ACPHS pharmacy doctorate program, had never competed in the Clinical Skills Competition sponsored by the American Society of Health System Pharmacists Student Society (ASHP-SSHP). She was also not sure what she wanted to do after she graduated, pondering the Hamlet-like question of all Pharm.D. students: to apply for a residency or not to apply for a residency?
It occurred to Sallemi that the competition could help her decide.
“It was more ‘how far can my clinical knowledge take me at this point?’” she said, by way of explaining her decision to compete. If she made it through the on-campus portion of the competition and qualified to go to ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting, then she would use that opportunity to explore residencies, she said.
The answer to Sallemi’s question: At least as far as Las Vegas. And then maybe to Phoenix, or somewhere else she has not yet considered.
She and partner Gabriella Evangelista, another Pharm.D. student who has been Sallemi’s friend since their first year at ACPHS, made it to the top 10 out of 142 two-person teams at the ASHP meeting in Las Vegas last week. It was the first time an ACPHS team made it to finals at the event. While at the conference, Sallemi identified a residency in palliative care at a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Phoenix that she would like to pursue.
How big a deal was getting to the top 10?
“I think it’s huge,” said Professor Jessica Farrell, who along with Professor Nicole Lodise advised the Pharm.D. competitors.
Evangelista was not available to interview for this article. She has been in a rheumatology rotation with Farrell, who described the Pharm.D. student as thoroughly engaged in improving her knowledge and pharmacy practice skills.
The ASHP clinical skills competition tests not only students’ knowledge but also their problem-solving capacity and ability to prioritize patient care, Farrell and Lodise said. At both the on-campus and national level, participant pairs are given a fictional case to address as if they were the patient’s treating pharmacists. They have two hours to draw up a care plan, describing the order in which they would tackle issues and how they would address them.
As one might expect in a contest of skill, the cases are complex. The fictional patients often have a serious primary condition with several underlying problems complicating its treatment. At the national level this year, students had to make decisions regarding a patient with hepatic encephalopathy (an altered state of conscious due to liver failure) and ascites (abnormal accumulation of fluid in the abdomen), secondary to an alcohol use disorder. The patient also had diabetes and other medical problems.
Sallemi was pleased to learn that she and Evangelista were up to the task. To get through it, she had to rely on a good deal of knowledge, but also understand where she could find information she did not have in her own head. It helped that she already had a good relationship with her team member, and that they could rely on each other’s strengths, filling in the gaps of each other’s learning.
“It really aligned well with what we were taught in school,” Sallemi said.
In addition, she said, she found she had no anxiety about being under deadline pressure. She didn’t have to worry about a grade, and just getting to the nationals carried some clout; she didn’t have to prove anything else.
“It was not as nerve-wracking as I anticipated it would be,” Sallemi said.
After placing among the top 10 teams, Sallemi found that representatives of residency programs were impressed as she made the rounds at the conference. And she found at least one program – at the VA in Phoenix – she knows she will apply for.
Perhaps more important, Sallemi said, is what she hopes her fellow students will learn from what she and Evangelista achieved. If they have any doubt that ACPHS prepares you to be the best, that’s a notion that should be put to rest, she said.
“We are well prepared for something like this,” Sallemi said. “We, as a school, can definitely take the top place in the future.”