When third-year pharmacy students asked for more challenging patient scenarios as part of the UNMC College of Pharmacy’s series of pharmacotherapy skills labs, faculty sat down and thought about what an especially challenging scenario might be. Many scenarios came up in the discussion, with one standing out that faculty felt was one of the most vital and necessary skills:
Serving as a pharmacist who is working with a patient who might be having suicidal thoughts or expressing mental health crises.
“It’s one of those scenarios that a lot of us have had, that the first time you are caught off guard. We wanted to help our students feel more prepared and capable of having this difficult conversation in a safe space before encountering it in the real world,” said Kristen Cook, PharmD, clinical associate professor of pharmacy practice and science and director of the pharmacotherapy skills labs.
It’s a tough situation. A pharmacist might be seeing a patient for diabetes or high blood pressure – and realize they need another kind of help.
“As someone who is looking at going to work in a rural community where mental health professionals are scarce, I know at some point I will probably have to deal with this situation,” P3 Maddie Moore said.
In rural areas, pharmacists are sometimes one of the few health care providers in the community. They also are likely to know and be known and trusted by their patients. They can be there to make a difference.
But how can UNMC prepare these future pharmacists? Dr. Cook reached out to Jeff Knapp, director of UNMC Counseling and Psychological Services. The result was an exciting new interprofessional collaboration and one of the biggest jumps in confidence among students, according to pre- and post-exercise surveys.
“I went into this training feeling a bit nervous because of how serious and unfamiliar the topic was, but the CAPS counselors were great at breaking things down and walking us through how to recognize warning signs and respond appropriately,” said Andrea Lopez Mercado, another P3.
CAPS first conducted an introductory training session for students. Then, the following class, CAPS team members played the role of patients during simulation exercises.
“I found the mock patient activity very valuable,” Lopez Mercado said, “because this is a heavy topic that may require asking uncomfortable questions, and practicing these conversations in a realistic setting helped me feel more comfortable and prepared to handle them in real life.”
An additional benefit was having therapists and counselors right there if the students were affected by the serious topic.
“This subject can be difficult to approach, but with this experience, I feel prepared to handle it with empathy, understanding and compassion,” Moore said. “As the most accessible healthcare professionals, pharmacists are uniquely positioned to make a difference for patients experiencing mental health problems.”
“Pharmacists are in a very unique and accessible position to identify at-risk patients,” Lopez Mercado said, “and this training helped me feel more prepared to approach those situations with the appropriate tools and care.”