Scott Kirkegaard, Pharm.D., has been selected as the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy 2004 Preceptor of the Year.
Dr. Kirkegaard, a clinical pharmacist at the Hastings Regional Center in Hastings, Neb., was selected for the award by a vote of the graduating senior class. The award recognizes the commitment, dedication and teaching excellence demonstrated by a volunteer faculty member in an experiential clerkship.
This is the third time Dr. Kirkegaard has received the award.
Since 1994, Dr. Kirkegaard has mentored more than 150 COP students who have come to the Hastings Regional Center as part of their clinical rotation. “I thoroughly enjoy having the students out here,” Dr. Kirkegaard said.
Each month two students join Dr. Kirkegaard at the regional center and spend four weeks immersed in the world of psychiatric pharmacy.
Under Dr. Kirkegaard’s guidance the students meet with patients, take part in coming up with treatment plans and make rounds with the medical staff. Dr. Kirkegaard also requires each student to take a test at the end of the four-week rotation and present a research paper to the medical staff on a topic of their choice related to pharmaceutical care of the mentally ill.
“He is constantly challenging you,” said Kristal Dows, a fourth-year pharmacy student currently in rotation at the regional center. “He really challenges you to learn about every aspect of psychiatric medicine.”
Dows said that since she has been in rotation at the regional center she has come to recognize the side effects of various medications. “You learn to recognize the side effects a person is experience, whether that is stiff muscles or uncontrollable drooling,” she said, “and that helps you decide what steps you need to take to try to minimize those side effects.”
Dow spends every Monday and Wednesday in med clinic where she meets and talks with patients about their illness and the medications they are taking. “It’s a great learning experience,” she said, “you get a lot of interaction and really understand how the medications make the patients feel.”
Dr. Kirkegaard said the students keep him on his toes. “It makes me continually update my knowledge about psychiatric medications,” he said. “It’s also nice to give something back to the college.”
Dr. Kirkegaard received his doctor of pharmacy degree from UNMC in 1992. After graduating he worked at Richard Young Hospital in Omaha for a year-and-a-half before accepting a position at the Hastings Regional Center.
Dr. Kirkegaard is board certified in psychiatric pharmacy.