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An Inside Look at the ASHP Foundation Oncology Traineeship

By Carolyn O'Donnell posted 11-11-2013 08:37

  

The second of a three-part series in which ASHP Foundation Oncology trainees share their experiences

My name is Carolyn O’Donnell R.Ph. BCOP, and I work as a clinical oncology application analyst at Lancaster General Health (LGHealth) in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I completed the ASHP Foundation Oncology Traineeship in 2011. If you or your institution are curious about the utility or quality of education that one can learn during an ASHP oncology traineeship, I can say without reservation that it is an intense 10 days, but the benefits are immeasurable.

What is the program like?
The site of my experiential training was The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. I worked with clinical specialists, PGY1 and PGY2 residents, staff pharmacists and technicians during my traineeship. Each day was a mix of rounding on the hematology and solid tumor floors of the hospital, attending valuable lectures on pertinent topics, and preparing case presentations of current patients to the clinical specialists in each area. I also gained useful experience by studying the operations of the pharmacy-managed GI Clinic and Pain and Palliative Care Clinic, and by spending time with the Investigational Studies specialist and the Pediatric Oncology specialist. It was an invaluable educational experience.

What did I learn that was valuable to me?
In my time at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, I witnessed and participated in their tightly integrated patient treatment team in which clinical pharmacists are one valuable component. Clinical interventions, dosing recommendations, and supportive care recommendations were part of every day’s activities. I learned how the pharmacy specialists managed dosing recommendations for patients and their providers utilizing AUC dosing, as well as pharmacokinetic dosing based on drug levels. Further, I enjoyed several interesting lectures on such topics as tyrosine-kinase inhibitors and conditioning regimens prior to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) or bone marrow transplantation (BMT), which may be valuable to my own practice and duties in the near future.

What did I like best about the training?
I enjoyed rounding with the full medical team each day and learning from the attending physicians and the other health care providers. My time spent in the GI Clinic and Pain and Palliative Care Clinic were also valuable in terms of seeing how pharmacists handle adverse effects and make patients’ lives better by helping them manage the symptoms that affect their daily lives. As I've mentioned, the variety of lectures were all valuable, however, I particularly enjoyed the lectures about conditioning for HSCT and BMT because of their possible future relevance to me.

What new services did I implement when I returned to my employer?
When I returned to LGHealth, I standardized protocols to eliminate mannitol use in oncology practice, standardized use of bortezomib as subcutaneous use only, and implemented a pharmacy managed epoetin protocol that adjusts doses for epoetin based on patient hemoglobin levels and diagnosis. Patients have been managed with this protocol since February 2012, and plans are underway to start a pharmacy-managed epoetin clinic in the near future. In June 2012, I transitioned to the IT department to work on analyzing and building clinical oncology protocols for our electronic medical record (EMR). We will be implementing the oncology portion of our EMR this November.

For more information about the ASHP Foundation Oncology Traineeship, visit www.ashpfoundation.org/oncology. Applications for 2014 are being accepted through January 15, 2014.



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