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University of Illinois at Chicago (Rockford)
Doughnuts and Morning Rounds

College Connection

by Hannah Dalogdog (P2), ICHP President-Elect

I am not a morning person. I am the sort who considers being awake before sunrise a mild form of torture. And yet, once nearly every week during the last two semesters, I voluntarily made myself get up at six in the morning to make it to campus before 7:30AM. I didn't mind, and I wasn’t the only one. It was for a worthy cause after all: morning rounds.

One benefit of the ICHP student organization I enjoy is MrCAT, or Morning rounds: Cases and Therapeutics sessions. ICHP has made the effort to provide more opportunities for students to receive exposure to clinical pharmacy and one activity is the clinician-led MrCAT, where participants get to dissect real case studies that presenters have encountered in their practice.

MrCAT provides an opportunity for students, like myself, to practice our clinical decision-making skills in a low-stress environment. We use what we have learned in the classroom and apply it to actual patient care scenarios. The patient cases vary and are generally centered on 1 or 2 disease states. Presenters walk student members through the therapeutic process, while providing additional information to supplement the presentation. This way, students from all levels of training can benefit from the discussion. MrCAT not only fosters active learning, but demonstrates how members of a healthcare team could function and why it is crucial to consider everyone's opinions. For an hour each week, pharmacy students from all levels brainstorm patient cases to arrive at the most appropriate therapeutic recommendation. No one is too inexperienced to offer some perspective or seek clarification. For many, this is their first introduction to how a patient care team operates.

With this new academic year comes a new set of weekly, early morning MrCAT sessions to alternate with Journal Club presentations. We are hopeful they will continue to provide another avenue to engage students in conversations centered on therapeutic decision making and direct patient care. Our future goal is to invite practitioners from a variety of clinical practice areas to offer students insight into their unique clinical experiences.

So, at least for now, I let myself enjoy that extra hour of sleep. In less than a month we will begin the bimonthly rounds. I am fortunate to serve on this year's ICHP E-board and I am looking forward to the morning sessions. The doughnuts aren’t half bad either.