Dear PharmD for Pharmacists Students,
I hope this message finds you and your family well.
This week has been extremely busy with many communications from the Faculty and the University. First, you are all aware that all experiential rotations are on pause for three weeks. This decision was not taken lightly by the Faculty. We spoke extensively to our hospital and community partners as well as other health discipline Faculties at the University prior making this decision. The pause in experiential rotations has impacted the last two weeks of Block 9 and will impact the first week of Block 10 APPE rotations.
At this time, we are working with all of our partners (hospital, community, CCAPP, other Faculties) to determine the best approach to address Block 9. We have heard your concerns about the difficulties that you anticipate with requesting any additional time off of work and the impact on your finances. It is a very difficult time for students with young children who are now at home due to school closures. I will let you know as soon as a decision has been made regarding Block 9 but please know that your concerns are heard and we will do our best to finish off Block 9 without future disruptions.
Concurrently, we are planning on the best approach for Block 10. It would be helpful for the Program to understand your capacity to proceed with your APPE rotation. We understand that some of you may have returned to your work or your employer may have canceled your scheduled time off to assist at this busy time. If this is your case, please contact Cecelia Sumi (pharmd4pcoordinator.phm@utoronto.ca) to let her know. In addition, if you have any creative ideas of virtual clinical services that can be provided to help the community during this unprecedented time, I would welcome your thoughts as we think of alternate ways of delivering APPE rotations.
I also wanted to provide an update that the Faculty worked diligently to prepare and submit additional information to the CCAPP Board on Tuesday, March 17th which further supports our high quality program and the University’s accreditation process. The CCAPP Board welcomed the additional information and will review our request at their Board meeting.
Finally, I would like to wish you all a wonderful weekend. Please be kind to yourself, your family and your community as we work together during this very challenging time.
Best regards,
Kathy Vu
Director, PharmD for Pharmacists Program
Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy