Rotations

Professionals are standing in the pharmacy with their arms crossed — Faculty of Medicine

PharmD

Rotations

A word from the program Director

Why PharmD?

Program overview
Student Experience Guide
Academic Accommodations
Rotations

Application Process
Frequently asked questions for admission
Student Ambassador Program

Regulation on the PharmD program

Involvement and employment opportunities

Orientation

Scholarships

Our program includes 40 weeks of practical training, spread over 4 years of study. A variety of rotation sites, most of them in Francophone minority communities, will be offered. These practical training courses are dedicated to the delivery of pharmaceutical care as well as the management of operations in community and/or hospital settings. Students’ participation is mandatory.

The PharmD program provides students with three eight-week rotations in direct patient care, which occur during the final six months of the program. Each student, without exception, must meet the requirements of the rotations before they can take them.

The guiding principles and courses of action to be followed by all students enrolled in the undergraduate Doctor of Pharmacy program are available by clicking here. The items pertaining to rotations are presented in this section and students will have access to a Clinical Rotation Manual.

During the first two years of the program, rotations will take place during the months of April (Group A) and May (Group B). This structure allows students to gain valuable practical experience in a variety of contexts related to the concepts they have learned during the university year.

However, during the fourth year, the emphasis shifts to a more intensive and specialized experience. The fourth year involves participation in rotations or professional exploration activities, offering students the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and experience under the guidance of experienced professionals. This strategic progression ensures a comprehensive education that combines theoretical knowledge with practical applications, preparing students for a successful career after graduation.

Year 1

PHM 1901 - Community Rotation I

Year 2

PHM 2901 - Hosptial Rotation I

Year 4

PHM 4901 - Community Rotation lI
PHM 4902 - Community Rotation III
PHM 4903 - Hospital Rotation II
PHM 4904 - Hospital Rotation III
PHM 4905 - Professional Exploration Rotation

At all times, students are responsible for being familiar with and complying with the policies, standards, guidelines, rules, and regulations in effect.

PharmD program regulations

The guiding principles and courses of action to be followed by all students enrolled in the undergraduate Doctor of Pharmacy program are set out in their entirety on the PharmD program website by clicking here.

Rotation duration and hours

Students are expected to be present at their rotation site for 35 hours a week over 4 weeks (140 hours). The duration of students’ rotation shifts must be limited to 7 hours per day, except in exceptional circumstances. Most of that time should be dedicated to patient care activities.

Students are expected to devote an additional 5 to 10 hours per week, outside the regular training period, to preparatory activities for the following day, independent learning, follow-up, and documentation of their interventions, as well as preparing and submitting the assignments related to the rotation.

Students are entitled to a 30-minute meal break each day, at a time deemed appropriate depending on the workflow.

Absences

Participation in person for all clinical rotations is mandatory.

Program administration associated with the rotation must be notified of any absence as soon as possible, prior to the start of their rotation shift. Failure to comply with this rule may impact on the evaluation of the student’s professionalism and on the student’s overall grade for the rotation.

All absences (unplanned, planned, unauthorized) will be noted and monitored. The university’s Declaration of Absence form must be completed and submitted for each absence.

The Faculty of Medicine Clinical Placement Risk Management is the department responsible to ensure that all pharmacy learners have completed requirements to safely enter their rotation setting.

For more details and access to forms, please visit the program Requirements website.

Forms to be completed
- Privacy and Consent – Consent to Release of Information
N95 Mask Fitting
Immunization

Your baseline immunization status must be kept up to date. You may be required to receive additional immunizations in order to access the various placement sites, to ensure your safety and that of patients, their families and other healthcare workers.

Criminal record check

You must provide a criminal record check. This process may be repeated during your years of study in order to access certain placement sites.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) course

You must pass a CPR course prior to the start of your practical training. It is also your responsibility to keep your certification up-to-date throughout your academic career. Please visit the Ontario College of Pharmacists page for more informations.

Registration with the Ontario College of Pharmacists

In accordance with the requirements of the Ontario College of Pharmacists, students enrolled in an accredited pharmacy program must register with the College to complete their rotations, even if these rotations do not take place in Ontario. Consult the list of documents to submit in your application.

Each student will be assigned to a specific clinical rotation site. It is a priority that the clinical rotation site serves a Francophone minority population. The PharmD program has the final choice of clinical rotation placements based on availability and site approval.

Please note that due to the limited number of available spots for rotations close to the campus, the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences cannot guarantee a rotation placement close to where all students live. Travel time could take up to 90 minutes, or even require a temporary relocation. Students are responsible for their own transportation and accommodation during their rotations.

Students are expected to complete and submit the specific requirements of the clinical rotation placement, as well as those of the province in which the rotation will take place. This applies before, during and after the rotation.

If there is any difficulty in meeting these requirements, the student must contact the external coordinator as soon as possible.

The Faculty of Medicine Clinical Placement Risk Management (FoM CPRM) office collaborates with the University of Ottawa undergraduate and postgraduate medical education programs, and community/hospital partners, to ensure that all trainees have completed the requirements to safely enter their clinical rotation setting.

The steps to follow to report an injury or clinical exposure are available by clicking here.

Students must provide pharmaceutical services (professional activities) in various contexts (academic and clinical rotation). The EPAs were developed to promote the evaluation of student performance when carrying out a professional activity, and to make the link with expected competencies.

The EPAs are evaluated according to the preceptor’s perception of the level of entrustability with which a student can perform a professional activity. It is therefore a subjective evaluation but based on a robust reference system. The evaluation of EPAs requires direct observation of the student’s performance. It is important to evaluate the student during their performance of the activity.

Formative evaluation

Each week of the rotation, the preceptor must evaluate students on all competency elements described for each EPAs. This formative evaluation does not count but prepares for the certificative evaluation at the end of the rotation.

Certificative evaluation

Towards the end of the rotation, the preceptor must evaluate each competency element according to the expected level for certification purposes.

Clinical rotations are also subject to pre-approval by the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences based on the criteria listed below. These criteria are established to ensure that the clinical rotation provides students with the opportunity to carry out the entrustable professional activities (EPAs) required and to allow for a fair evaluation of student performance during these activities.

The clinical rotation must:

Be a licensed pharmacy in good standing with the province’s professional order.
Have a pharmacist physically present.
Offer pharmaceutical care and services including drug dispensing.
Serve clients from Francophone minority communities.
Actively encourage and provide high quality patient-centred care and exemplary practices.
Guarantee a positive, inclusive, and non-discriminatory culture for students.
Ensure a safe learning environment including a reasonable prescription volume.
Have an organizational structure allowing for an appropriate degree of individual interaction between the candidate and the primary preceptor (for example, sufficient staff and resources).
Put adequate measures in place to support the student if the primary preceptor is absent.
Commit to providing the student with a general orientation on the specific policies and processes at the site.
Allow for an objective evaluation of student performance.
Have no party associated with the site who has a conflict of interest (for example, a direct or indirect family relationship, financial or commercial ties) with the candidate that could compromise the validity of the evaluation process.
Provide adequate learning opportunities with patients to enable the candidate to perform all required activities.

The content of this section is under development and will be available shortly.

Pharmacists must meet the following criteria to become a preceptor as part of direct patient care rotations under the PharmD program.

The clinical preceptor must:

Be a pharmacist in good standing with their professional order.
Be a respectful and ethical practitioner who is competent in the entire field of pharmacy practice.
Guarantee a positive, inclusive and non-discriminatory culture for students.
Have no open file (report, complaint) currently under investigation or review with the professional order.
Have had no concerns entered in the public register regarding misconduct, suitability to practice, delivery of quality health care or financial responsibility.
Provide pharmaceutical care and services in a practice setting.
Recognize the time commitment required to supervise the student in providing direct care to patients and related activities and have the support of their organization.
Have no conflict of interest (for example, direct or indirect family relationship, financial or commercial ties) with the candidate that could compromise the validity of the evaluation process.
Have a minimum of one (1) year of experience.
Complete specific preceptor training with the University of Ottawa.
Be appointed as an adjunct professor with the University of Ottawa School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Be bilingual or serve a population from Francophone minority communities.

During patient care rotations, the preceptor is expected to:

Create and foster a positive, inclusive, and non-discriminatory learning environment.
Conduct the student’s orientation from day one of the rotation (available in this manual and in CORE ELMS).
Be available in person for the majority (if not all) of the rotation dates.
Involve the student in the decision-making aspects of patient care and interprofessional collaboration.
Act as a mentor for the student and respect the rotation objectives and learning requirements.
Complete student evaluations in a timely manner.
Ensure that the legal requirements regarding supervision (direct or other) are respected in accordance with the student’s activities.
Determine the degree of student supervision required based on an evaluation of the student’s level of training and experience for assigned tasks (for example, complexity of the patient’s condition, level of risk in clinical decision making, etc.).

** For more information, visit the Ontario College of Pharmacists website.

Collaborate with the internal and external coordinators when necessary.
Report to the PharmD clinical rotation coordination team any action taken by the student that is deemed unacceptable during the rotation, particularly if there is a risk to the patient, if the interaction with the preceptor (or team) is problematic, or if the profession’s image may be tarnished. The preceptor must report to the clinical rotation coordination team any situation that meets this definition to discuss the matter. Specific documentation of the incident must be completed during evaluation of the entrustable professional activity - 1 (Evaluation of General Conduct).

Mandatory preceptor training will take place approximately one (1) month prior to the start of clinical rotations. The training will focus on the entrustable professional activities, clinical rotation manual, course syllabus and CORE ELMS platform. A training certificate will be issued.

Additional training opportunities for preceptors will follow as needed.

CORE ELMS is a platform that enables preceptors to evaluate students and to follow-up on EPAs, share documents and create reports. It thus constitutes the database for all rotation-related activities.

The development of preceptor profiles and clinical rotations is handled by the pharmacy program’s rotation coordination team.

At the end of each rotation, preceptors are invited to do a self-evaluation of their preceptorship experience, as well as their experience as a preceptor so that the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences may improve the experimental program.

A self-evaluation form will be sent to preceptors via the CORE ELMS platform.

Course PHM 1901 – Community Rotation I (4 credits) is the first of three community clinical rotations and will take place at the end of the first year. This 4-week experiential learning course will enable learners to strengthen their competencies in the delivery of pharmaceutical care in community settings.

The entrustable professional activities (EPAs) include:

Dispensing
Compounding
Front-line consultations
Therapeutic management
Patient education
Evaluation of general conduct

Evaluations

For Community Rotation I, the expected competency level is Level 2 (direct and proactive supervision) except for a few competencies such as communication, professionalism and interprofessional collaboration, for which the expected level is Level 3 (distant and reactive supervision).

The evaluation details for the rotation are available in the course syllabus. Overall, the EPAs and assignments constitute the required evaluations.

Information Coming Soon.

The content of this section is under development and will be available shortly.

Contact Us

Rotation coordination team

Roger Guindon Hall
451 Smyth Road, room 2011
Ottawa (Ontario)
Canada K1H 8M5

Email: [email protected]

Courses arrow_drop_down

Year 1

Year 2

Year 4

Policies and Regulations arrow_drop_down

PharmD program regulations

Rotation duration and hours

Absences

Requirements for rotation arrow_drop_down

Placement Process arrow_drop_down

Student’s responsibility arrow_drop_down

Occupational Health and Safety arrow_drop_down

Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) arrow_drop_down

Formative evaluation

Certificative evaluation

Community Rotation Selection Criteria - PHM 1901 arrow_drop_down

The clinical rotation must:

Hospital Rotation Selection Criteria - PHM 2901 arrow_drop_down

Criteria to become a Preceptor arrow_drop_down

The clinical preceptor must:

Preceptor roles and responsibilities arrow_drop_down

Preceptor training arrow_drop_down

CORE ELMS arrow_drop_down

Feedback arrow_drop_down

PHM 1901 – Community Rotation I arrow_drop_down

The entrustable professional activities (EPAs) include:

Evaluations

PHM 2901 – Hospital Rotation I arrow_drop_down

Frequently asked questions arrow_drop_down

Contact Us

Rotation coordination team