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MODULE 8
Mastering Specialty Populations: From Prescriptions to Protocols
This module is where your years of experience as a trusted community healthcare expert become your greatest asset. The patients you will meet on the hospital’s specialty floors are the very same people you advise every day—those managing complex, chronic conditions. Now, you will learn to apply your deep therapeutic knowledge to their care during their most vulnerable moments: when they are acutely ill and hospitalized.
Welcome to the Next Level of Clinical Practice
Translating your community expertise into acute care excellence.
In your community practice, you are the master of the longitudinal patient relationship. You see the full picture: you manage refills for the patient on warfarin, you oversee the monthly LAI injection for the patient with schizophrenia, and you navigate the high-cost oral chemotherapy prescription for the cancer patient. You are the expert in maintaining stability.
In this module, you will learn to pivot that expertise to the inpatient setting, where your role shifts from maintaining stability to managing acute crises. You will not be just dispensing prescriptions; you will be shaping and verifying complex, high-risk treatment protocols. The core pharmacology is the same—the application is simply faster, more intensive, and more collaborative.
Retail Pharmacist Analogy: From Primary Care Provider to Emergency Room Physician
Think of your current role like that of a primary care provider (PCP). You manage chronic conditions, focus on long-term health, and build lasting relationships with your patients. You are the cornerstone of their health journey.
The inpatient pharmacist role is like that of an ER physician. You see the same patients as the PCP, but you see them when their chronic condition has suddenly decompensated into an acute crisis. Your focus is on rapid assessment, immediate intervention, and stabilization. You will use more potent, faster-acting IV medications and follow strict protocols to manage the emergency. Your goal is to stabilize the patient so they can safely return to the care of their trusted PCP—or in this case, their trusted community pharmacist.
What You Will Master in This Module
We will embark on a deep dive into three core specialty areas, bridging your existing knowledge to the unique challenges and opportunities of the inpatient world:
Section 1: The Medical-Surgical (Med-Surg) Patient
This is the foundation of hospital pharmacy. We will transform your knowledge of oral anticoagulants into mastering periprocedural bridging protocols, convert your understanding of pain management into the science of IV-to-PO equianalgesic conversions, and elevate your grasp of bioavailability into the art of the pharmacist-driven IV-to-PO switch initiative.
Section 2: Inpatient Psychiatry
You already manage complex psychotropic regimens. Here, you will learn to be a leader in psychiatric emergencies by mastering rapid tranquilization protocols. You will become the ultimate safety guardian by learning to mitigate the additive QTc risk of polypharmacy, and you will become a transition-of-care specialist by managing the initiation of long-acting injectables to ensure your patients succeed upon discharge.
Section 3: Inpatient Oncology
Your zero-error mentality with oral oncolytics is the perfect prerequisite for the world of IV chemotherapy. You will learn to deconstruct and verify complex, multi-drug chemotherapy protocols, become a guardian of safety by managing vesicants and irritants according to USP <800>, and become a supportive care expert by mastering the guideline-directed prophylaxis of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV).
