Hospital Pharmacist (BSc Biology)

Dr. Michael Collins, Grand River Hospital

By: Brian Mathew, Outreach & Support Peer

Dr. Michael Collins graduated from the Honours Biology BSc program with the original goal of pursuing a career in research. He always knew he wanted to be in the healthcare field but was reluctant about becoming a physician given the challenges with work-life balance. In high school, Michael worked at a local pharmacy as an assistant offering his first exposure to pharmacy. Although he enjoyed working at the pharmacy, he wasn’t overly fond of the retail aspect of that setting. Shortly after graduating from Laurier, Michael pursued a Master of Biomedical Technology from the University of Calgary and discovered that the University of Waterloo had opened a pharmacy program and decided to apply. After graduating from the University of Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy, Michael completed a one-year hospital pharmacy residency program at Hamilton Health Sciences.

Michael presently serves as a Clinical Oncology Pharmacist at the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre. He first became interested in hospital pharmacy when his sister, a pharmacy technician, described the work the pharmacists were doing in the hospital where she worked. One of the main differences between hospitals and retail pharmacy is that hospital pharmacists are often not directly involved in dispensing medications to patients.  Hospital pharmacists are active members of the healthcare team that provide direct-patient care to patients on inpatient wards and outpatient clinics.  Their goal is to provide complete pharmaceutical care for patients using their full scope of practice to ensure safe and effective prescribing. Since Michael works primarily in the outpatient cancer center, he often gets to know his patients well as they can be on active cancer treatment for many years.  Developing strong patient relationships is one of the most fulfilling parts of the job.  

A crucial skill for pharmacists is acute attention to detail, as ensuring accurate medication and dosage will significantly influence a patient's well-being. This is especially true for a hospital pharmacist in a cancer center as the medications are often part of complex protocols requiring individualized dosage calculations that account for height, weight, and some laboratory values.  They also need to be aware of the proper supportive medications (e.g. for nausea) and complex funding algorithms for some very expensive therapies.  Also, effectively explaining how a drug works in a way the patient will understand is important to their treatment success. Furthermore, certain medications can be quite foreign to some patients so being able to reassure them in a way they feel comfortable is necessary as a pharmacist. These important interpersonal skills will allow you to build healthy and successful patient relationships, which can feel very rewarding. 

Some of the challenges Dr. Collins faces in the pharmacy field are funding and staff shortages, especially in the hospital environment. In addition, obtaining the medical history of patients can be quite tedious, specifically in Ontario since the information is not easily found in the public health databases that hospitals use. As a result, discerning a patient's medication history is not a quick streamlined process and can require a lot of back-and-forth calls between pharmacies to glean an accurate picture. Therefore, having one database with all the patient’s medical history can be a great help to pharmacists, specifically hospital pharmacists. In contrast, Dr. Collins enjoys the work/life balance that the hospital pharmacy offers. Working in the cancer center, Dr. Collins sees the same patients regularly, allowing the opportunity to build relationships. Not many hospital pharmacists get the chance to build strong relationships with their patients as their hospital stays are often only a few days. 

Dr. Collins advises students who have the passion to pursue pharmacy that one of the most important things is networking and building connections with individuals in the field. He recommends not to stress about your grades (too much), and to also join committees and clubs relating to pharmacy as this will also enhance your application to a pharmacy degree and may open doors that otherwise would have remained closed.