Dr. Amy Schwartz is one of the driving forces behind the change and growth at The University of Texas at Tyler’s Ben and Maytee Fisch College of Pharmacy. Schwartz shares an insider’s view into the world of pharmacy education as the college’s new dean. She’s working to rekindle the team’s spirits after the loss of the founding dean.
Schwartz’s vision is to equip pharmacy graduates for the real world they’ll be navigating: an ever-evolving field, wrestling with new medications and charting the territory of patient care.
MIKE LANDESS: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. The University of Texas at Tyler Ben and Maytee Fisch College of Pharmacy offers a Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum that’s quite popular. Dr. Amy Schwartz has been at the helm as dean and professor of that program since February, and she’s our guest today. Welcome.
AMY SCHWARTZ: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me today.
LANDESS: During the recent convocation at UT Tyler, President Kirk Calhoun talked about each department embracing change at the university. What kind of change might we see at the College of Pharmacy?
SCHWARTZ: It’s been a unique year for the college, with the passing of the inaugural founding dean, coming in and working with the team and showing them that life will be better. We can survive this. We can come back from this. That’s some of the initial steps that are being taken. Those are some of the changes that I’ve been working on as far as building the team back up and getting them to enjoy what they’re doing, enjoy the practice of pharmacy, enjoy the research and things that they’re involved with. There’s some other things. We’re going to be taking a look at our curriculum and seeing what other ways we might be able to improve it, see what other types of pathways we might be able to provide that would be beneficial for the East Texas region and the graduates that will be coming out and practicing in the East Texas region. There’s a couple of things like that that we’re looking at. We’re also really excited about being part of the health sciences and growing and working with the other schools, both in inter-professional practice and in research and education. Hopefully, our students will get out and start engaging a little bit more with students in the other programs.
LANDESS: Will you have any involvement in the medical school at all?
SCHWARTZ: Not directly. Really, more indirectly as far as working with the faculty and administration in the medical school. They’re a good group, very open group. We really look forward to partnering with them.
LANDESS: What kinds of challenges are the young men and women who are part of FCOP going to be facing when they get out in the real world?
SCHWARTZ: Oh, wow. Well, there’s never a shortage of medications that are coming out, new medications that are coming out, and trying to keep up with the medical literature as to not only the different types of medications but the indications for the different medications. They’re always going to be challenged by keeping up with the literature that changes literally daily. Those are the things that they’re going to be facing. I think, too, the practice of pharmacy is still evolving, getting into the more clinical arena, being part of the team, both inpatient and outpatient, getting more engaged in those processes. A lot of folks went into pharmacy because they wanted to stand behind the counter and not have to talk to people as much. Pharmacy is very engaging. You have to get out from behind the counter, going into what we call the stack in the pharmacy and engage with the patients. Now in the pharmacies, you’re going to see new wellness opportunities in the pharmacy. Everybody, through COVID, saw the vaccines that are being administered and getting out and doing that. There’ll be more with monitoring of blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes. These are all things that could be done in the pharmacy. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing that grow. The outpatient area is really where the growth and expansion is going to be, because the focus is on wellness, keeping people healthy, keeping people out of the hospitals. Those areas, geriatric care, these are all going to be areas that the students are facing, just like myself just being open and being part of the change and trying to help move the profession along. Again, making sure we have our voice, but then also working collaboratively with the other health professionals, because everything’s got to be done in a team. Everybody has to communicate with one another for the best care for the patient.
LANDESS: You know you’re teaching chemistry and dispensing, but what about that human touch factor? You mentioned that just a moment ago about coming out from behind the counter. Is that teachable, or is that one of the things that you either have it or you don’t?
SCHWARTZ: It’s a combination of both in all honesty. You know, so for example, myself — I consider myself an extroverted introvert. So by birth, I am an introvert. So talking to people, touching people, is not an innate nature for me. Again, as I had mentioned earlier, that’s why I went into pharmacy. I was hoping to be behind the counter making medications and all this other fun stuff. But as I practiced, I actually began to love that, and so I’m actually an ambulatory care clinician, which means I do practice in the outpatient clinics. So it’s something that I think that everybody can learn and become better at, and really the best way to really know your patient is to be able to have good, open conversations with them, make them feel comfortable and really be able to read them.
LANDESS: Tell me about this latest generation. What are they like and what are they gonna be like, do you think?
SCHWARTZ: You know, I’ve seen a lot of generations change over time, and the students coming in now, they’re no different from an intelligence perspective. In fact, on some levels, they’ve had exposure to different things because of technology that I would have never have had exposure to. But they’re challenged because of all the technological nuances in a bad way. They’re sort of too reliant on technology, not reliant enough on themselves and their own skills, and so, trying to help them grow the life skills that they need to be successful at the graduate level of education and then be successful in practice, we find ourselves having to teach a lot more of those types of skills. Because the medications, you could always look things up. There’s a lot of literature out there, and we can’t at this point in time teach all of the medications. There’s just too many of them. We focus on the most prevalent and sort of go from there. But where we see students struggle is mostly with the life skills. Because for me the technology came on much later in life and it was more supplemental. For the students coming in now it’s essential, and so there’s things that I was exposed to, I had to work through intellectually and otherwise that they haven’t had to do. And so it’s sort of like I don’t wanna say it’s a maturity level because they’re not immature, but it’s really just like being exposed to life. What we’re seeing is life crises and other things that they haven’t experienced, and so helping them work through those nuances is challenging, but it’s doable.
LANDESS: It sounds to me like — it’s not that they don’t have it. They just don’t know that they have it.
SCHWARTZ: Absolutely, they all have it. They just haven’t been tested.
LANDESS: Our guest has been Dr. Amy Schwartz. To hear this conversation again or to share it, go to KVUT.org. For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess.
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