Preceptor of the Year (2023-2024)
Congratulations to Tiffany Matisho, Pharmacist at St. Peter's Hospital in Melville.
“We grow from them.
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Shannan Neubauer highlights this symbiotic relationship as key to positive experiences for students and pharmacists in the Yorkton/Melville region. Tiffany Matisho, the 2023-2024 hospital-based Preceptor of the Year, exemplifies this symbiosis at St. Peter’s Hospital in Melville.
Tiffany has practiced as a hospital pharmacist in the Yorkton/Melville region since her convocation from the BSP program in 2013. Since completing her own experiential learning placements as a student in both Yorkton and Melville, Shannan says that Tiffany has retained a spirit for learning throughout her career. She is described as a role model for lifelong learning; “optimistic and open in her approach to care provision,” according to Shannan. Tiffany says precepting “encourages me to stay on top of my knowledge and reflect on my practice”.
Tiffany is celebrated by students for her kindness, patience, thoughtful guidance, and role modelling. She creates a supportive learning atmosphere at St. Peter’s, allowing students to “learn at their own pace” while gaining confidence and competence. Tiffany’s teaching philosophy aligns with inquiry-based learning: “I encourage them to ask me questions and, in turn, I’m always asking them questions and saying ‘I want you to dig deeper. I know you know the basics, but dig deeper!’ I think they appreciate that.”. There is evidence that they do. Rayelle Pashovitz, a PHAR 483 student, noted Tiffany’s impact on her learning, saying she “helped me to become an overall better learner”.
Shannan says that Tiffany “breathes enthusiasm for patient care”. She is on the frontline of patient care across the facility, showing students how impactful it can be when a pharmacist is enabled to work to their full scope on the ward. “Underpinned by all of this”, says Shannan, “is a very strong technician partner who manages [in the dispensary].” She says there is a tendency in small hospital for a pharmacist to “be pulled back to the dispensary” but, with very strong support from her technician colleagues, Tiffany is able to live out her passion for frontline patient care at the bedside.
St. Peter’s Hospital is renowned for its collaborative and team-based environment. Tiffany unmistakably contributes to this culture through her emphasis on interprofessional relationships. She says the benefit of working in a smaller institution is that “we all know each other”. What she finds most exciting about precepting is observing students recognizing the benefit in forming relationships with other healthcare providers and becoming a part of the team: “we look at it from the medication perspective, but there are so many other pieces to that patient’s puzzle, and when [the students] see the big picture, that’s what excites me”. And indeed, the students do come to appreciate the value of that collaborative care model. They consider her a “vital part of the hospital team”. Rayelle adds that “every profession in the hospital looks to her for guidance and advice, and she is so well respected”.
Shannan feels St. Peter’s Hospital is an exemplary site to expose students to collaborative, full-scope, rural hospital pharmacy practice: “As a team, they wrap their arms around patients and work together. Everyone practices to their full scope, and that’s such an amazing thing for students to see.”. She believes that preceptors like Tiffany make rural hospital practice an enticing career path for students, saying, “the biggest endorsement we ever get [is from past students].”
Congratulations, Tiffany, on this well-deserved recognition!