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Episode 20 - Interview with Dr. Jessica Burchette (Part 2)
We continue our conversation with Dr. Jessica Burchette, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, and dig deeper into the pharmacotherapy and patient care course. She is a clinical pharmacist who helped lead the recent curriculum changes at the college.
Transcript:
Michele Williams
Welcome to White Coat Radio, a podcast from East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy in Johnson City, Tennessee. Each episode we cover a wide range of topics about the pharmacy school experience, from study tips to deep dives with faculty and student pharmacists. I'm one of your hosts, Doctor Michele Williams, Director of Academic Success, and my co-host is Stephen Woodward, our Communications and Marketing Manager.
Michele Williams
Hi, Stephen.
Stephen Woodward
Hey, Doctor Williams. Joining us today is Doctor Jessica Burchette. Doctor Burchette is an Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, and she was selected as the Distinguished Faculty in Teaching at ETSU in 2023. She was also the keynote speaker at ETSU commencement in December of 2023. Doctor Burchette coordinates the Pharmacotherapy and Patient Care course that takes place during the fall of the second professional year. Doctor Burchette, welcome to White Coat Radio.
Jessica Burchette
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here, Stephen.
Stephen Woodward
Well, can you start by telling us a little bit about the Pharmacotherapy and Patient Care course?
Jessica Burchette
Yes, absolutely. This is one of the courses that I'm most excited about with our new curriculum. It is a four-course series that starts in the fall of the second professional year, as you mentioned in your introduction.
The goal of this course is to start out with very common diseases that our patients have — things like high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary artery disease, influenza, GERD, even heartburn.
We're starting students out in a stepwise approach, and we're trying to really wade them into the water of being a clinical pharmacist and thinking through patient issues clinically. Starting out with a single disease state and then beginning to layer those disease states with each other so that we're not teaching in a silo — we're not learning about one disease state and then forgetting about that and moving to the next disease state.
Everything continues to build. So our students started out this year with very basic topics that I actually taught — allergic rhinitis, which is just seasonal allergies — and then moved into things like heartburn. Then they started talking about lipids, cholesterol, and hypertension. Now they're talking about coronary artery disease, which is impacted by people who have hypertension and lipid problems.
You can see how we're continually growing and building that repertoire and moving things forward. The goal is that by the end of the four-course series, students can rattle off any information they need to take care of a patient with those basic core disease states, and then begin implementing more complex patients as we move through.
The series actually ends with patients who have cancer or other types of oncologic issues. So taking care of a patient that has a very acute disease state — but they still have high blood pressure, they still have heartburn — and making sure that you can look at all those medications safely and decide what's best for a patient.
Michele Williams
So you mentioned that this course is part of a four-part series. What can students expect from the series beyond just getting more complex as it goes along?
Jessica Burchette
Right. I think that's a great question. Our goal in this series is that we slowly provide students with more opportunity for self-growth.
We're starting out teaching students how to read medical literature and where to find guidelines. As we move through, students will be able to take that information and interpret it on their own without the faculty member picking out the most important pieces.
We're really trying to teach students how to teach themselves — slowly removing some of those guardrails and allowing more free thought and self-expression.
By the end, students should feel like they have the power, authority, and autonomy to look at a patient and very confidently say, “I feel like there's something here that I can contribute to this patient based on my own thought processes.”
Stephen Woodward
What should students do to be successful in the course?
Jessica Burchette
This entire course series is built around team learning — taking small teams of students and giving them patient scenarios or complex questions to think through as a group.
The first thing students can do is really lean into that. Ask good questions. Participate with your group.
I always tell students that thinking out loud in learning is like going to the gym and paying someone to teach you how to properly lift weights. They have to see you do it in order to correct your form or encourage the direction you're moving in.
As faculty, we really view ourselves as personal trainers of how you're going to think through problems. The only way we can help you with that is if you speak and really engage in the process.
Participate in class. Participate with your small groups during case discussions and facilitated exercises. And do the pre-reading.
That is a big difference in this course compared to what we've done in the past — asking students to do a small amount of pre-work prior to coming to class so they're ready to engage.
It allows us to maximize class time while also giving students practice in digesting material for themselves. It may not be comfortable at first, but so far, the students are doing a great job. It really shows in their performance and the way they're able to engage with us in the classroom.
Michele Williams
Prior to the new curriculum, students were taking the Integrated Series, which was comprised of discrete courses like pulmonary, renal, and cardio. How has the focus shifted from those separate courses into this integrated series?
Jessica Burchette
That's a great question. The Integrated Series became very compressed and very classroom-heavy. Students might have only three weeks to cover everything related to the renal system — pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, and therapy — all at once.
It was a sprint. Courses never overlapped, and there was never a passing of the baton from one course to the next so information could build.
We also determined that spaced retrieval of information is so important to learning. In the previous model, students would learn pharmacology one day and therapy the next without time to digest. When you understand how a drug works and how the body works, it makes sense why we use certain drugs — but they didn't have time to process that.
Now we've separated pharmacology and medicinal chemistry into a three-semester core series. Then students move into pharmacotherapy, where they apply that information to treating patients.
We've also reduced classroom seat time. We realized we can't expect students to prepare effectively after sitting in class for eight hours. No one has that kind of mental capacity after being mentally fatigued all day.
Previously, we as faculty sometimes defaulted to saying, “I know you didn't have time to read, so here's what you need to know.” We were feeding information rather than allowing students to interact with it.
With the new curriculum — and with Doctor Williams’ help — we've been more intentional about balancing seat time with independent learning. Students now have less classroom time, more time to digest information, and more time to engage with the community through flu clinics, blood pressure checks, and senior center activities.
That experiential learning is just as important as classroom learning.
Michele Williams
One of the things I noticed when sitting in on the class is how it facilitates students making connections across disease states and gives them time to reflect and build memory and retrieval skills.
Jessica Burchette
You've been instrumental in that. Faculty are often faculty because we love school — we're nerds. But not every student thrives in the same way.
Doctor Williams has helped us see things from a student perspective and identify where what we intended didn't always match how students experienced it.
The pharmacotherapy faculty meet every three weeks to discuss how the class is going, what issues we're seeing, and whether it's working the way we expected. That has been instrumental in continuing to grow the quality of the course.
Stephen Woodward
Is there anything else you'd like to add today?
Jessica Burchette
I've been really impressed with the way faculty have jumped in and gone the extra mile. I've also been impressed with the students and the quality feedback they've provided.
We know it won’t be perfect the first time. Student feedback is so important.
I've also been really pleased with the support from the Executive Committee, the Dean, Doctor Lugo, Department Chairs Doctor Stacy Brown and Doctor Sarah Thomason, and Doctor David Stewart over Academic Affairs.
Everyone has stepped back and said, “We’re ready to do what we need to do to make the best graduate for our community and for the pharmacy profession as a whole.”
It’s been humbling to watch everyone rally around this and build something special.
We're already hearing great feedback from introductory pharmacy practice preceptors about how engaged and professional students are, and how they come in on day one with real skills.
I can’t wait to see them move into their advanced pharmacy practice experiences and hear that continued feedback. It’s going to be amazing.
Stephen Woodward
Great.
Michele Williams
That’s fantastic. We did an earlier episode with Doctor Burchette about the curriculum, and this course really illustrates that curriculum in a microcosm.
You’ve done such an amazing job leading the curriculum change and this course. We're very excited about the future and grateful you joined us today.
Jessica Burchette
Thank you for your support and your kind words. I appreciate the chance to share these thoughts with you and with your listeners.
View all episodes
By East Tennessee State UniversityWe continue our conversation with Dr. Jessica Burchette, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, and dig deeper into the pharmacotherapy and patient care course. She is a clinical pharmacist who helped lead the recent curriculum changes at the college.
Transcript:
Michele Williams
Welcome to White Coat Radio, a podcast from East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy in Johnson City, Tennessee. Each episode we cover a wide range of topics about the pharmacy school experience, from study tips to deep dives with faculty and student pharmacists. I'm one of your hosts, Doctor Michele Williams, Director of Academic Success, and my co-host is Stephen Woodward, our Communications and Marketing Manager.
Michele Williams
Hi, Stephen.
Stephen Woodward
Hey, Doctor Williams. Joining us today is Doctor Jessica Burchette. Doctor Burchette is an Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, and she was selected as the Distinguished Faculty in Teaching at ETSU in 2023. She was also the keynote speaker at ETSU commencement in December of 2023. Doctor Burchette coordinates the Pharmacotherapy and Patient Care course that takes place during the fall of the second professional year. Doctor Burchette, welcome to White Coat Radio.
Jessica Burchette
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here, Stephen.
Stephen Woodward
Well, can you start by telling us a little bit about the Pharmacotherapy and Patient Care course?
Jessica Burchette
Yes, absolutely. This is one of the courses that I'm most excited about with our new curriculum. It is a four-course series that starts in the fall of the second professional year, as you mentioned in your introduction.
The goal of this course is to start out with very common diseases that our patients have — things like high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary artery disease, influenza, GERD, even heartburn.
We're starting students out in a stepwise approach, and we're trying to really wade them into the water of being a clinical pharmacist and thinking through patient issues clinically. Starting out with a single disease state and then beginning to layer those disease states with each other so that we're not teaching in a silo — we're not learning about one disease state and then forgetting about that and moving to the next disease state.
Everything continues to build. So our students started out this year with very basic topics that I actually taught — allergic rhinitis, which is just seasonal allergies — and then moved into things like heartburn. Then they started talking about lipids, cholesterol, and hypertension. Now they're talking about coronary artery disease, which is impacted by people who have hypertension and lipid problems.
You can see how we're continually growing and building that repertoire and moving things forward. The goal is that by the end of the four-course series, students can rattle off any information they need to take care of a patient with those basic core disease states, and then begin implementing more complex patients as we move through.
The series actually ends with patients who have cancer or other types of oncologic issues. So taking care of a patient that has a very acute disease state — but they still have high blood pressure, they still have heartburn — and making sure that you can look at all those medications safely and decide what's best for a patient.
Michele Williams
So you mentioned that this course is part of a four-part series. What can students expect from the series beyond just getting more complex as it goes along?
Jessica Burchette
Right. I think that's a great question. Our goal in this series is that we slowly provide students with more opportunity for self-growth.
We're starting out teaching students how to read medical literature and where to find guidelines. As we move through, students will be able to take that information and interpret it on their own without the faculty member picking out the most important pieces.
We're really trying to teach students how to teach themselves — slowly removing some of those guardrails and allowing more free thought and self-expression.
By the end, students should feel like they have the power, authority, and autonomy to look at a patient and very confidently say, “I feel like there's something here that I can contribute to this patient based on my own thought processes.”
Stephen Woodward
What should students do to be successful in the course?
Jessica Burchette
This entire course series is built around team learning — taking small teams of students and giving them patient scenarios or complex questions to think through as a group.
The first thing students can do is really lean into that. Ask good questions. Participate with your group.
I always tell students that thinking out loud in learning is like going to the gym and paying someone to teach you how to properly lift weights. They have to see you do it in order to correct your form or encourage the direction you're moving in.
As faculty, we really view ourselves as personal trainers of how you're going to think through problems. The only way we can help you with that is if you speak and really engage in the process.
Participate in class. Participate with your small groups during case discussions and facilitated exercises. And do the pre-reading.
That is a big difference in this course compared to what we've done in the past — asking students to do a small amount of pre-work prior to coming to class so they're ready to engage.
It allows us to maximize class time while also giving students practice in digesting material for themselves. It may not be comfortable at first, but so far, the students are doing a great job. It really shows in their performance and the way they're able to engage with us in the classroom.
Michele Williams
Prior to the new curriculum, students were taking the Integrated Series, which was comprised of discrete courses like pulmonary, renal, and cardio. How has the focus shifted from those separate courses into this integrated series?
Jessica Burchette
That's a great question. The Integrated Series became very compressed and very classroom-heavy. Students might have only three weeks to cover everything related to the renal system — pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, and therapy — all at once.
It was a sprint. Courses never overlapped, and there was never a passing of the baton from one course to the next so information could build.
We also determined that spaced retrieval of information is so important to learning. In the previous model, students would learn pharmacology one day and therapy the next without time to digest. When you understand how a drug works and how the body works, it makes sense why we use certain drugs — but they didn't have time to process that.
Now we've separated pharmacology and medicinal chemistry into a three-semester core series. Then students move into pharmacotherapy, where they apply that information to treating patients.
We've also reduced classroom seat time. We realized we can't expect students to prepare effectively after sitting in class for eight hours. No one has that kind of mental capacity after being mentally fatigued all day.
Previously, we as faculty sometimes defaulted to saying, “I know you didn't have time to read, so here's what you need to know.” We were feeding information rather than allowing students to interact with it.
With the new curriculum — and with Doctor Williams’ help — we've been more intentional about balancing seat time with independent learning. Students now have less classroom time, more time to digest information, and more time to engage with the community through flu clinics, blood pressure checks, and senior center activities.
That experiential learning is just as important as classroom learning.
Michele Williams
One of the things I noticed when sitting in on the class is how it facilitates students making connections across disease states and gives them time to reflect and build memory and retrieval skills.
Jessica Burchette
You've been instrumental in that. Faculty are often faculty because we love school — we're nerds. But not every student thrives in the same way.
Doctor Williams has helped us see things from a student perspective and identify where what we intended didn't always match how students experienced it.
The pharmacotherapy faculty meet every three weeks to discuss how the class is going, what issues we're seeing, and whether it's working the way we expected. That has been instrumental in continuing to grow the quality of the course.
Stephen Woodward
Is there anything else you'd like to add today?
Jessica Burchette
I've been really impressed with the way faculty have jumped in and gone the extra mile. I've also been impressed with the students and the quality feedback they've provided.
We know it won’t be perfect the first time. Student feedback is so important.
I've also been really pleased with the support from the Executive Committee, the Dean, Doctor Lugo, Department Chairs Doctor Stacy Brown and Doctor Sarah Thomason, and Doctor David Stewart over Academic Affairs.
Everyone has stepped back and said, “We’re ready to do what we need to do to make the best graduate for our community and for the pharmacy profession as a whole.”
It’s been humbling to watch everyone rally around this and build something special.
We're already hearing great feedback from introductory pharmacy practice preceptors about how engaged and professional students are, and how they come in on day one with real skills.
I can’t wait to see them move into their advanced pharmacy practice experiences and hear that continued feedback. It’s going to be amazing.
Stephen Woodward
Great.
Michele Williams
That’s fantastic. We did an earlier episode with Doctor Burchette about the curriculum, and this course really illustrates that curriculum in a microcosm.
You’ve done such an amazing job leading the curriculum change and this course. We're very excited about the future and grateful you joined us today.
Jessica Burchette
Thank you for your support and your kind words. I appreciate the chance to share these thoughts with you and with your listeners.