Decades after she was born, clinical pharmacist Christy Martinez-Vigil, RPh, PhC, realized that a name on her patient schedule at the El Centro Family Health clinic in Española, N.M., was familiar.
He had been referred by a local provider for management of warfarin, a prescription medication used to prevent harmful blood clots from forming or growing larger, and it turned out this patient had been one of the first people Martinez-Vigil had ever met.
“He had been the family physician here in Española, and when I was born at Española Hospital, he was the doctor who delivered me,” Martinez-Vigil said. “When he came in, I told him that I knew he had delivered thousands of babies in his lifetime, and I wanted him to know that it was my turn to give back to him.”
Martinez-Vigil, a 1992 graduate of The University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy, has been with El Centro for 28 years. She works on the front lines of primary care as a clinical pharmacist, one of the rural health care providers who treat patients across many small communities throughout northern and northeastern New Mexico.
We recruit across the across the state, because it’s going to be easier to convince someone to return to a rural area than it is for somebody born and raised in Albuquerque or Santa Fe to go to a rural area.
– Donald A. Godwin, PhD, Dean, UNM College of Pharmacy
“I’ve been able to serve former teachers and some of my relatives, so giving back to the community where I was raised has been a blessing,” she said. “My heart is there to help those patients and to see them want to do better.”
Clinical pharmacists like Martinez-Vigil are specially trained to provide primary and specialty care and prescribe medications, including controlled substances, for acute and chronic medical conditions. New Mexico was the first state to allow these pharmacists to serve in this role to address the shortage of primary care providers across a vast, largely rural state.
New Mexico permits pharmacists to perform certain diagnostic tests, such as for flu, strep throat and COVID, and then prescribe medications based on the results. They can also prescribe and dispense hormonal birth control, tobacco cessation medicine and naloxone, and they can monitor patients for conditions like hypertension and diabetes and provide short-term treatments for acute conditions, such as urinary tract infections or allergies.
The UNM College of Pharmacy, founded in 1945, has long trained most of New Mexico’s pharmacists and recognizes how crucial it is for students from rural parts of the state to serve their communities, said Dean Donald A. Godwin, PhD.
“We recruit across the across the state, because it’s going to be easier to convince someone to return to a rural area than it is for somebody born and raised in Albuquerque or Santa Fe to go to a rural area,” he said.
The College also recruits students through its Early Assurance Program, which enables qualified undergraduate students at other New Mexico universities to join UNM undergraduates majoring in pharmacy two years before they pursue a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree.
Like Martinez-Vigil, they can choose to serve their communities.
Recently, Martinez-Vigil visited with Valerie Duran, 54, of Sombrillo, N.M., who has been seeing Martinez-Vigil for the past three years to monitor her Type 2 diabetes and kidney disease.
A turning point in Duran’s treatment came when Martinez-Vigil leveled with her about the seriousness of her condition, focusing on her A1C levels, which measure the average amount of sugar in the blood over the past three months. An A1C of 6.5% or higher indicates diabetes – and Duran’s level was sky-high.
Valerie Duran and Christy Martinez-Vigil
Through Medicaid, Duran received assistance from a caretaker, who helped her start moving more and get motivated to improve her health to bring her sugar and A1C down. Meanwhile, Martinez-Vigil started her on Tirzepatide, an injectable GLP-1 medication used to manage blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes.
“Every time that I reached a milestone, Christy made me feel very proud of myself,” Duran said. “When I reached a plateau, she would help to adjust my medication, or she would get me on a better medication.”
Martinez-Vigil said that she is proud of the progress that Duran has made in her health in a short time.
“When I first saw her, her A1C was over 14%,” Martinez-Vigil said. “We were able to get her off insulin. She now doesn’t have to poke her finger and get blood checks. She has a sensor that’s telling her what her sugars are all the time.”
Caring for Clayton
Giving back and serving her community is also the career path pharmacist Quirina Wolfe, PharmD, chose after graduating the UNM College of Pharmacy in 2009.
Wolfe, who grew up in Clayton, N.M., population 2,559, had known that she wanted to pursue a career in the medical field. She decided to pursue pharmacy after earning a B.S. in psychology at UNM in 1998 and working in Clayton in case management.
Wolfe received invaluable support from Clayton’s Union County General Hospital’s then-CEO in the form of tuition and housing assistance during pharmacy school. In exchange, she returned to Clayton to work for a few years in the hospital’s pharmacy.
We’re very rural out here. Our closest next pharmacy would be in Dalhart, Texas, which is 45 miles away. The closest one in New Mexico is in Raton, which is 80 miles away. We’re often the only place where you can walk in and ask questions.
– Quirina Wolfe, PharmD, Union County General Hospital Staff Pharmacist & Owner, Clayton City Drug
“I was just going to come back and do my time,” Wolfe said. “But 16 years later, I’m still here.”
The expanded scope of practice for pharmacists has meant that Wolfe wears many hats. She serves as staff pharmacist at the hospital, a consulting pharmacist for the prisons in Clayton and Springer and as the new owner, with her husband, of Clayton’s historic and only pharmacy, City Drug.
Many people come into City Drug with health-related questions, Wolfe said.
“We’re very rural out here, she said. “Our closest next pharmacy would be in Dalhart, Texas, which is 45 miles away. The closest one in New Mexico is in Raton, which is 80 miles away. We’re often the only place where you can walk in and ask questions.”
Wolfe splits mornings and afternoons at the hospital, at City Drug or driving to one of the prisons, while being on-call at the hospital.
City Drug in Clayton, N.M.
“I wanted to come back here and serve the people I grew up with,” she said. “Right now, we need other pharmacists to come to the area, too.”
The reward of working in a small community is these rural pharmacists know their patients that they encounter each day.
“I love what I do, and where I am, and I am proud to serve my community and to help fill the health care gaps that rural communities often see,” Wolfe said.
Trusted Treatment in Taos
Morgan Duval, PharmD, pharmacy director at Holy Cross Medical Center in Taos, previously served as a Pharmacy Flight Commander and Chief of Pharmacy Operations at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.
Duval, who grew up in Clovis, N.M, was always interested in pursuing a career in health care, majoring in biochemistry at Eastern New Mexico University. As a pharmacy technician at Walmart in Clovis, she met a pharmacist stationed at nearby Cannon Air Force Base, who inspired her to enlist in the U.S. Air Force, which she did after graduating from the UNM College of Pharmacy in 2018. A deployment to Afghanistan followed.
“I’ve been fortunate where I’ve gotten to do clinical, retail and inpatient roles,” Duval said. “The challenges are so unique, especially in Taos. The mountains add a whole different layer, because sometimes we can’t transport and we have really high acuity patients. Sometimes the retail settings here are not staffed, so you have to be able to navigate what is a prior authorization or what your co-pay is going to be. You need to be able to talk the language of retail. Because sometimes you’re it – you’re the only pharmacist in the whole county.”
I think the UNM College of Pharmacy really preps you well for working in rural New Mexico. If I have a question about how I get a person’s medication because they live in a very rural area, I can call someone in Santa Fe, Albuquerque or southern New Mexico, and they’re going to help me, because it’s a connection from UNM.
– Morgan Duval, PharmD, Pharmacy Director, Holy Cross Medical Center
Taos is a popular tourist destination, but its population is only 6,453, and it’s surrounded by small towns around the Enchanted Circle with limited access to community pharmacies. Taos and Questa have pharmacies, Duval said, but the ones in Angel Fire and Mora closed and some people have to drive more than 60 miles to Raton to fill their prescriptions.
Duval credits the UNM College of Pharmacy and her fellow grads for creating a supportive network of rural pharmacists.
“I think the UNM College of Pharmacy really preps you well for working in rural New Mexico,” she said. “I still have so many friends or colleagues. If I have a question about how I get a person’s medication because they live in a very rural area, I can call someone in Santa Fe, Albuquerque or southern New Mexico, and they’re going to help me, because it’s a connection from UNM.”
The UNM College of Pharmacy prepares pharmacists to be problem-solvers, Duval said, adding that as a rural pharmacist no two days are the same for her at Holy Cross Medical Center.
“One day I could be in meetings and then be responding to a trauma in our trauma bay or a code in our ICU,” she said. “Instead of seeing it as a challenge, I think, ‘what problem do I get to solve today where we make a difference for our patients and the patients in rural New Mexico?’ We really are affecting a broad population.”
news/no-clinics-for-miles-unm-college-of-pharmacy-alums-bring-vital-health-care-to-rural-northern-new-mexico”>Source link
