Dr. Monica Trivedi began her medical career as a "candy striper," the term given to volunteers at Hoag Hospital and Irvine Medical Center because of the red-and-white-striped vests they wore. There she had her first exposure to the potential of pharmacy as a profession and it served as the springboard to pharmacy school and her first positions as a pharmacy clerk and pharmacy technician at Longs Drugs.
Corporate Success
After completing her schooling, Dr. Trivedi began her career officially in retail pharmacy, where her excellent work ethic and leadership skills meant that she was soon promoted to manage larger and larger groups of people and then larger groups of pharmacies. She was able to collaborate well and relate with others, and her successful career eventually resulted in her being put in charge of three districts’ worth of Target stores.
Her life as a pharmacist had become about increasing profit, legal compliance, operational workflow, recruiting, sales and payroll. And although she enjoyed her work and was good at it, she began to think more and more about how much she liked working with interns, teaching them about pharmacy and about how many of the ones she came across seemed to lack certain knowledge and skillsets. What if she could get to them before they graduated?
A New Opportunity
These feelings came right around the time a new College of Pharmacy was being established at Marshall B. Ketchum University and so Dr. Trivedi joined academia to help build the program with Dean Edward Fisher, before a single student ever set foot on campus. Though it was a big learning process, Dr. Trivedi found that many of her skills in the corporate world carried over into the academic. “In education, you have learning objectives and certain student learning outcomes are achieved,” she explains. “But in a sense, that's like meeting your numbers in the corporate world. A big part of my job at Ketchum is setting up rotation sites. Well, that's easy because that's about relationship building with pharmacists. And that's exactly what I used to do to help my pharmacists and pharmacies be successful.”
Working With Preceptors
Dr. Trivedi’s experience with connecting to pharmacies has been invaluable in helping MBKU’s College of Pharmacy establish preceptor sites that will oversee pharmacy students when they go on their clinical rotations. Dr. Trivedi works to ensure that each preceptor site is one where Ketchum students will thrive and learn in an environment that shares MBKU's values. “Without our preceptors, our students really can't apply their knowledge. It is key to have great preceptors that are dedicated and influential on our students, giving them the opportunity to see what their jobs look like and to practice utilizing their skills and knowledge. We want to be out there in the community so people can see the value we can bring.” Dr. Trivedi also heads the Preceptor Advisory Council to make sure the relationship between the preceptors and the MBKU students they welcome remains vibrant.
Building a College of Pharmacy program from scratch has given Dr. Trivedi the opportunity to influence the knowledge of pharmacy graduates before they go on their first rotations. And she sees it as a privilege to do so in collaboration with the other great pharmacists in the program. “We have a great blend of ideas that work together, which gives us the opportunity to make the best pharmacy program we can,” she says.