Heather Brennan Congdon
Dr. Heather Brennan Congdon is the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy Assistant Dean for Shady Grove, among many other various positions. Heather knew she wanted to be a Pharmacist at an early age and in high school she started making her dream become a reality. One summer she had the opportunity to teach children English and Math and she found herself really enjoying teaching. That feeling was reinforced during her Residency when she started teaching Pharmacy students. She discovered that her love for Pharmacy could be combined with her love for teaching and she found the perfect fit as a professor at a pharmacy school.
As the Assistant Dean she enjoys engaging and interacting with fellow faculty and staff at USG and the partner institutions, to develop innovative ideas and implement positive change. One specific innovative idea was the creation of the Interprofessional Education (IPE) concept that combines students from different healthcare programs and allows them to work in a team environment – gaining important real-world experience.
Heather and her fellow colleagues created the course: “An Interprofessional Approach to the Critically Ill Patient.” Students work in teams to solve simulated patient cases through three stages. The first is the introductory experience, where students learn their roles and responsibilities on a team in a classroom setting. The second is simulation and immersion experiences, where students practice cases with simulated patients in a safe environment. The third and final stage is experiential and clinical experience, where students work on a team to care for an actual patient in a clinical environment. The success of the course has been a rewarding experience for Heather, “My vision is to enhance and increase the number of interprofessional learning opportunities available for students on campus.”
Her advice for students is about team work, “Know your strengths and the areas you are not as strong in and align yourself with team members that compliment your strengths and other areas, so that the team as a whole can provide the best output and outcome as possible.” Click here to watch the video.