As an assistant professor of pharmacy practice in a primary care setting, Michael Zappone '12, PharmD has much to convey to students: Knowledge about all manner of diseases and medications. About how to collaborate with medical professionals. About how to consult with patients.
With so much to potentially address, he is guided by his students and their aspirations.
“I take a holistic view – not only academics but the students’ lives, their personal goals, finding their purpose, what they’re passionate about,” Dr. Zappone said.
Talk to his students, or read their recommendations of him, and you’ll see they feel his complete and focused attention. They say Dr. Zappone is “caring,” “down to earth” and “allows us to grow.” It’s the reason he was named Faculty Preceptor of the Year.
“He sat each individual student down to talk about how their aspirations from P1 have changed or evolved,” one student wrote. “From that discussion, Dr. Zappone helped me find ways to tie my passion for public health into a project that could ultimately benefit the practice (site).”
Dr. Zappone is one of more than 500 ACPHS preceptors who are critical to a pharmacy students’ final training before they embark on their professional careers. They supervise students at their clinical rotation sites, modeling professional conduct and decision-making as well as evaluating students in their settings.
The Preceptor of the Year not only models that professional role, but also shows leadership and service to the profession, unparalleled clinical knowledge and subject matter expertise, dedication to patient care, exemplary dedication to the student learning environment and highly positive comments in student evaluations.
"Dr. Zappone is one of our most sought-after ambulatory care preceptors," said Dr. Jennifer Cerulli, director of Experiential Education. "His connectivity with the students starts during his classroom teaching where he talks to students about how what he is teaching applies to his current patient care experiences."
Caleb Kinsey and Katarina Scali are both at Dr. Zappone’s rotation site this month. They praised his ability to supervise them with a caring style, gently pointing out their mistakes and intuitively sharing what they needed to improve.
His approach is “impactful,” Scali said, because it allows them to take appropriate risks and learn more. “You know he won’t judge you.”
Kinsey recalled a patient whose problems he could not adequately diagnose. The patient, who had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), had come in with symptoms that included tightness in his chest, as well as gagging and sometimes vomiting each morning. The P4 pharmacy student attempted a few rationales for the symptoms but was not quite right. Dr. Zappone noted that although the patient had not complained about it on his visit, he also had gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD); the patient’s medication regimen for GERD was a factor to consider.
Kinsey predicted he’d likely remember the potential side effects of GERD medications forever.
“Dr. Zappone makes it a teaching moment,” Kinsey said. “He never makes you feel bad.”
Working from a practice site at Albany Med Faculty Physicians Internal Medicine Group, Dr. Zappone works with other medical professionals on a wide variety of cases and engages his students as much as he can.
His wish for his students? “I hope every one of my students does better than I do, that’s what I tell them. I want them to be successful.”