Leigh Briscoe-Dwyer helps student pharmacists be best clinicians possible

Leigh Briscoe-Dwyer is a runner. She recently completed her eighth marathon ─ and first international one ─ in London. “It keeps me on track and keeps me focused,” she said. “I always enjoy finishing one, but the rest of it is kind of tough!”

As vice president of network pharmacy at Westchester County Medical Center Health Network in Valhalla, N.Y., she understands the value of training, whether it’s the five months leading up to a marathon, or the education required to become a pharmacist and stay up to date as one.

When she gave the keynote address at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences’ inaugural White Coat Ceremony in August 2017, Briscoe-Dwyer told students that their white coats are a sign of commitment to the profession and their responsibility to become the best clinicians they can be. That still rings true for her as she works to enable all of the pharmacists she has responsibility for to do just that.

“My main focus is to have every pharmacist practice at the top of their license,” she said. “That means that they utilize all of the information they have and the experience they have. It will be different for each person, depending on if they have five or 10 years’ experience, if they’ve done a residency and even where they practice. But it means being all in and bringing all that you have.

“I tell people, make a difference to one person every single day,” she said. “I have 100 people in my department. That’s 100 patients. If you can feel that you’ve made a difference, then that’s what I want you to feel as you leave at the end of the day.”

Briscoe-Dwyer was raised by parents who worked with patients. Her mother was a nurse and both parents were EMTs. “I was surrounded by healthcare discussions from the time I was young,” she said. “Science and medicine always interested me and I was contemplating a career in medicine but didn’t understand the concept of going to school for four years as pre-med and not being able to do anything with that.”

She met a recruiter from Albany College of Pharmacy at a college fair and when he talked about pharmacy, she thought it would be a good stepping stone to medical school. “At that point in time, it was a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in five years and I would be on my way to med school and have a career to help pay for it,” she said.

But she caught the pharmacy bug. “Once I got into pharmacy school, I realized that that was what I was supposed to be doing and I’m a better pharmacist because that’s my passion,” she said. “It’s a connection and had all the things I love ─ science and a lot of patient focus.”

Briscoe-Dwyer received her bachelor’s degree from the Albany College of Pharmacy, and her PharmD from St. John’s University. She is a certified pharmacist immunizer and is Board Certified in pharmacotherapy.

Pharmacy is a skill and not everyone can bring to healthcare what pharmacists can, she said. “When it comes to providing and being the expert on medications, doing the compounding. That’s very unique and I like being somebody who has that special knowledge that only they can provide.”

As she moved into administrative roles in her career, Briscoe-Dwyer has maintained her drive to provide the best patient care possible. No two days are the same for her as she supervises several pharmacies within the system, and she tries to stop in frequently. “Even if it’s less than five minutes, I can see the interactions with nurses, providers and patients,” she said. “That’s gratifying and enables me to be at the point of care to see what it is that my staff needs to do their jobs better.”

Briscoe-Dwyer is also always looking for ways to communicate, especially around medication safety and patient safety. That might mean providing a clinical advisory to nurses about the best way to administer or monitor a medication.

“My main job as vice president is to make sure everyone has the tools they need,” she said. “For example, if we’re rolling out a new computerized system I want to make sure it’s user friendly and that it deals with all the pharmacists need at their fingertips so they can act quickly and efficiently.”

When she’s not training for a marathon ─ which she always ties into a charitable cause ─ or pursing her passion as a pharmacist, Briscoe-Dwyer might be found in the kitchen, cooking with her husband. “I love to cook and in a way it’s related to pharmacy [mixing things!], but with cooking you get immediate gratification!”

Briscoe-Dwyer also believes that pharmacy is at a critical time now. “Some say pharmacy is going to change and we have too many pharmacists and that’s concerning for the future,” she said. “I think the opposite. We don’t have enough pharmacists doing the right things. Pharmacists are integral to successful healthcare today and will be 20 years from now. Being a pharmacist is hard work, but it brings joy and at the end of the day you can’t ask for much more than that.”