Jehan Marino, PharmD, BCPP

By Joshua Caballero, PharmD, BCPP

Dr. Marino obtained her PharmD at Bouve Health Sciences, College of Pharmacy at Northeastern University in Boston, MA and completed a Pharmacy Practice Residency at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. She also completed a Pharmacy Specialty Residency in Psychiatric Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Later, she became a Board Certified Psychiatric Pharmacist (BCPP) and is currently an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Nova Southeastern University, College of Pharmacy. She has reviewed and published in Annals of Pharmacotherapy, Pharmacotherapy, and Hospital Pharmacy. Presently, her research interests include combination treatment in patients with schizophrenia and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), women’s health issues and psychiatry, clinical outcomes in psychiatric hospitals, and evaluation of teaching innovations in pharmacy courses.

Describe your role as a psychiatric/neurologic faculty member.

One of my faculty responsibilities is to maintain a practice site at Jackson Mental Health Center where I work in both adult and child/adolescent inpatient settings. My role is to be an integral part of the healthcare team by rounding, making clinical interventions such as recommending drug concentrations, dose adjustments, and providing drug information. Additionally, as a faculty member, I have 4th year pharmacy students on Advance Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPE) in both settings, where they review records/medications, counsel patients, assist in drug class reviews for the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, and assist with research projects. Some of my teaching lectures in Therapeutics and elective courses include “Treatment of Schizophrenia”, “Insomnia”, and “Psychotropic Use in Pregnancy”.

What motivated you into becoming a faculty member?

I think the main drive to be a faculty member is to have the ability to teach students who constantly motivate and develop innovative ways to help them learn challenging topics and concepts. Being a faculty member also gives me the opportunity to pursue my scholarly activities and allows my students to be involved in research.

As a faculty member, what is your biggest challenge?

Time management is challenging since I have multiple responsibilities to the College (e.g., teaching, research, service) but also provide clinical services to my practice site. However, my practice site is very understanding with my role at the College especially since my practice site and College are approximately an hour apart.

How were you able to use an “innovative method” you previously mentioned, in order to assist a student this week?

During the schizophrenia discussion, I asked students direct questions regarding the content. I then followed up by actively discussing their patient cases to enhance their understanding. For example, I pointed out that giving a laundry list of adverse effects for each medication is not practical or necessary when tailoring it to a specific patient. I engaged them to think critically as to why you would obtain specific lab values for medications. I also encouraged them to assess which are the most important side effects/counseling points given their specific patient and their situation.

What is the most important message you try to convey to your students regarding psychiatric pharmacy?

The most important message is to convey to students that psychotropic medications are not like “one size fits all”, and they have to be tailored specifically to individual patients’ preference, comorbidities, and cost.