Doctor of Pharmacy Alumna Makes an Impact on Pediatric Mental Health
Rachael Jaszczenski, PharmD, alumna of the MCW School of Pharmacy Class of 2021, has already achieved her career aspiration she established during her second week as a student-pharmacist. She practices at Children’s Wisconsin as an inpatient pediatric pharmacist in both general pediatrics and mental health.
She is proud to play a role in initiatives to expand mental health care for pediatric patients. In July 2021, Children’s Wisconsin received a $20 million gift from former Fiserv Inc. CEO Jeffery Yabuki to hire therapists at all of its primary and urgent care locations in southeastern Wisconsin. Children’s opened the Craig Yabuki Mental Health Walk-in Clinic in March 2022, named in honor of Jeffery Yabuki’s brother who died by suicide. In August 2024, it announced the designation of the Craig Yabuki Mental Health Center, which is the umbrella name for all mental and behavioral health services across Children’s Wisconsin.
“Some research indicates that more than half of individuals who struggle with mental health conditions in their lifetime start experiencing symptoms before the age of 14. The problem with that is that the average length of time between symptoms appearing and the start of treatment is more than 10 years,” explained Dr. Jaszczenski. “So, there’s a huge gap where pediatric patients may not receive any kind of mental health services until they’re well into their adult life.”
As a pediatric mental health pharmacist, Dr. Jaszczenski supports primary care and urgent care providers who may ask medication-related questions – for example, regarding side effects or adverse drug interactions.
Dr. Jaszczenski said she spent a lot of time at Children’s while she was an MCW student and gained a good depth of knowledge rotating through the inpatient pharmacy, ambulatory care setting plus in a clinical role. “MCW has a plethora of resources and connections, and they were able to connect me immediately with people at Children’s to ensure I was getting the best possible experience throughout my school career.”
The MCW School of Pharmacy is connected to Children’s Wisconsin via skywalk. MCW pharmacy students who are interested in pediatric pharmacy can participate in a Longitudinal Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (LAPPE) at Children’s. During the third and final year of the PharmD curriculum, students selected for the LAPPE program are provided extended time at Children's to gain a better understanding of the healthcare services provided and prepare for their intended career path.
Evaluating primary literature was a key skill developed during Dr. Jaszczenski’s rotations at Children’s. Due to less available data, guidelines and protocols for pediatric patients are not as clear and defined as those for adult patients – this is often called the “gray area” of pediatrics. Dr. Jaszczenski recalled she was trained to dig through literature, attempt to correlate limited data to the patient and find the best situation for them.
Dr. Jaszczenski also engaged in research during her time at MCW, investigating medication myths with Ryan Feldman, PharmD, BCPS, DABAT, a clinical assistant professor and emergency medicine clinical pharmacist at Froedtert Hospital. They collected data on patients admitted to the Froedtert emergency department to determine if there was validity behind the longstanding practice that patients who have alcohol in their system should not be given the antibiotic metronidazole. Combining the two is purported to cause a disulfiram-like reaction – an unpleasant syndrome of nausea, vomiting, flushing and fast heart rate. However, Drs. Jaszczenski and Feldman found there was no significant difference in symptoms for intoxicated patients who were given metronidazole. The manuscript was published in the Wisconsin Medical Journal in 2023.
Throughout her time in pharmacy school, Dr. Jaszczenski worked as a certified pharmacy technician at Children’s Wisconsin and was later hired as a graduate intern. She completed a residency at Children’s of Alabama before returning to Children’s Wisconsin as a pharmacist in July 2022.
For those who may be considering a career in pharmacy, Dr. Jaszczenski recommends shadowing pharmacists in a variety of practice settings. “There are so many paths in pharmacy that you can go down, so the more you can shadow and make connections, the more you’ll be able to make an informed decision,” she explained.
“There are a lot of resources within the MCW community, which is connected to Children’s Wisconsin and Froedtert Hospital. MCW can offer you a breadth of experience and assist you in building relationships in whatever specialty interests you.”