SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb., – Nancy Sloan, Pharm. D., of Scottsbluff was honored as the Preceptor of the Year during the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy spring honors convocation and hooding ceremony in Lincoln, Neb.

Dr. Sloan is the interim director of pharmacy and assistant director of clinical services at Regional West Medical Center. Fourth-year pharmacy students at UNMC nominated her for the award.

“This award is very nice. It’s humbling, but the education we provide is a joint effort that involves the whole pharmacy. We all volunteer as preceptors,” said Sloan.

Preceptors teach and mentor students while students gain practical experience in professional work settings. They also advance high standards of practice, promote professional values and nurture professional development of the student.

While she is eager to share the credit for quality of education provided at Regional West Medical Center, her students singled her out from among pharmacy preceptors around the state who instructed them during the course of the pharmacy education program.

“She has a way of instructing without making her students seem incompetent,” one student wrote on a nomination form.
“She was possibly the kindest person that I have ever met,” wrote another.

The UNMC award is the third preceptor award presented to Sloan. She has also received preceptor awards from Auburn and Wyoming.

Clearly, she enjoys teaching students, and she believes students can learn a great deal at Regional West Medical Center.

“Our clinical services here are comparable to those at large teaching hospitals, and our pharmacists are so good at carrying these out 24-7,” said Sloan. “Their involvement in clinical monitoring is unusual for a hospital this size and the time our pharmacists spend on the floor is greater than many hospitals.”

That’s because Sloan brings great ideas back from clinical meetings and continuing education and implements them at Regional West.

“Our doctors are receptive to allowing us to order certain drugs, per protocol, so patients get optimal drug therapy faster. They also allow the pharmacists to order lab values, per protocol, with provider co-signature as a safety measure, which doesn’t happen at all hospitals,” said Sloan. “As a result, our students learn so much in this environment.”

Sloan precepts UNMC students and those from Creighton University, as well as the University of Wyoming, South University in Georgia, the University of Arizona, and the University of South Dakota.

A 1980 UNMC College of Pharmacy graduate, Sloan was raised in Nebraska and graduated from high school in South Sioux City, Nebraska. Previously, she served as a clinical pharmacist and preceptor at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa; Good Samaritan Health Systems, Kearney, Neb.; and the University of Alabama in Birmingham Hospitals, Birmingham, Ala. She served as a staff pharmacist at Beatrice Community Hospital, Beatrice, Neb., and was a clinical coordinator at the University Texas System Cancer Center, Houston, Tex., and The New York Hospital, New York, NY.

Regional West Health Services, with over 1,800 employees, provides comprehensive and innovative health care services for the people and communities of western Nebraska and the neighboring states of Colorado, South Dakota and Wyoming. With over 110 active physicians, 95 percent of whom are board certified or board eligible, plus an additional 25 consulting specialists, Regional West offers care that spans more than 30 medical specialties. Regional West Medical Center, a subsidiary of Regional West Health Services, is accredited by The Joint Commission and is one of three Level II Trauma Centers in Nebraska.