Feels like I forgot everything in pharmacy school while on rotations :\

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kendrick lamar

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So while on rotations, quite a lot of stuff felt like a huge memory jog and I just cant seem to remember specific stuff and some of the things about drugs/disease states learned in these past three years; in fact, I even feel like I forgot loads of stuff from just last semester. I'm wondering how some of you manage to refresh information: going over old notes? any specific books or resources you have used? I brought my condensed Dipiro's copy to my rotation everyday and also used Micromedex app (now planning on purchasing LexiComp for my iPhone since Micromedex seemed sort of inadequate) I have two rotations and a break before my GenMed and AmCare rotations, which I suppose will be the hardest, so I hopefully want to be as prepared as possible. Suggestions, ideas? Thanks.

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It is normal to forget a lot of stuffs in school because in school you learn stuffs orderly, but in real life things just dont appear in order. Before each rotation, I used to review lectures in school, it helped to refresh memory and gain more confidence while being asked questions.
 
The first week is always kind of like that for me. But like FML said, you learn a lot on the rotation. Topics that I wasn't 100% on during class I really got a grasp of since I was applying it day in and day out. A brief overview of topics beforehand is a good idea, but don't go crazy with it, only focus the main topics. Like for am care, diabetes, htn, cholesterol, smoking cessation. Gen med you'll want to know COPD, CAP, CHF. You'll find out what you need to know along the way. My preceptors had a pretty good resource or some reading material they wanted you to cover, and we'd have some discussions that would build off of that.
 
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The first week is always kind of like that for me. But like FML said, you learn a lot on the rotation. Topics that I wasn't 100% on during class I really got a grasp of since I was applying it day in and day out. A brief overview of topics beforehand is a good idea, but don't go crazy with it, only focus the main topics. Like for am care, diabetes, htn, cholesterol, smoking cessation. Gen med you'll want to know COPD, CAP, CHF. You'll find out what you need to know along the way. My preceptors had a pretty good resource or some reading material they wanted you to cover, and we'd have some discussions that would build off of that.

Know those like the back of your hand and you'll breeze through the majority of rotations
 
Total opposite for me... I feel like rotations is where I learned the most. Not to mentioned gained experience that prepared me for the "real world". I would almost be a supporter of 1 less year in a classroom setting and 1 more year of clinical experience rotations.

I actually would too, to be honest, I think some schools do that (Touro I think) I think having an extra year of experience would be so worth it b/c the structure of class obv doesn't translate to working, not to mention, there were so many more sites I wish I could have picked rotations for
 
Total opposite for me... I feel like rotations is where I learned the most. Not to mentioned gained experience that prepared me for the "real world". I would almost be a supporter of 1 less year in a classroom setting and 1 more year of clinical experience rotations.

o ya, I'm not saying I'm not learning on rotations, it's just that whenever my preceptor asked me questions, there were only a few rare times where I would remember without having to look it up on LexiComp or Dipiros...btw this was my community rotation lol and my preceptor would treat me like a very incompetent person :|
 
Total opposite for me... I feel like rotations is where I learned the most. Not to mentioned gained experience that prepared me for the "real world". I would almost be a supporter of 1 less year in a classroom setting and 1 more year of clinical experience rotations.

Definitely concur. a good 75% of what you learn in pharmacy is complete bullsh*t and a waste of time especially if you are working in retail. should use that time to gain real world experience instead
 
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Our first year was pretty much a complete waste. Not to mention Texas students can't be interns during that first year. A 2+2 model like med school would prepare way better pharmacists and reduce the appeal of residencies. Right now, some PGY-1s are basically just polishing up skills they could have honed in another year of rotations.
 
Put your life in order and make sure you get enough sleep, rest, and free up some time to find good review notes.
 
yeah to echo the spirit of some of the posts in this thread, if you feel like you're forgetting a lot of stuff on rotations, either the rotations you've been on haven't been that good -- which reflects poorly on the preceptors and ultimately the school -- or you haven't been doing a lot of reading at night.
 
wait till your first month of retail

"what class is levofloxacin in again?"

...
 
yeah to echo the spirit of some of the posts in this thread, if you feel like you're forgetting a lot of stuff on rotations, either the rotations you've been on haven't been that good -- which reflects poorly on the preceptors and ultimately the school -- or you haven't been doing a lot of reading at night.

IMO, yes and no. Until you're actually treating patients, a lot of the info just doesn't seem to stick long term.
 
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