I'm a P2-How should I prepare at this point?

[samisab786]

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Well I'm in my second semester P2 year now and after a lot of indecision and doubt, I'm pretty sure I want to do a residency. I just don't know where exactly to start and how much certain things matter. For example, I've been struggling (as in, REALLY TRYING) to get an internship for the past year and a half, but I have not had any luck. I'm also not really a top student in my class. However, in the time I haven't been employed, I've been involved in my school emergency medical services (may consider getting my EMT license) and have also partaken in a lot of diversity organizations in school both related and unrelated to pharmacy (I am a member of a new chapter of the student national pharmacy association). I am also a diabetic, so I think that would play an important role in the kind of residency I would choose as well as my passion to serve people who have barriers due to being a minority from an underserved population or the inability to communicate (a linguistic barrier).

Again, I'm not sure what exactly I have to do as I have not completed all of my core classes, nor do I know if the aforementioned work is necessarily something that would help me with the process, but any positive insight would be great.

Thanks a lot!

 

[mustang sally]

I haven't matched yet, but I've been through a few interviews so here is my advice....it is hard to say where we will be in a couple of years but right now it is fairly competitive, so you need to be able to stand out. It sounds like you are doing some interesting things, so that's great! Other things that people focused on during my interviews:
a) Work experience. I feel ya on not being able to find an internship because I struggled with that as well. Keep looking and try volunteering in a pharmacy until something comes up.
b) Leadership positions.
c) Research. If you don't have any, go do some. Try to at least get a poster presentation out of it.
d) Letters of recommendation. Several places commented on my letters, so apparently they do have some weight in the application. Think of who will write you the best ones and give them enough time to do it when you get to that point.
e) GPA. Though less of a focus than the other areas, it can kill your application so do well in school.

You will also hear different opinions on here about attending midyear as P3. It is pretty expensive, but if you can afford to do it, I would say go and go to as many helpful residency seminars as you can to get your money's worth. I got a lot of good advice that I was able to use when I went.

 

[rxlea]

I haven't matched yet, but I've been through a few interviews so here is my advice....it is hard to say where we will be in a couple of years but right now it is fairly competitive, so you need to be able to stand out. It sounds like you are doing some interesting things, so that's great! Other things that people focused on during my interviews:
a) Work experience. I feel ya on not being able to find an internship because I struggled with that as well. Keep looking and try volunteering in a pharmacy until something comes up.
b) Leadership positions.
c) Research. If you don't have any, go do some. Try to at least get a poster presentation out of it.
d) Letters of recommendation. Several places commented on my letters, so apparently they do have some weight in the application. Think of who will write you the best ones and give them enough time to do it when you get to that point.
e) GPA. Though less of a focus than the other areas, it can kill your application so do well in school.

You will also hear different opinions on here about attending midyear as P3. It is pretty expensive, but if you can afford to do it, I would say go and go to as many helpful residency seminars as you can to get your money's worth. I got a lot of good advice that I was able to use when I went.

From your interviewing/application process experience, how important do you think leadership is (I pose the same question to preceptors)? The reason I ask is because my leadership experience will be pretty minimal. I will have only held one officer type position. I just simply do not have the time to devote to being an officer in a club. I think it would be wrong of me to do something like that and then do it half-assed, ya know? Between working as much as I do and the other projects and stuff, I fear that I am just not going to have that box checked off for my application come residency time. How much will this be a detriment? I have vowed to keep my GPA >3.5 and I am doing well with that so far. So if all things stay the same, I am wondering if i will be a less competitive applicant because I won't be Rho Chi and have not held a leadership position. Plus, I can never go to the health fairs because they are always on weekends when I work. I haven't had much face-to-face time with patients outside my IPPE last summer and the little bit I talk to them at work. That sorta scares me too 🙁 People say I am being paranoid and that Rho Chi isn't the be all end all...maybe they are right 😕 I'm no gunner but I do want to put my best foot forward.

 

[mustang sally]

Hard to say how much leadership plays a role without having been on the other side of the residency table. I just know it was something that was brought up in every single interview, either by interviewers asking me directly about something on my CV or else in a behavioral type of question e.g. Tell me about a leadership experience you had and what you learned from it or something else along those lines.

As far as GPA goes, I think above a 3.5 is excellent. I don't see why you would need to be in Rho Chi. Getting into Rho Chi is dependent upon the GPAs of the rest of the class...it's a nice honor and all but I would just stay focused on what your own GPA personally is.

I wouldn't worry about the patient care thing either. Obviously having those types of experiences is great, but you will have plenty of opportunities on rotations. One tip I was given but completely forgot to do during P4 year was to keep a notebook of patient interventions I was involved in to talk about during residency interviews. I ended racking my brain trying to think of good stories to tell during interviews and it would have been helpful to have that kind of stuff written down to review (without any patient identifying information, of course).

 

[xiphoid2010]

One tip I was given but completely forgot to do during P4 year was to keep a notebook of patient interventions I was involved in to talk about during residency interviews. I ended racking my brain trying to think of good stories to tell during interviews and it would have been helpful to have that kind of stuff written down to review (without any patient identifying information, of course).

Good one.

Keeping a portfolio of P4 activities was a P4 requirement for my school. I kept every project and evaluation in a professional looking format, and took it with me during interviews. If a picture is worth a thousand word, a telephone book sized portfolio is worth....😀

 

[rxlea]

that's a fantastic idea! Thanks! 👍

 

[jewel2]

did it take you long time to prepare it like typing everything up?
i'm trying to figure out how to make my own portfolio, but it seems it's going to be very time-consuming. do you recommend keeping every single thing i did and wrote during rotations?

 

[jewel2]

Good one.

Keeping a portfolio of P4 activities was a P4 requirement for my school. I kept every project and evaluation in a professional looking format, and took it with me during interviews. If a picture is worth a thousand word, a telephone book sized portfolio is worth....😀

did it take you long time to prepare it like typing everything up?
i'm trying to figure out how to make my own portfolio, but it seems it's going to be very time-consuming. do you recommend keeping every single thing i did and wrote during rotations?

 

[xiphoid2010]

did it take you long time to prepare it like typing everything up?
i'm trying to figure out how to make my own portfolio, but it seems it's going to be very time-consuming. do you recommend keeping every single thing i did and wrote during rotations?

Not at all. Just type up everything on your laptop.

I included:
Evaluation, journal club, drug info question, topic discussion, case presentations, patient handouts, drug monographs. Basically any projects that took more than an hour to do. Threw in prior research publications too.

In the portfolio, table of content, summary of all rotation grades, CV, followed by sections, one for each rotation.

Each section: final eval/preceptor comments, then followed by project from the most important/impressive to least. There was also a thumb drive in there, in case they asked me to do a presentation.

Just organize it at end of each rotation, less than 30 minutes a month.

 

[jewel2]

Not at all. Just type up everything on your laptop.

I included:
Evaluation, journal club, drug info question, topic discussion, case presentations, patient handouts, drug monographs. Basically any projects that took more than an hour to do. Threw in prior research publications too.

In the portfolio, table of content, summary of all rotation grades, CV, followed by sections, one for each rotation.

Each section: final eval/preceptor comments, then followed by project from the most important/impressive to least. There was also a thumb drive in there, in case they asked me to do a presentation.

Just organize it at end of each rotation, less than 30 minutes a month.

would you be distributing the portfolio to each program at the ASHP meeting or would just the CV enough in this situation?

 

[xiphoid2010]

would you be distributing the portfolio to each program at the ASHP meeting or would just the CV enough in this situation?

CV is enough for applications and meetings.

Bring the portfolio to do show and tell during the interview stage. You don't need to leave a copy, save the trees.

 

[Farcus]

P3 here, from what I hear, this year they tend to look at GPA more or so says my p4 friend.

 

[Rx Ninja]

One other thing to mention is if you are open to doing a residency in a state different from where you're currently going to school, you'll need to consider the state's intern hour requirements. For example:

CA hours can all come from your school rotations, but 900 of it's 1500 required hours have to be obtained in an actual pharmacy
PA requires that 750 of it's 1500 required hours are obtained outside of school (volunteer or work)
VA requires that 300 of it's 1500 required hours are obtained outside of school.

It can be a difficult or impossible to try to scramble and make up the hours you're missing for a certain state's requirements when you're already on rotations. But limiting yourself to one state naturally reduces your chances of matching...

 

[homeslice]

From your interviewing/application process experience, how important do you think leadership is (I pose the same question to preceptors)? The reason I ask is because my leadership experience will be pretty minimal. I will have only held one officer type position. I just simply do not have the time to devote to being an officer in a club. I think it would be wrong of me to do something like that and then do it half-assed, ya know? Between working as much as I do and the other projects and stuff, I fear that I am just not going to have that box checked off for my application come residency time. How much will this be a detriment? I have vowed to keep my GPA >3.5 and I am doing well with that so far. So if all things stay the same, I am wondering if i will be a less competitive applicant because I won't be Rho Chi and have not held a leadership position. Plus, I can never go to the health fairs because they are always on weekends when I work. I haven't had much face-to-face time with patients outside my IPPE last summer and the little bit I talk to them at work. That sorta scares me too 🙁 People say I am being paranoid and that Rho Chi isn't the be all end all...maybe they are right 😕 I'm no gunner but I do want to put my best foot forward.

Keep in mind that leadership doesn't necessarily have to refer to being an officer of a club or the like. I was kind of in the same position too, and figured my chances would be shot because of it, but learned that it can refer to a multitude of things from work, rotations, group projects, etc when you took charge. As a result, I was able to think of plenty of examples that would be suitable for the "Give me an example of your leadership skills..." question for interviews.

 

[transzincIIB]

How about work XP? I know volunteering is better than nothing. What about volunteering at a pharmacy versus having a paid pharmacy job? Which one would looks stronger. Or it doesn't matter as long as ur making most out of your time learning something?!

 

[bacillus1]

How about work XP? I know volunteering is better than nothing. What about volunteering at a pharmacy versus having a paid pharmacy job? Which one would looks stronger. Or it doesn't matter as long as ur making most out of your time learning something?!

Well, work is clearly better, as you're getting paid. Also, sometimes they don't let volunteers do the same things as paid employees because of liability. I am still not sure on what's better: retail paid job or hospital pharmacy volunteer. I chose retail because I don't want to work for free, but I think hospital experience would look good to residency programs. I'll update on whether just retail is fine in 2 weeks when I see my match result.

 

[n2cooloh]

P3 here, from what I hear, this year they tend to look at GPA more or so says my p4 friend.

Hard to say. I had a 3.4 GPA when I applied an got interviews at very competitive nationally recognized institutions/programs. I would supplement that by saying that I have extensive research and teaching experiences that set me apart from other applicants. Since most programs had record number of applicants this year, the one objective measure that programs have to sift through the high number of applicants is GPA; therefore, the higher the GPA, the better your chances of having them at least look through your application. In my eyes, if you have at least a 3.5 GPA, then your entire application will more likely be assessed, which is when letters of recommendation, statement of intent, and CV collectively have greater impact. If all is great, that may warrant an interview, but if you lack interpersonal communication skills or don't prepare for the interview questions and/or presentations, then all hope for being ranked by the program lost. I have another 12 days before I find out if I lacked those interpersonal communication skills on my interviews, but I guess we'll see 🙂
Hope this helped and good luck next year.