Informational: what electives everyone chose and why?

[xiphoid2010]

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Figure this might be a helpful thread for those trying to pick electives, especially to P1 and P2s.

Format is simple:
(a) List your electives (preferably in sequence)
(b) State your reason for each, and
(c) how much would you recommend it to others.

I'll start off:
(1) medical terminologies -- took it in P1 to help understand the big words professors like to use. Highly recommended.
(2) accounting -- part of business minor, conditional recommendation
(3) business finance -- part of business minor, conditional recommendation
(4) marketing -- part of business minor, conditional recommendation
(5) operational management -- part of business minor, conditional recommendation
(6) human resources -- part of business minor, conditional recommendation

2-6 completes business minor. I chose it because I eventually want to be the director of pharmacy at a hospital, and also to better prepare for MBA later if that's what it takes. I would recommend it to people who wants to go into management, whether hospital or retail or independent pharmacy.

 

[janeno]

I still need to take more electives but so far I took:
1) Class devoted to the interprofessional competition where you are trying to solve hospital based case. Very good experience - learned how the hospital system functions and how to work with other health care professionals. Highly recommend if you are thinking about working at the hospital.

2) Non-prescription drugs - to improve my knowledge of OTCs. Highly recommend if you school does not require this course as part of the curriculum.

3) Research - wanted to see if it is for me. Recommend only if you are interested in research

 

[xiphoid2010]

I still need to take more electives but so far I took:
1) Class devoted to the interprofessional competition where you are trying to solve hospital based case. Very good experience - learned how the hospital system functions and how to work with other health care professionals. Highly recommend if you are thinking about working at the hospital.

2) Non-prescription drugs - to improve my knowledge of OTCs. Highly recommend if you school does not require this course as part of the curriculum.

3) Research - wanted to see if it is for me. Recommend only if you are interested in research

You may also include electives you are planning to complete before graduation, and why. For example, I haven't finished operation's management and human resources yet, but will be when I graduate.

 

[njac]

1.) Nuclear Pharmacy - liked it ok, but learned that's not what I want to do 5 days a week.
2/3.) Top 200 - now a required class but they offered it to us as an elective. Self explanatory.
4.) Clinical Toxicology - AWESOME. Super in depth and material every pharmacist should know (even if you work at Wags you should have an idea of what to worry about and what not to). But in an elective format it was great because everyone was there because they wanted to be - Friday morning from 7-9am.
5.) Sterile Products - Basically read 797.
6.) Medication Errors - we spent a lot of time reading the ISMP reports - I think this was really worthwhile.
7.) Clinical Pharmacy Applications - this was a self-taught class where we looked up various lab tests/procedures/imaging. I found it to be pretty useful, it helps to know what has been done to the patient and what procedures they're discussing.

It seems like from here that some schools have more specific electives and that would've been nice, as I knew I wanted to do a residency and work in clinical practice. I did more electives than required - I think you needed 8 or so credits worth of electives and I did 14. But I'm a nerd.

 

[xiphoid2010]

^

Nah, especially if your school has a flat tuition/fee structure, it's to your advantage to take more electives than required. Ours require 10 credits, but I'll be done with 23, and didn't have to pay an extra penny for it. Free knowledge, so why not? 😀

 

[PharmDstudent]

We only have to and need to take 1 elective. Research Methodology I and II are mandatory, along with Medical Terminology associated with Pharmacy Skills Lab II, Pharmacy Management, and Pharmacoeconomics. I have a feeling that I'm forgetting something...

 

[njac]

yeah Med Terminology was a required class our 1st year.

and we have a required OTC class 2nd year.

 

[PharmDstudent]

^

Nah, especially if your school has a flat tuition/fee structure, it's to your advantage to take more electives than required. Ours require 10 credits, but I'll be done with 23, and didn't have to pay an extra penny for it. Free knowledge, so why not? 😀

The COP limits the number of hours that you can have to like 19 hours. After that, you have to get an override from the department head.

I could have taken another elective this semester, but I didn't feel that it would be worth it. Perhaps if I had already taken Spanish classes, then maybe I would have considered taking Medical Spanish, but all of the other electives overlap a good bit with material taught in the mandatory classes.

 

[PharmDstudent]

yeah Med Terminology was a required class our 1st year.

and we have a required OTC class 2nd year.

They got rid of the OTC class, so now they just "supplement" mandatory lectures with OTC/herbal stuff. I think it works fine that way, because the material becomes associated with the disease as you learn how to manage it.

 

[xiphoid2010]

yeah Med Terminology was a required class our 1st year.

and we have a required OTC class 2nd year.

OTC is required over here as well. It's really an integral part of pharmacy practice, I am surprised that some schools actually leave it as an elective. However I can see med terminology being left as an elective some many pre-health students already took that.

 

[xiphoid2010]

The COP limits the number of hours that you can have to like 19 hours. After that, you have to get an override from the department head.

I could have taken another elective this semester, but I didn't feel that it would be worth it. Perhaps if I had already taken Spanish classes, then maybe I would have considered taking Medical Spanish, but all of the other electives overlap a good bit with material taught in the mandatory classes.

yeah, same here. But you still get it for free if you get the override right?

You can always go way out and take completely non-pharmacy related classes. My girlfriend took personal finance, and it changed her quite a bit -- for the better. I'm really happy that she did, I would highly recommend it to those who have been in school all these years and never really lived/worked as a full time worker.

 

[njac]

nope, for us after 18 credit hours, you need an override and you pay like $300/credit hour

 

[PharmDstudent]

yeah, same here. But you still get it for free if you get the override right?

You can always go way out and take completely non-pharmacy related classes. My girlfriend took personal finance, and it changed her quite a bit -- for the better. I'm really happy that she did, I would highly recommend it to those who have been in school all these years and never really lived/worked as a full time worker.

I took Intro to Business. 😛 I really enjoyed it and was lucky to get a seat in the class. It was full almost immediately.

I don't think we can take non-pharmacy classes unless they're "approved", because they have certain classes that are designated as electives- whether in the COP or outside of it.
Either way, I'm done with class scheduling! Yay! This is my 7th year of college, and it feels like such an accomplishment.


Of all of the elective classes that I've taken so far as a college student, I think Business German was the best. We did presentations in German and passed out samples of products like gummy bears and chocolate. The companies that we presented were Lindt and Haribo, just in case you were wondering.

 

[The Fargoan]

I took an anthropology course on Germans from Russia (a large ethnic group that settled in ND). It was great to be away from my classmates, away from multiple choices tests, and read interesting books on people, history and my cultural identity. It was a nice break from pharmacy.

 

[fenixtnlfan]

Medical Terminology and OTC are required here as well.

You guys get a lot of electives. We only need 6 units, though I think I might try to take some extra. The thing I also hate is all the electives that are interesting to me are only offered in the fall, so that really limits it.

I plan on taking:
Intro to Mental Health Pharmacy-I'm interested in it as a possible specialty
Infectious Diseases-supposed to really help with rotations and hospital pharmacy, again possible specialty
Pharmacogenomics-I'm really interested in this field and my university is supposed to start a fellowship up in the field, so again future career choice

If I had more time I would probably take the next class in the sequence for the mental health, pain management, the other pharmacogenomics course, and this one examining the science behind House.

 

[janeno]

You may also include electives you are planning to complete before graduation, and why. For example, I haven't finished operation's management and human resources yet, but will be when I graduate.

Ok, I am also considering taking (it might change any day though):

Critical Care Seminar - includes reading and discussion of articles related to critical care; it is supposed to be helpful for acute care rotations

Immunizations course - immunize people. I think it's a nice skill to have.

Dermatology - I think it's an interesting topic.

Applied kinetics - the course supposed to be more applied than the required course of kinetics. I guess I'll see.

Institutional management - the course is supposed to be easy and fun. Since I am considering doing a residency, it might be nice to see how the management works

 

[plsfoldthx]

Figure this might be a helpful thread for those trying to pick electives, especially to P1 and P2s.

Format is simple:
(a) List your electives (preferably in sequence)
(b) State your reason for each, and
(c) how much would you recommend it to others.

I'll start off:
(1) medical terminologies -- took it in P1 to help understand the big words professors like to use. Highly recommended.
(2) accounting -- part of business minor, conditional recommendation
(3) business finance -- part of business minor, conditional recommendation
(4) marketing -- part of business minor, conditional recommendation
(5) operational management -- part of business minor, conditional recommendation
(6) human resources -- part of business minor, conditional recommendation

2-6 completes business minor. I chose it because I eventually want to be the director of pharmacy at a hospital, and also to better prepare for MBA later if that's what it takes. I would recommend it to people who wants to go into management, whether hospital or retail or independent pharmacy.

OMG u can do this? minor in business in pharmacy school?? OMG... i always wanted to go into business but found it necessary to stay in healthcare for job security.... being director of pharmacy is it a good combination of business and pharmacy?

 

[dumediat]

Wow...I wish applied kinetics was an elective (and not required) at our university. Oh well, I learned something from it.

I decided to take Cancer Chemotherapy and Medicinal Plants, since I had a good interest in the topics and they weren't covered in enough detail through our modules to really understand them. Other classes like OTCs, immunizations, derm, pharmacogenomics, clinical toxicology were all either part of the curriculum or other modules. However, if they are offered as electives, I'd recommend them all.

Oh, and I also took a financial management course the summer after P3, which I would absolutely recommend if your university offers it. Most people coming out of pharmacy school would be going from making $10-20k per year to ~$100k, and they'd have no idea what to do with all of it (I know I didn't). That, and all the student loans, it helps to know the best way to pay those off without over-stretching yourself.

I would have loved to take a few more electives, but since we went straight through summers from P2-P4, we only had maybe 12 credit hours to play with.

 

[xiphoid2010]

OMG u can do this? minor in business in pharmacy school?? OMG... i always wanted to go into business but found it necessary to stay in healthcare for job security.... being director of pharmacy is it a good combination of business and pharmacy?

It's not just pharmacy school can do this, any student can do this at OSU. Check with your college of business on what classes are required to get a business minor.

At OSU it's 5 classes, 20 credits total. It's away more than the elective needed for pharmacy school, so you are often loaded with 18-20 credits. But really, IMHO, health care profession should know some business side of equation. You can't provide health care if you can't stay in business, right? 😀

P.S I don't think a business minor will get your that director of pharmacy out of the door. But I hope it'll make me stand out a bit compare to the rest of the students. I do plan on getting an evening MBA after graduation to climb up that corporate ladder.