Pre-Pharm Extracurricular Activities

[MissAlessandra]

I recently switched from Pre-Med to Pre-Pharm and I am wondering what kind of things I can do to help strengthen my application in terms of experiences outside of school. Have any of you volunteered (if even possible) at a pharmacy or do you have any other suggestions! I was volunteering at a gastroenterology practice, but since changing my direction I don't know what type of things would be good to do to help myself gain knowledge and a little experience in a pharmacy. Any other ideas on strengthening myself as an applicant would be appreciated as well! Thanks!

 

[SPharmN]

Volunteering at a big chain pharmacy is almost impossible. There are many chances of volunteering at hospitals and independent pharmacies though. You can also try to apply for cashier at chain or independent pharmacies, but I'm not sure if they'll take you with no pharm experience at all. good luck 🙂

 

[WannaBRxDr]

I live near minneapolis, MN and at hennepin county medical center (hospital) you can volunteer. I volunteered in the inpatient pharmacy and checked expiration dates of drugs, made up emergency crash cart boxes for the hospital floors, check patient allergy sheets...etc check your local hospitals if they have a volunteer program

you can also get involved with/volunteer with a nonprofit organization or with seniors. i also volunteer for the SHIP Program , which is the state health insurance assistance program, explaining medicare part D to medicare beneficiaries/seniors. i believe each state has some sort of program designed to help seniors with medicare part D

you can search for CMS or senior linkage line to see if they have volunteer activities related to pharmacy/medicare/seniors in your area

 

[fiorio]

part time pharm tech job
undergraduate research in pharmaceutical related field
pre-pharm club president

 

[drugdoc]

Actually, due to HIPPA laws it is harder and harder to get volunteer positions, at least from what I found when I was looking. At the hospital pharmacy that I found to volunteer at, the only reason they were allowing me to volunteer was because I was pre-pharm applying to pharmacy school. Community pharmacies wouldn't allow me to volunteer.