- Joined
- May 2, 2011
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Pre-Pharmacy
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
.Suppose you have a dream where you have already became your ideal career, a pharmacist. You have gone through high school, college, pharmacy school, went through two years of residency programs, and passed both the North American Pharmacist Licensure Exam and the Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Exam (Gable) However, after going through high school, college and pharmacy school you thought that you were done with writing. You knew having knowledge about technology was going to be a benefit to your future but you were not really sure why technology was important. Some questions pop up in your head that you wish you knew the answer to back when you were deciding your future. For example; is writing a key factor for a pharmacist, how does technology make a pharmacist's life easier, how does advancing technology and writing affect a pharmacist? You see writing and technology are two crucial factors that will impact your future career..
. Let's begin back at freshman year in high school, you just entered high school and are clueless about you want to be when you grow up. You take the required classes, math, science, social studies, and English; however you are still not sure what you are interested in. Three years passed and now you are a senior in high school. You've taken three years of science and math and you have done extremely well and think of having a career where both of those subjects are needed. However English has been a like-hate relationship with you. You liked reading the books, writing the essays were not your thing but since it was a requirement you kept on taking English. .
.Getting ready for college also required you to do some writing for them. For the ACTs and SATs, you wrote an essay, the topic was never known before but it was a general topic that you could easily write about and sometimes relate. For college applications there was an essay portion and some colleges even requested more than one essay which would agitate you because you would not have the time to write that many essays. College essays seem to ask the same general questions which are always worded differently but the college wants to know more in depth about you. The questions could be described an obstacle that you had to overcome and how it impacted your life, or they could also ask you to indicate a person who has an influence on you. Scholarship applications is another way to be getting ready for college, scholarship applications have probably an essay required but you did not hesitate since these were for your future and not for a grade. The essays for the scholarship sometimes ask the same questions that many college essays ask on their application. .
.In college you had to take a writing course or maybe three of them. You passed them but you did not pass them with a strong grade like you wanted. Applying to pharmacy school probably also required an essay along with it. It would probably have been one like an essay you wrote before and telling about yourself and why you should be in their pharmacy school. You thought after being done with pharmacy school there would be no writing. You are wrong. Yes you might be done with writing essays that vary over a lot of different subjects in school, and you still need to be able to communicate in writing. .
. Writing is not just writing essays, it is how you communicate with your audience. An audience could be anyone even a 4 year child, the audience for each career differs and the way to communicate to the audience changes. An audience to a pharmacist would mostly consist of a patient, a doctor, or a family of a patient. However you must make sure that you connect with your audience at their eye level. What this means is if a patient is illiterate then it would probably be in your best interest to just explain the medications to the patient and tell them when they need to consume the medicine rather than giving them a piece of paper where is it is all written down. If it is easier to communicate to you patient with drawing pictures rather than writing words, you should do it without complaining. Even if at first it might be a hassle, that is the job of a pharmacist to communicate with patients dealing with their medications. .
.If your audience is a patient, it is crucial to be able to inform the patient about the medicine that was prescribed to them, also the directions on how to take the medications and the side effects that they might see while taking the medication. You want to make sure that the patient fully understands you even if you have to draw them a picture or individual label the bottles so they know which one to take and how many. However, your audience could also be "a doctor who prescribed medication to a patient that you know is going to harm the patient" (Kim). You must be able to contact the doctor and have to tell them why you know that the medication should not be prescribed to a patient. It may not work with just writing a letter to them because that could take a long time, you have to be flexible and use the technology that it is easiest to contact the doctor. The majority of writing that a pharmacist does is "convey information about medications, document assessments of patients' diagnosis, current medications, and allergies, and basis for the provided medication therapy management" (Kim). Pharmacist need to keep up on their writing skills and be able to write in a way that will clearly present information in a professional manner. .
.The future of our world is becoming more globalized. It is not uncommon situation if you have to communicate with a patient who cannot speak English especially if you are a pharmacist who is in another country other than the United States. It would be in your greater benefit to take many foreign languages in high school or college and become fluent in the languages. The job of a pharmacist is to serve the patients that come into the pharmacy to their best effort and it would make you a bad pharmacist if you could not explain all the warnings and communicate to the patient properly. .
. Writing and technology may seem as two totally different concepts that unless you really think about them, you would wonder how the two would connect to make tasks easier for people. First off writing advances technology, without writing technology could not have become as advanced and rapidly rising as it can be seen today. Technology just did not become this advanced without the countless hours of thinking and perfecting their first ideas. Today it seems as if everyone has a cell phone and has a computer at home, do you think that those came from someone's quick idea that came to mind. No, it took a lot of planning, writing manuals, and after failing at their first try they did not hesitate but kept on trying till they found the right combination. Whether it took days, months or even years, they did not give up because they knew that they would someday figure it out. .
. Advancing technology has stopped medical mistakes. "According to the FDA, more than one person per day in the U.S. dies from a medication error" (United States). Every pharmacist goal is preventing errors in healthcare. Many of the errors come from giving a patient the wrong dose of a drug or even the wrong drug. Because of this, there has been ideas for new and advanced devices that eliminate the probability of making an error. In April of 2006, a new device called ValiMed, which helps reduce medication errors. Medications are drawn up and dropped in the unit, UV light shines on the drug giving it a fluorescent glow. Just like a fingerprint, every drug has a unique glow based on it chemistry. In 30 seconds, ValiMed tells the pharmacist if you have the right drug. Using a device such as ValiMed or even other devices like Lexi-Comp or Micromedex (which gives access to drug information resources), lets you to spend more time with the patient rather than looking up drug information ("Technology") .
. Technology makes your life easier. Back in the day when pharmacists had to manually find patient records and write out the medication labels, a pharmacist spent more time preparing the medication rather than counseling the patient. Nowadays a computer provides convenience in maintaining patient profile records and now machine writes our medication labels so that it is not manually done now. Pharmacists can now focus their energy on the patient in the process of assessing, planning, maintaining, and monitoring the patient's specific medication. Technology increases the chances of being accurate due to the advancement of technology. "All prescriptions need to be filled out accurately every time, even when the pharmacy is busy or during other periods of high stress. A prescription that's been filled out incorrectly can have fatal results. For that reason, all pharmacists have to be conscientious and focused" (Cipolle). No matter how busy you maybe or how free you maybe, making sure that every prescription is filled accurately and is right for the patient is your goal as a pharmacist. .
. Depending on where you work differ the job duties you have, whether you are working alone or with coworkers, how many hours per week you will work. Where you will work ranges from the local pharmacy store such as CVS or working in a hospital or in other healthcare facilities. Some pharmacists specialize in specific drug therapy areas such as oncology (cancer), nuclear pharmacy (used for chemotherapy) and etc. Some pharmacists are also involved in research for pharmaceutical manufactures where they develop new drugs and test their effects. Other pharmacists work for the government, managed care organizations, public healthcare services, or the armed services. Then some pharmacists are employed full time as college faculty, teaching classes and performing research in a wide range of areas (American). According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for pharmacy, "in 2008, 65 percent of pharmacists worked in retail settings, about 22 percent of pharmacists worked in hospitals and the rest worked in mail-order, Internet prescriptions, and the Federal Government" (United States). .
. Similar to as technology advances "employment for future pharmacists is expected to increase faster than the average" (United States). Employment of pharmacists is expected to grow by 17 percent between 2008 and 2018. The "increasing number of middle-aged and elderly people will continue to spur demand for pharmacists throughout the projection period" ("career"). The need for pharmacists will continue to expand as new drug products get revealed and the numbers of people obtain prescription drug coverage increases. Employment for pharmacists has changed over the years. Nowadays pharmacists are becoming more involved in patient care. As "prescription drugs become more complex and the number of patients needing drug increases, the potential for dangerous drug interactions will grow" (United States). .
. To sum it up, writing and technology are two factors that impact a future student's career. Now that you know all about the writing a pharmacist does and the technology a pharmacist uses. Knowledge about technology, being a great writer and communicator is going to be beneficial for your future. You awake from your dream and you are still in your freshman year where there is still time to plan your future career and take writing classes seriously so you won't regret it in the future. .
. Let's begin back at freshman year in high school, you just entered high school and are clueless about you want to be when you grow up. You take the required classes, math, science, social studies, and English; however you are still not sure what you are interested in. Three years passed and now you are a senior in high school. You've taken three years of science and math and you have done extremely well and think of having a career where both of those subjects are needed. However English has been a like-hate relationship with you. You liked reading the books, writing the essays were not your thing but since it was a requirement you kept on taking English. .
.Getting ready for college also required you to do some writing for them. For the ACTs and SATs, you wrote an essay, the topic was never known before but it was a general topic that you could easily write about and sometimes relate. For college applications there was an essay portion and some colleges even requested more than one essay which would agitate you because you would not have the time to write that many essays. College essays seem to ask the same general questions which are always worded differently but the college wants to know more in depth about you. The questions could be described an obstacle that you had to overcome and how it impacted your life, or they could also ask you to indicate a person who has an influence on you. Scholarship applications is another way to be getting ready for college, scholarship applications have probably an essay required but you did not hesitate since these were for your future and not for a grade. The essays for the scholarship sometimes ask the same questions that many college essays ask on their application. .
.In college you had to take a writing course or maybe three of them. You passed them but you did not pass them with a strong grade like you wanted. Applying to pharmacy school probably also required an essay along with it. It would probably have been one like an essay you wrote before and telling about yourself and why you should be in their pharmacy school. You thought after being done with pharmacy school there would be no writing. You are wrong. Yes you might be done with writing essays that vary over a lot of different subjects in school, and you still need to be able to communicate in writing. .
. Writing is not just writing essays, it is how you communicate with your audience. An audience could be anyone even a 4 year child, the audience for each career differs and the way to communicate to the audience changes. An audience to a pharmacist would mostly consist of a patient, a doctor, or a family of a patient. However you must make sure that you connect with your audience at their eye level. What this means is if a patient is illiterate then it would probably be in your best interest to just explain the medications to the patient and tell them when they need to consume the medicine rather than giving them a piece of paper where is it is all written down. If it is easier to communicate to you patient with drawing pictures rather than writing words, you should do it without complaining. Even if at first it might be a hassle, that is the job of a pharmacist to communicate with patients dealing with their medications. .
.If your audience is a patient, it is crucial to be able to inform the patient about the medicine that was prescribed to them, also the directions on how to take the medications and the side effects that they might see while taking the medication. You want to make sure that the patient fully understands you even if you have to draw them a picture or individual label the bottles so they know which one to take and how many. However, your audience could also be "a doctor who prescribed medication to a patient that you know is going to harm the patient" (Kim). You must be able to contact the doctor and have to tell them why you know that the medication should not be prescribed to a patient. It may not work with just writing a letter to them because that could take a long time, you have to be flexible and use the technology that it is easiest to contact the doctor. The majority of writing that a pharmacist does is "convey information about medications, document assessments of patients' diagnosis, current medications, and allergies, and basis for the provided medication therapy management" (Kim). Pharmacist need to keep up on their writing skills and be able to write in a way that will clearly present information in a professional manner. .
.The future of our world is becoming more globalized. It is not uncommon situation if you have to communicate with a patient who cannot speak English especially if you are a pharmacist who is in another country other than the United States. It would be in your greater benefit to take many foreign languages in high school or college and become fluent in the languages. The job of a pharmacist is to serve the patients that come into the pharmacy to their best effort and it would make you a bad pharmacist if you could not explain all the warnings and communicate to the patient properly. .
. Writing and technology may seem as two totally different concepts that unless you really think about them, you would wonder how the two would connect to make tasks easier for people. First off writing advances technology, without writing technology could not have become as advanced and rapidly rising as it can be seen today. Technology just did not become this advanced without the countless hours of thinking and perfecting their first ideas. Today it seems as if everyone has a cell phone and has a computer at home, do you think that those came from someone's quick idea that came to mind. No, it took a lot of planning, writing manuals, and after failing at their first try they did not hesitate but kept on trying till they found the right combination. Whether it took days, months or even years, they did not give up because they knew that they would someday figure it out. .
. Advancing technology has stopped medical mistakes. "According to the FDA, more than one person per day in the U.S. dies from a medication error" (United States). Every pharmacist goal is preventing errors in healthcare. Many of the errors come from giving a patient the wrong dose of a drug or even the wrong drug. Because of this, there has been ideas for new and advanced devices that eliminate the probability of making an error. In April of 2006, a new device called ValiMed, which helps reduce medication errors. Medications are drawn up and dropped in the unit, UV light shines on the drug giving it a fluorescent glow. Just like a fingerprint, every drug has a unique glow based on it chemistry. In 30 seconds, ValiMed tells the pharmacist if you have the right drug. Using a device such as ValiMed or even other devices like Lexi-Comp or Micromedex (which gives access to drug information resources), lets you to spend more time with the patient rather than looking up drug information ("Technology") .
. Technology makes your life easier. Back in the day when pharmacists had to manually find patient records and write out the medication labels, a pharmacist spent more time preparing the medication rather than counseling the patient. Nowadays a computer provides convenience in maintaining patient profile records and now machine writes our medication labels so that it is not manually done now. Pharmacists can now focus their energy on the patient in the process of assessing, planning, maintaining, and monitoring the patient's specific medication. Technology increases the chances of being accurate due to the advancement of technology. "All prescriptions need to be filled out accurately every time, even when the pharmacy is busy or during other periods of high stress. A prescription that's been filled out incorrectly can have fatal results. For that reason, all pharmacists have to be conscientious and focused" (Cipolle). No matter how busy you maybe or how free you maybe, making sure that every prescription is filled accurately and is right for the patient is your goal as a pharmacist. .
. Depending on where you work differ the job duties you have, whether you are working alone or with coworkers, how many hours per week you will work. Where you will work ranges from the local pharmacy store such as CVS or working in a hospital or in other healthcare facilities. Some pharmacists specialize in specific drug therapy areas such as oncology (cancer), nuclear pharmacy (used for chemotherapy) and etc. Some pharmacists are also involved in research for pharmaceutical manufactures where they develop new drugs and test their effects. Other pharmacists work for the government, managed care organizations, public healthcare services, or the armed services. Then some pharmacists are employed full time as college faculty, teaching classes and performing research in a wide range of areas (American). According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for pharmacy, "in 2008, 65 percent of pharmacists worked in retail settings, about 22 percent of pharmacists worked in hospitals and the rest worked in mail-order, Internet prescriptions, and the Federal Government" (United States). .
. Similar to as technology advances "employment for future pharmacists is expected to increase faster than the average" (United States). Employment of pharmacists is expected to grow by 17 percent between 2008 and 2018. The "increasing number of middle-aged and elderly people will continue to spur demand for pharmacists throughout the projection period" ("career"). The need for pharmacists will continue to expand as new drug products get revealed and the numbers of people obtain prescription drug coverage increases. Employment for pharmacists has changed over the years. Nowadays pharmacists are becoming more involved in patient care. As "prescription drugs become more complex and the number of patients needing drug increases, the potential for dangerous drug interactions will grow" (United States). .
. To sum it up, writing and technology are two factors that impact a future student's career. Now that you know all about the writing a pharmacist does and the technology a pharmacist uses. Knowledge about technology, being a great writer and communicator is going to be beneficial for your future. You awake from your dream and you are still in your freshman year where there is still time to plan your future career and take writing classes seriously so you won't regret it in the future. .
