Rotation Advice

[PharmRX0308]

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Hi everyone,

What are some tips to be a highly successful APPE student? An outstanding student that the preceptors or mentors will not hesitate to write inspiring letter of recommendations for you or even consider hiring you after graduation. We have heard about coming early, staying late, and volunteering to cover weekend shifts, and basically we should treat each rotation like a job interview. But I believe most students will be doing the same things, so how do we distinctively make ourselves stand out from the crowd? If you are a preceptor, what would be something that can strongly impress you and make that student highly rememberable?

Thank you!

 

[owlegrad]

Hi everyone,

What are some tips to be a highly successful APPE student? An outstanding student that the preceptors or mentors will not hesitate to write inspiring letter of recommendations for you or even consider hiring you after graduation. We have heard about coming early, staying late, and volunteering to cover weekend shifts, and basically we should treat each rotation like a job interview. But I believe most students will be doing the same things, so how do we distinctively make ourselves stand out from the crowd? If you are a preceptor, what would be something that can strongly impress you and make that student highly rememberable?

Thank you!

In my experience, no, most APPE students are certainly not doing most of those things, lol.

What impresses me in APPE students is attitude. Act like you enjoy being at the site. Pretend you are learning a lot. Ask for more projects that can help your site or ask how you can help with workflow. Never, ever be on your phone for any reason unless it is blatantly obvious you are using it for something work related.

Being smart/knowledgable is great and all but at the end of the day I couldn't possibly care less how much of the CHEST guidelines you can quote off the top of your head. Can you recommend an alternative for a medication on backorder or not covered by insurance (or at least know how to look up an alternative)? That would impress me. Can you troubleshoot at all or use any critical thinking skills when presented with a new situation? I would be impressed by that. If you have pharmacy experience and can intelligently discuss (or even better, manage) workflow that would put you so far ahead of the crowd they would be eating your dust.

I think I would literally fall out of my chair if an APPE student volunteered to help on the weekend.

One student I had bought the pharmacy crew lunch on her last day. People still talk about that months later. Personally I thought it was kind of weird but apparently I am not appreciating how much most people love free food.

 

[PharmtoCS]

One student I had bought the pharmacy crew lunch on her last day. People still talk about that months later. Personally I thought it was kind of weird but apparently I am not appreciating how much most people love free food.

I'm seeing this happen more often nowadays. I wonder if it's because the students know that the job market is saturated and desperately need more ways to stand out.

 

[SubstanceQ]

A girl I rotated with comes an hour or more early and sleeps in her car. To me this is excessive and shows poor time management and reasoning or efficiency, or even that she’s not well-rested. I can understand if you’re just beginning the rotation but she was doing it everyday up until the 6th week. I had alternate routes in the event of unusual traffic and the ETA for each. We live only 20 minutes away from the site without traffic so precision wasn’t a huge issue. Mine was always give or take 5-10 minutes and I already alotted enough time for minor scuffles. (Obviously can’t account for everything that can happen in life to which I’d have to call in as an emergency). Not like she’s doing surgery or taking a test. Parking was empty and never an issue.
In the days of Google Maps, Waze, and everything at hand, this is primitive. It is excessive when you have to sleep elsewhere other than your bed everyday. 15-30 minutes early is best on average. If you come an hour early to start work or do stuff, even in your car that’s fine. But when she slept then walks in it was like she just got up out of bed everyday. Nothing like a refreshing midday nap at all.
I’d want my surgeon to be up and at it well before he does surgery on me?

Not to mention she wears the exact same black pants everyday and it’s not even a parochial-type school or uniform dress code. She puts that little effort in her appearance.

It’s not something I’d call her out on it but definitely took notice.

Some people get ahead in life out of sheer pity of teachers unfairly, and normal students have to take a sacrifice so that they could get their I-deserve-this-more-than-you recognition (can you just stay in your own lane?)...

Know the true dedication from the false pretentious and the true uglies.

 

[Sabril]

Hi everyone,

What are some tips to be a highly successful APPE student? An outstanding student that the preceptors or mentors will not hesitate to write inspiring letter of recommendations for you or even consider hiring you after graduation. We have heard about coming early, staying late, and volunteering to cover weekend shifts, and basically we should treat each rotation like a job interview. But I believe most students will be doing the same things, so how do we distinctively make ourselves stand out from the crowd? If you are a preceptor, what would be something that can strongly impress you and make that student highly rememberable?

Thank you!

depend on the preceptor i guess. some like brown nosers, some like quiet just-get-it done kinds. surviving is about reading people and adapt to them. not just to the people above you, to your underlings as well. in about a week with them you should learn where they draw their lines

but most preceptors would love their day to go as smoothly as possible whether they care if you learn anything or not. free lunch and pretending will only get you so far. So dont milk your day to day task. finish it early if you can and ask if there is something else you can do to help them. and dont come back to only report problems to your preceptor. be prepared to offer what you think is the solution or what steps did you try to solve it

 

[Sparda29]

A girl I rotated with comes an hour or more early and sleeps in her car. To me this is excessive and shows poor time management and reasoning or efficiency, or even that she’s not well-rested. I can understand if you’re just beginning the rotation but she was doing it everyday up until the 6th week. I had alternate routes in the event of unusual traffic and the ETA for each. We live only 20 minutes away from the site without traffic so precision wasn’t a huge issue. Mine was always give or take 5-10 minutes and I already alotted enough time for minor scuffles. (Obviously can’t account for everything that can happen in life to which I’d have to call in as an emergency). Not like she’s doing surgery or taking a test. Parking was empty and never an issue.

Almost every preceptor I had recommended me to do this since I used to come in 20-30 minutes late every day.

 

[BidingMyTime]

A girl I rotated with comes an hour or more early and sleeps in her car. Not to mention she wears the exact same black pants everyday and it’s not even a parochial-type school or uniform dress code. She puts that little effort in her appearance.

This is abnormal enough, that I wonder if she is having financial issues (ie, maybe she only owns 1 pair of black pants, maybe she is homeless and living in her car?)