rotations in CA for an non-CA pharmacy school?

[PharmD1988]

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not sure if anybody has done this before, but is it possible to do rotations in CA if you're an out of state school? some out of state schools permit it but they say you have to find the right preceptors that is willing to take you and fulfills their requirements. Any advice would be helpful, especially if you have done this before or tried to? Ive heard it is difficult to do since the preceptors have to deal with pharmacy students from the 7 other pharmacy schools in CA.

 

[confettiflyer]

not sure if anybody has done this before, but is it possible to do rotations in CA if you're an out of state school? some out of state schools permit it but they say you have to find the right preceptors that is willing to take you and fulfills their requirements. Any advice would be helpful, especially if you have done this before or tried to? Ive heard it is difficult to do since the preceptors have to deal with pharmacy students from the 7 other pharmacy schools in CA.

not difficult as long as you have a preceptor in CA willing to take you on and go through the process of getting an affiliation agreement signed. we're sending a handful back for rotations next year, my best guesstimate is half knew the preceptors before rotations started and the other half were solicitations with the purpose of getting a rotation site.

it'll depend on the institution, too....i know of some schools that forbid students from bringing sites to the table.

 

[PharmD1988]

not difficult as long as you have a preceptor in CA willing to take you on and go through the process of getting an affiliation agreement signed. we're sending a handful back for rotations next year, my best guesstimate is half knew the preceptors before rotations started and the other half were solicitations with the purpose of getting a rotation site.

it'll depend on the institution, too....i know of some schools that forbid students from bringing sites to the table.

thanks for the reply. yeah I know some schools like Texas A & M and University of Texas only allow you to do your rotations in Texas but other schools allow you to go out of state. The question who do I talk to first the pharmacy rotation office or the preceptor. In addition, how do you know who is a preceptor or not? What steps should I take? Most schools that allow rotations in CA told me I have to do a lot of the paperwork myself but I dont mind as long as it is possible.

Thats good to hear that some of your out of state students are going to CA. What school did you go to if you dont mind me asking.

 

[confettiflyer]

In addition, how do you know who is a preceptor or not? What steps should I take? Most schools that allow rotations in CA told me I have to do a lot of the paperwork myself but I dont mind as long as it is possible.

Thats good to hear that some of your out of state students are going to CA. What school did you go to if you dont mind me asking.

I'm @ Thomas Jefferson Univ. in Philadelphia.

What paperwork would YOU do? it's mostly legal paperwork that the preceptor and the schools work out together, and possibly the legal department in that institution if it's big enough. perhaps you'd come up with a list of goals/things you will do/assignments to be done (like a syllabus) but I'm conjecturing at this point.

As for finding a preceptor, sounds like you don't have any on your short list. You're gonna have to cold call, and it'll depend on the establishment. For a small independent community pharmacy, talk to the manager/owner; for a large institutional hospital, you'll probably have to talk to the pharmacy director; smaller community hospitals, I would email one of the clinical pharms directly if they don't currently have students (if they do, find out who the preceptor is...but don't be a creeper about it, when you email him/her, tell them you got their contact info from so-and-so...ie another staff member, a current/former student, etc...)

As for finding out the policy of each school...the easiest would be via SDN (find current 3rd/4th years from your potential school and ask). Otherwise, get a hold of the secretary of the site/experiential coordinator (different titles at diff. schools I would imagine) and send a short/succinct email asking about their policy. OR ask both if the school already has sites in California that you can take advantage of. Reminder, some sites may come off or online as preceptors come and go, so something available this year may not be available next year.

Hope that helps.