- Joined
- Dec 26, 2002
- Messages
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Hi everyone,
Its been some time since I have posted. I am glad to report that I am still alive and I have finished the 1st year at UCSD SOP. Now I am preparing for the dreaded 2nd year (taking medical school classes...yuck).
It seems like it was yesterday when I was posting a message that I got into the program. Since I have time now to write instead of studying until 3am for anatomy, I thought it would be cool to share my experiences as a pharmacy student.
Well, I like to begin with things that I am not going to sugar coat...Get ready to study. Being a person that spent 3 yrs working before going back to school I had to resituate myself with getting back into the studying mentality (adios Friends & Scrubs). IF you have to take gross anatomy (meaning the first day of class they drop you a body and you have to disect and look for organs and the dreaded nerves) I suggest prestudying a quarter before. You would think that they would ask to locate the kidney or the pancreas but instead they want you to locate some crazy layer of fascia (DARTOS..he he if you know what that means).
Partner up with some people to group study a couple of hours per week. That way you can help each other out with what to study...remember "work smarter not harder". Plus, it gives you time to destress and joke around about classes or things other than academia. Believe me I have seen people in my class that all they do is take off and study alone and it seems like that is there whole life, no fun.
Okay now for the cool stuff...At our program we are assigned all year to volunteer at the UCSD Free Clinic that helps people with out health care coverage. From this experience I have been able to work with med students, nursing students, dental, and social work. At the start I thought all I had to do was just fill prescription and pass them out. I remember a time when there were no med students due to miscommunications. The head attending MD told use to grap patients and do physical assesments...I remember someone saying that we were pharmacy student...and she said, "no you are medical students too, lets go". Now I wasn't able to prescribe medication, but what I did learn is how to do patient assesment (bp and vitals) and what I feel is most important, listening to a person. It has been hard at times trying to explain to the Med Students what we can do. There have been time where they would be a couple of jack asses thinking that they are all high and mighty at the start, but what is really cool is when the head attending tells the med student to ask a pharmacy student to show them how to take a patient's BP or preform a glucose screening.
Times are changing and at the clinic we are becoming a part of the team where the med students will come running up asking questions about the right drug therapy or they feel comfortable for us to do vitals and interview a patient for a refill. It has been a long road, but believe me there are many med students that need to be informed on what we can do, once they know the role of a pharmacist (besides filling) they become nicer and actually look to us for help when they need it. A thing that I thought was very cool was when a first year came to the clinic the first time saying that he was a med student and being all cocky and someone replied, "Hey listen to the pharmacy students, they know there stuff and will save your ass.." quoted by a 2nd year med student. There are times when I ask myself what the heck do all of these classes have to do with my future...when you remember to ask about Creatinine levels when a patient is going on metformin and lisinopril...that was when I relized that pharmacokinetics, pharm chem, pharm practice had a great part in my questioning.
I am so glad to be a part of this program and I am looking forward to the coming years as a pharmacy student. This is a great profession and a profession that is respected and trusted...Okay enough of my two bits...
ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PROGRAM OR ANYTHING ELSE
Its been some time since I have posted. I am glad to report that I am still alive and I have finished the 1st year at UCSD SOP. Now I am preparing for the dreaded 2nd year (taking medical school classes...yuck).
It seems like it was yesterday when I was posting a message that I got into the program. Since I have time now to write instead of studying until 3am for anatomy, I thought it would be cool to share my experiences as a pharmacy student.
Well, I like to begin with things that I am not going to sugar coat...Get ready to study. Being a person that spent 3 yrs working before going back to school I had to resituate myself with getting back into the studying mentality (adios Friends & Scrubs). IF you have to take gross anatomy (meaning the first day of class they drop you a body and you have to disect and look for organs and the dreaded nerves) I suggest prestudying a quarter before. You would think that they would ask to locate the kidney or the pancreas but instead they want you to locate some crazy layer of fascia (DARTOS..he he if you know what that means).
Partner up with some people to group study a couple of hours per week. That way you can help each other out with what to study...remember "work smarter not harder". Plus, it gives you time to destress and joke around about classes or things other than academia. Believe me I have seen people in my class that all they do is take off and study alone and it seems like that is there whole life, no fun.
Okay now for the cool stuff...At our program we are assigned all year to volunteer at the UCSD Free Clinic that helps people with out health care coverage. From this experience I have been able to work with med students, nursing students, dental, and social work. At the start I thought all I had to do was just fill prescription and pass them out. I remember a time when there were no med students due to miscommunications. The head attending MD told use to grap patients and do physical assesments...I remember someone saying that we were pharmacy student...and she said, "no you are medical students too, lets go". Now I wasn't able to prescribe medication, but what I did learn is how to do patient assesment (bp and vitals) and what I feel is most important, listening to a person. It has been hard at times trying to explain to the Med Students what we can do. There have been time where they would be a couple of jack asses thinking that they are all high and mighty at the start, but what is really cool is when the head attending tells the med student to ask a pharmacy student to show them how to take a patient's BP or preform a glucose screening.
Times are changing and at the clinic we are becoming a part of the team where the med students will come running up asking questions about the right drug therapy or they feel comfortable for us to do vitals and interview a patient for a refill. It has been a long road, but believe me there are many med students that need to be informed on what we can do, once they know the role of a pharmacist (besides filling) they become nicer and actually look to us for help when they need it. A thing that I thought was very cool was when a first year came to the clinic the first time saying that he was a med student and being all cocky and someone replied, "Hey listen to the pharmacy students, they know there stuff and will save your ass.." quoted by a 2nd year med student. There are times when I ask myself what the heck do all of these classes have to do with my future...when you remember to ask about Creatinine levels when a patient is going on metformin and lisinopril...that was when I relized that pharmacokinetics, pharm chem, pharm practice had a great part in my questioning.
I am so glad to be a part of this program and I am looking forward to the coming years as a pharmacy student. This is a great profession and a profession that is respected and trusted...Okay enough of my two bits...
ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PROGRAM OR ANYTHING ELSE
