What is your least favorite rotation?

[evildarklord]

---

Members don't see this ad.

bleh

 

[xiphoid2010]

Suck it up. I hated my retail rotation too, but understand that we must pay our dues like everybody else to earn that degree. Fake a smile and work hard, count them days if it helps you to finish it. It'll be over before too long, and is really just an insignificant speck in the grand scheme of things.

 

[PumpkinSmasher]

Agree with Xiphoid, suck it up. You are not there to be praised and feel all fuzzy, you are there to learn. We all have had crappy rotations but you have to smile and remember it will be over soon. I hated one of retail rotations with a passion, but I faked a smile everyday and did what I could to make it fun. It reinforced how much I hate retail and pushed me toward a practice area I love!

 

[farmadiazepine]

i hated internal med, drug information, industry, peds

definitely loved independent pharmacy, ambulatory care, pysch, endocrine, staff hospital,

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Omnicare.

I was there for 5 days putting pills in boxes for 12 hours at a time. Literally. It was all I did. No idea how the hell out was considered a worthy rotation site.

I complained to the preceptor that I wasn't learning anything.

Preceptor gets pissed.

I got booted from the rotation for bring "unprofessional" in that I thought it was a waste of my time. School didn't want to hear it...they already hated the hell out of me...so I figured I'd just roll my eyes through it and deal with whatever crap they conjured up. They "punished" me by making me do a real rotation (medicine) where I actually learned something. They also made me start taking Adderall. Which was awesome until I started getting heart palpitations one day and couldn't take it anymore. And honestly, I think I can do without it now.

True story.

 

[npage148]

I had a retail rotation at a grocery store. Because of the flow-set up I as relegated to making doctor calls. I would seriously sit at a phone and make doctor calls (refills, clarifications, etc) for 7 hours a day and they made me call for everything. Does this look like 5 or 6 for the refills, how about you call and find out. I have no issues with retail or the rotations but making me a human auto-dialer was the biggest waste of time. Plus it was staffed by some of the stereotypically snottiest 30 year old female pharmacists you could imagine. I forgot my tie one day and one of the pharmacists noticed and said "Well at least you managed to remember your name tag"

I pretty much did the crap that they didn't want to be bothered doing. The highlight of my day was when I could sneak to the filling area to put drugs back on the self.


To top it all off I got Strep with a double ear infection half way through.

I ripped the place apart on the site evals but I doubt anything happened

 

[tydt]

welcome to the real world people...

 

[Prepharm1214]

In many cases I believe it's the preceptor that makes your experience enjoyable or displeasureable rather then the setting. This of course isn't always the case, some people will always hate retail etc...

 

[rxlea]

Our coordinator told us to speak up right away about that sort of stuff. Preceptors have been "fired" before lol

 

[Sparda29]

I hated my Long Term Care elective, also at Omnicare. For 5 hours a day, I'd be making IVs, packing those 30 day cards, and compounding creams/ointments. Then for the rest of the 3 hours, I'd be on my laptop on a ****ing WIFI connection that has so many sites blocked that I'd be literally sitting there on cnn.com all day.

I was expecting to be reviewing charts and making recommendations for that rotation.

Plus, it was an isolated area on Long Island. Only place to eat nearby was the ****ing 7-11, everything else was like 20 minutes away. Not to mention, I got pulled over on the way back home one day because I jumped into the HOV lane.

 

[PharmDstudent]

I enjoyed all of my rotations, thankfully ... but they weren't glamorous. 🙁

 

[bacillus1]

welcome to the real world people...

If it were "real world", I wouldnt be paying 43k this year for it. As students pay for rotations, it is reasonable to expect a good experience. It is also unreasonable to bwork for 15hr days, especially if your state's BOP only counts 8 of those hours.

 

[xiphoid2010]

If it were "real world", I wouldnt be paying 43k this year for it. As students pay for rotations, it is reasonable to expect a good experience.

Why pay tuition to suffer all that studying then? Nobody is forcing an education on anybody, can quit at any time. Rotations aren't strip clubs, you don't pay for a good time.

Students now want all the rewards at the end, but don't want to put in the efforts. The entitlement mentality these days...

 

[Rph888]

If it were "real world", I wouldnt be paying 43k this year for it. As students pay for rotations, it is reasonable to expect a good experience. It is also unreasonable to bwork for 15hr days, especially if your state's BOP only counts 8 of those hours.

15 hour days??? come on!! At that point i would drop the "I have a professional obligation to get to my retail internship. Nobody likes a late retail intern you know."

I have heard of this 15 hour nonsense before but really? 👎

 

[bacillus1]

15 hour days??? come on!! At that point i would drop the "I have a professional obligation to get to my retail internship. Nobody likes a late retail intern you know."

I have heard of this 15 hour nonsense before but really? 👎

I have never had a 15hr day, or even a 12hr day, and am thankfully satisfied with my rotations, but I'm just saying that no one should go through 12-15hr days on rotation (and I have heard of people both on SDN and in real life spending that long at their rotation sites).

 

[xiphoid2010]

I have heard of this 15 hour nonsense before but really? 👎

Some of the retail stores on are 12 hour shifts, so 12 hr days rotations aren't rare. I personally went through it, but the preceptor only required 3-4 days a week. That's a real segment of retail pharmacy.

Some of the inpatient shift will often last longer than 8 hour days. I logged >200 hours for my MICU month. Again, that's real life of a salaried clinical pharmacist.

Students should never expect rotation to be done the way they want it. Life doesn't work that way. A bad month of rotation will not be the worst thing they encounter during the next 30 years of their careers.

 

[iFarm]

Rotations aren't strip clubs,

Maybe yours weren't...

 

[pharm B]

Suck it up. I hated my retail rotation too, but understand that we must pay our dues like everybody else to earn that degree. Fake a smile and work hard, count them days if it helps you to finish it. It'll be over before too long, and is really just an insignificant speck in the grand scheme of things.

I did suck it up, and I'm glad it's just about over. My preceptor had to leave one day, so I got a different preceptor from another store. The difference was night and day. He didn't want me to fill the whole time. He went from introducing himself right into quizzing me about counseling points, which he then had me go over with patients a minute or two later (I didn't know they were related).

One bad preceptor can wreck any rotation, really. But you knew that. 😉

 

[taken2]

Retail was my best rotation. I ended up doing 12 wks instead of 6 at Walmart. I didn't have any retail experience before that and the techs were amazing. I only had to work 8hr/day but I did 12 hrs somedays just because I wanted to stay. On the other hand, I lasted only 2 wks at my first ambulatory rotation. the lady hated my gut and tried to make my life miserable. I didn't wait to find out if she hated me enough to fail me, I left. I did seminar for the remaining 4 wks and re-did ambulatory rotation at a different site which turned out to be my second best rotation.

it's not the rotation, it's the preceptor.

 

[rph3664]

Our coordinator told us to speak up right away about that sort of stuff. Preceptors have been "fired" before lol

I nearly got a preceptor "fired" because she was pimping me - asking me questions so far outside the scope of my knowledge, I didn't even know where or how to look up the answers, and then insulted me for not having the answer instantly. 😡 She got talked to about it, and this behavior stopped.

It was my last rotation before graduation, and I found out VERY quickly not to tell anyone where I was going to be working, because it was mail order. Once other pharmacists at this site found this out, they wouldn't sit with me in the cafeteria, refused to make eye contact with me, etc. If I was asked where I was going after graduation, I just replied, "I have a job", and the people who needed to know more were told and anyone else wasn't. 🙄

 

[rph3664]

I have never had a 15hr day, or even a 12hr day, and am thankfully satisfied with my rotations, but I'm just saying that no one should go through 12-15hr days on rotation (and I have heard of people both on SDN and in real life spending that long at their rotation sites).

One of my classmates did this voluntarily when she was on her retail rotation, because we had to do a certain number of hours at the store, and because she realized the first day that they were using her as slave labor at this high volume store, she "worked" as many hours as she could, and finished that part of her rotation in 2 or 3 weeks instead of the 4 that were allotted.

 

[bacillus1]

One of my classmates did this voluntarily when she was on her retail rotation, because we had to do a certain number of hours at the store, and because she realized the first day that they were using her as slave labor at this high volume store, she "worked" as many hours as she could, and finished that part of her rotation in 2 or 3 weeks instead of the 4 that were allotted.

That's fine if she did it by choice to finish early. I had a retail rotation where I was there for 10 hours a day, 4 days a week, and that was by choice (I was offered that schedule as an alternative to 9-5, M-F). I just see a lot of people on here talking about how their school expects them to be at their site for a minimum of 8 hours, and they usually stay there for 12 hours, 5 days a week, and others saying that that's what they should be doing.

 

[BenJammin]

What is your least favorite rotation? For me, I personally dislike my retail and ambulatory care rotations. Most likely is because I often feel uncomfortable at patient interactions. I would have improved and done much better if my preceptors were nice and supportive. They were just mean, kinda looked down on me, did not offer any compliments for all the hard work I put in or constructive feedbacks if I made mistakes. Since I expressed interest going into residency, they were like, "What? You're not good enough for that!"

I felt so down and helpless despite all the efforts I've made, such as coming to site earliest, staying extra, and even dragging myself to site in the weekends to find extra projects to work on.

Right now, I'm just counting days to get out of here! HELP!!!

Ever thought about talking to your school about that? They always preach to us about a positive learning environment so they should listen if your story is true. Just smile and nod until you get your passing grade then flip them the bird (not really but you get the idea).

 

[TemSirolimus]

Retail (wags)
1. Bitc t y preceptor

2. I hate retail, 2 drive thrus none the less

3. Bitc h y head tech

4. I arrived on the first day to find myself scheduled for the next six weeks, conveniently on days when she was low on techs ie wasnt mon-fri 9-6p etc, was all random hours of the day, different days of the week including weekends. (free labor, yay)

5. # 4 made me loose some faith in humanity

6. Not even a thank you for all the efforts.

Lordy, easily the worst six weeks I can remember.

 

[xiphoid2010]

3 years wag internship + rotations, even after 5-6 different preceptors, it always sort of felt like flipping burgers and getting a colonoscopy at the same time to me. But dues have been paid and it's all just a bad memory now, FREEEDDOM!!!

 

[TemSirolimus]

3 years wag internship + rotations, even after 5-6 different preceptors, it always sort of felt like flipping burgers and getting a colonoscopy at the same time to me. But dues have been paid and it's all just a bad memory now, FREEEDDOM!!!

could not agree more. It was a rite of passage.

 

[PumpkinSmasher]

Dues have been paid, never again! I still cringe a little when I walk by a retail pharmacy while I am shopping.