Thursday, May 29, 2008

1 Down 8 to Go!

So I do have tomorrow but I figure now is as good a time to celebrate as any. Tomorrow is my last day of my first rotation. I finished the didactic portion of pharmacy school last month (no more lectures and tests!). Now I have 9 (8 after tomorrow), 1 month rotations. I get to pretend to be a pharmacist under the supervision of another pharmacist while still paying tuition. Each rotation has a different emphasis and some will be more challenging than others. All of them are in the area, about half in Durham and half in Cary/Morrisville.

This month I have been at Almac Clinical Services. They package and ship drug and other supplies for clinical trials. It has been a very laid-back month. There is not a whole lot I am able to do other than watch and learn. I did give a short presentation to some of the employees here on the "ins and outs of a protocol" and put together a pharmacy manual for one study. It has made for some boring days but allows me a few weeks to take a breather from the rigors of studying for tests before I start a more difficult rotation next week.

Next week I start my geriatrics rotation at a continuing care retirement center that is only 1 mile from our house. I am so excited to have commute that is less than 30 minutes. This is the closest I have lived to my "work" since I worked on-campus at BYU. It should prove to be a little more demanding than this month as I will be assigned patients to follow and give at least 1 presentation. As some of you know older folks are on a lot of medications and provide plenty of opportunities for pharmacists to make changes to their pharmacy regimens that could improve their quality of life. I just hope it doesn't smell like a rest home.

I have the month of July off and then I will be back in Durham at a compounding pharmacy for August. In September I will be at the same company I was at last summer doing drug information. October is free. November I will be at a hospital doing a medication safety rotation. December is free as well. In January I will be at a specialty pharmacy that accepts physician referred patients on more than 10 meds. In February I will be at a Duke outpatient clinic taking care of diabetes, coumadin and cholesterol patients. For March and February I will be back at the same hospital I will be at in November working with the internal medicine team. If all goes well I will graduate on Mother's day 2009!

The light at the tunnel is getting brighter now the only problem is trying to decide what I want to do once my 10 year college career is over. Any suggestions?

3 comments:

Tammy and Alvin said...

FDA! FDA! FDA! FDA! FDA! FDA! FDA!

BensonFam said...

Hooray for the light!! I hope you guys will make it back to Utah for a visit sometime this year - we would love to see you!!

jkmeyers said...

I know a real nice B&B in Layton that would be available for as long as you might need it!