Personal Narrative: Becoming A Pharmacist

Without dreams and goals, success is hard to achieve. In grade school, I decided to become something in the medical field because I wished to help people

Everyone desires to feel loved, valued, and appreciated. A career in pharmacy opens a door into the lives of other to make a difference. My intentions, now and as a pharmacist, ensures the value of each person by offering quality patient, guiding them with healthy lifestyle choices, and respecting each individual. Being a pharmacists offers a chance to care for those in need. Opportunities to brighten some one’s day with a listening ear or a smile comes occurs on a daily basis. One of my favorite quotes whose author is unknown, states that a smile can change to world. ‘’Let your smile change the world, but don’t let the world change your smile.’’-Unknown

My childhood unleashed a desire to know how things worked and why things happened; this soon flourished into a more specific interest in the field of Pharmacy. Medicine fascinated me, driving my obsession to understand all of the dynamics of pharmaceutical drugs. My studies in Biology at New Jersey City University, and my current occupation as a Certified Pharmacy Technician, led my desire to go further with my education in pursing an advanced degree as a Doctor of Pharmacy. My undergraduate career has prepared me extensively, such as requiring that I take on a wide range of science-based courses including Biochemistry, Genetics, and Microbiology. My hard work and dedication led to me being on the Dean's List for a number of semesters. I was also honored to be part of The National Honor Society of Leadership and Success and The Tri-Beta Biological Honor Society.

My Butler University academic training and intern experience has positioned me to recognize and appreciate the essential role performed by the clinical pharmacist. Although sometimes transparent, it is the clinical pharmacist that is central to a patient’s ultimate successful recovery. This was evident during my clinical rotations, where I directly participated in the optimization of medication therapy to achieve patient-specific outcomes; it is for this reason I am impassioned and compelled to pursue a residency. As a PGY-1 resident, I plan to apply my clinical knowledge in the acute and ambulatory care settings to identify medication-related problems and make therapeutic recommendations in collaboration with other practitioners. Upon completion

The career I became interested in is a Physician’s Assistant, or a few people call them PAs. I became interested in this job in my sophomore year of high school. It all started when I attended the STEM fair after school one day. STEM fair is only offered to students who are in either the biomedical Stem academy or the engineer academy. At this fair, students tour around to different classrooms to acquire information on different careers. I attended the Physician’s Assistant one, where there was an actual PA to give information on what PAs achieve. For example, PAs examine patients for diseases, injuries and illnesses.

My favorite, of course, was the hands-on class participation in the labs, we would compound different ingredients together, make suppositories, work with intravenous medications, and role play with other students to practice our pharmacy technician skills. I remember being in class we did a lab where we had to weigh ingredients such as petroleum jelly, lotion, and other ingredients to make what my teacher called ash cream. After coming to class for six months I had to complete an externship at a pharmacy applying the knowledge I learned in class. I choose Walgreen's, on my first day I was filling medications and a customer was mad because her medicine wasn't ready, she was yelling "Why can't she help" and the pharmacist replied 'She's new, it's her first day. After that day I learned the in's and out of a pharmacy such as what questions to ask when entering patient's information into the computer system, customer service how to greet the customer, the proper way to dispose of patient information, and fill the prescription as well as find the medicine.

During the course of my college years, I have considered alternate career options. I have contemplated becoming a physician’s assistant, a dentist, or a podiatrist. Physician’s assistants and doctors play similar roles in clinics; I would still be able to see patients and enjoy the interpersonal aspect of delivering healthcare. Additionally, I would still be able to play an important role in primary care and do my utmost for the sake of my patients, which is hugely appealing.

Growing up, I had such big hopes and dreams for myself. As a child, I always aspired to be a teacher because I loved telling people what to do and taking charge. I am the oldest child and would always have to help my brother with his homework and teach him how to do things around the house. I remember how I enjoy quizzing him for his spelling tests. Unfortunately, life did not go as planned and I ended up taking the wrong path in life. However, 13 years and 3 kids later I decided to return to college.

“Letto diciassette!” I froze at the sound of “bed seventeen,” and watched with horror as the Italian nurse ran into my grandmother’s hospital room. The monitors were beeping out of control, yet my heart seemed to be beating even faster and louder. I stood at the end of the dimly lit hall, shaking and unable to move. A health care provider spotted me standing there, desperate, alone, and vulnerable, and made her way over to comfort me. The feelings I experienced next are what I remember most when I look back on that dark and gloomy day in Italy. The feelings of hope, reassurance and genuine kindness. The feeling that a missing piece of my heart had been put back where it belonged. That is what I remember most and that is the role I want to fill as a physician assistant.

A few months ago at a free clinic for recovering drug addicts, a 19-year old female came seeking treatment for her active heroin addiction, and reported her addiction had progressed over the previous six months, paralleling her boyfriend’s, moving quickly from use of oral opioid painkillers to intravenously injecting heroin. The day she came to clinic, make-up barely concealed an injection site on her neck, which she reported, was where her boyfriend injected her with heroin, as she did not know how to inject herself and the veins in her arms had collapsed. The addiction specialist I shadow decided to treat her in the clinic and asked her to return in one week to monitor her transition from heroin to buprenorphine. This patient struck me, as she was so young and overwhelmingly consumed by her disease. However, I was not able to follow up with her case as I began my current position at UCLA. As a shadow, the inability to follow patient’s care as much as I desired, along with knowing I did not have enough experience or knowledge to care for the patients, was incredibly scary and frustrating, although it was simultaneously

Having a career is a standard of life that is necessary for the well-being of humans and providing comfort for their families. It is very important to plan ahead for the career that you want to pursue in the future. Doing this can help you make the decision to keep pursuing that career or find a different career that interests you. Having a plan for your future can help you find a job that you are passionate about, and researching your career can help you become more qualified for that job. In this day and age it is getting harder to find a good paying job without a college degree, so it is important to succeed in high school so you can go to college and get a job that has a good salary.

Over the past few weeks I have been researching my interests, values, and goals. Throughout this research a lot of things that were already evident to me, were proven for a fact. My interests included researching different aspects of science and data analysis. Analysis has always been a big part of my life because I analyze everything. My values have been proven to be centered toward helping people and being around people. These interests and values are almost equivalent with what my goals in life have been over the past years. For the past few years I have wanted to become some type of pharmacist or physician. In this paper, I have researched what being a pharmacist and physician

The career that I am interested in pursuing is a Pharmacists. The number one reason I have decided to become a pharmacist is because I want to help and assist others. The satisfaction of me helping a patient get better quickly is the motivation that drives me. The second reason is the act of working with other health care professionals. Pharmacist have to communicate with other professionals as a team to avoid errors. Communication and connection is a major key in today’s society, in which I like with a passion. The big career dream began when my older cousin sister became the first in the family to graduate from college with a college degree. Her getting a well-paying job and taking care of my aunt and uncle led me to work hard and achieve pharmacy just like her. HCC will help me pursue my goals by helping me get high grades and achieve a high GPA. By me getting an Associates in Science I would then transfer to a big university like University of Houston to continue for higher education.

Today in the 21st century the roles of pharmacist have expanded tremendously. Before pharmacist had the role of solely dispensing drugs. Pharmacists were limited to only being regulatory or clinical pharmacist. Back then they were called medical purveyors who were much like today’s regulatory pharmacist and hospital pharmacist who are similar to hospital pharmacist. Now pharmacists carry many roles in healthcare. Pharmacist can play roles in public health, community, health systems, state, and federal government.

The flow of the medical community is dependent on every person employed there. The harmony it creates does not only come from the doctors or nurses, but the janitors, surgeons, receptionists, and even the pharmacists. Each job is necessary in order for the hospitals to function properly; for instance, the doctors diagnose the patient with their illness, prescribe them medication to cure it, and send them to the pharmacist, who then gives them their medication and sends them home. However, some jobs are overlooked more than others and do not receive the proper credit, like the pharmacist. Pharmacists are recognized for dispensing and sorting drugs, but their jobs help educate patients over their prescription and uphold the