Pharmacy Interim Career Activity Report On August 21, 2012, I attended a career panel conference presented by professional pharmacists. I was surprised by sheer number of different types of professional opportunities available in the pharmacy profession in the United States. By comparison, in my native country,___________, pharmacists provide mainly one function with little variation. Some of those, such as home infusion pharmacy, were specialties that I had never heard of before. Some of the options available to pharmacists in the U.S. include faculty teaching positions at pharmacy colleges, clinical pharmacist, in-patient pharmacist, out-patient pharmacist, compounding pharmacist, and pharmacy resident. While all of the different specialties sounded potentially interesting, the presentation also made me more aware of how different the career of pharmacists can be from one another. I realized that certain work environments emphasize interpersonal interaction and customer service whereas others do not. I intend to follow some of the advice of the speakers, especially in connection with making an effort to become more familiar with different types of pharmacy specialties to help determine which choices might be most compatible with my personal lies and dislikes. On November 1, 2012, I attended a Career Day Reception where representatives from American companies such as CVS, Target, and Rite Aid described their respective internships for pharmacy students. That
From there, I began to explore more of what a career in pharmacy would mean and take the steps necessary to pursue my dream. As I reflect on the past and look forward, becoming a Doctor of Pharmacy is still the clear answer to achieving both my immediate and long-term goals. My immediate goal is to work towards additional education to be better equipped to utilize my undergraduate degree. In particular, I have a strong interest in applying my knowledge of biochemistry to the area of pharmacy in order to better understand how different medications work, how to help patients understand their medications, and how to solve problems to better care for patients. Ultimately, through achieving a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, I desire to develop a meaningful career that would allow for life-long learning and impacting lives.
My strongest impetus for the study of this major is pegged on the personal urge to improve the lives and health of those around me. I would only be able to serve the health of others when I am fully acquainted with the knowledge of pharmacy, which to me is one of the noblest professions. I am deeply concerned about the welfare of others. My experiences, especially as I visit hospitals form a significant part in influencing my choice to study pharmacy. At one point, I felt very bad when a pharmacist in a hospital I had visited was very indolent in serving a patient. All human beings would feel adored and valued when they are given appropriate attention in regard to their health. The health profession has a mission geared towards safeguarding people's health and that mission is perfectly in sync with my desires. I want to be exceptional, to do my best in caring for people, and attend to their interest to the best of my knowledge. I admire nourishing hope to desolate patients and always give them a reason to
The close relationship with patients and respect received in a community are what attract me to a career in a rural community. I have not decided what specialization I want to pursue within pharmacy; however, I’m hoping that the REHPS program can guide me towards the best branch of pharmacy for me, whether it is community or hospital based. Working in a small town pharmacy has had a positive influence on my career path and remains a possibility for my future career. I am anxious to experience a rural hospital setting and see if that could also be a good fit. Working through the REHPS program will not only show me what possible pharmacy careers options I have after graduation, but also give me the experience I need to form a successful career. I hope to make lifelong connections that can mold me into the most well rounded pharmacist I can
During my internship, I could apply the knowledge and skills learned from my core courses. This experience will allow me to work with John Hopkins Outpatient Pharmacy Operations Manager, Toni Carter-Radden and Johns Hopkins Clinical Infusion Pharmacy Manager, Michael Grimes and acquire insights into the management through observation, participation, and practical application of administrative skills.
I have spent my time as a student pharmacist learning about opportunities within clinical pharmacy and making certain that I was equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed. In my pursuit, I became an active member of pharmaceutical organizations, held multiple leadership positions, attended clinical conferences, established research projects, participated in community service events, and other initiatives. I excelled academically, which was manifested in not just a high academic standard but also in tutoring fellow classmates and arranging sessions with other pharmacy students to help them improve time management and study skills. I shadowed pharmacists and residents before my advanced pharmacy practice experiences commenced to discover which areas of clinical pharmacy I found intriguing. I have obtained valuable pharmacy practice experiences in five specialties thus far including inpatient internal medicine, long term acute care, geriatrics and telehealth, and primary care. Through these rotations, I built upon the knowledge I acquired from my didactic courses but also developed patient-centered approaches and strengthened my clinical skills. I enjoyed many aspects of my rotations, including contributing pharmacotherapy recommendations, providing patient education, attending rounds and interdisciplinary team meetings – all of which have solidified my desire
Studying at the West-Mec Pharmacy Technician program will eventually help me reach my long term goal of becoming a hospital pharmacist. This program will give me the benefit of hands-on training and will teach me the necessary skills that are required for a pharmacy technician. I want to have a career as a pharmacist in the future and I understand that becoming a pharmacy technician is not required, but it is a huge benefit. Pharmacists dispense medication and other remedies. They need to understand the importance of doses, allergens and other chemical reactions that may cause harm to the patients. Because of this, pharmacists are important to the medical field. I chose a pharmacist as my career because I want to ensure that my patients
Over the past century the practice of pharmacy has evolved from a field with few specialties typically focused on compounding and filling prescriptions to modern pharmacy practice which has many different specialties. Due to the many opportunities in the field of pharmacy one assignment I completed was the APhA Career Pathway Evaluation Program to see which specialties I hay have the most interest in based on a series of questions I answered. In the following paper, I will list and discuss these results, point out some of the positive and negative attributes to each career choice, and will make an assessment on which careers may be the best form me and some of the options I disagree with.
Pharmacists work environment of pharmacists is usually in retail places, hospitals and research facilities. The most common retail places pharmacists work are CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens. In Pennsylvania alone the average amount of annual openings is 400. In Pennsylvania alone, the employment number of “pharmacists is expected to grow by seventeen percent between 2008 and 2018” (“Outlook”). The employment number increase for pharmacists is higher than any other occupation. “The reason that pharmacist job prospects are high is because employers have problems attracting pharmacists because of the limited number of PharmD programs” (“Outlook”).
When most people hear Pharmacist, they think of a drug store like Walgreens or CVS. However, a Pharmacist is capable of more than just working in a drug store. Pharmacists play a major role in healthcare today with many job opportunities. There are many different fields and career paths that a Pharmacist can choose. This essay will explore three different pharmacy careers that was examined through data collected by a survey on the internet. The three career pathways are Ambulatory Care Pharmacy, Chain Community Pharmacy, and Community Health Center Pharmacy.
When I was in high school, I had a mentor ask me, “What career would you like to have when you graduate”? Those words still lingering in my head until this day and to be honest I really didn’t know what answer to give him because I was still unsure. He then chose to put it in my mind that Pharmacy Technicians are important and they are needed just about every day. I took it upon myself to do some research. In 2010, I read that in 2009, there were approximately 267,000 pharmacists and, in 2008, 326,300 pharmacy technicians. Between 2003 and 2009, the number of pharmacists in the workforce increased by 35,000.
Aronson and Janke wrote an insightful article in a paramount area with limited prior evidence--the importance of student pharmacists’ professional engagement.1 We hoped to extend their evidence further with a few other noteworthy findings.
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
For me, choosing to pursue a career in pharmacy was far from planned. I knew that I wanted to find a profession which I could find self fulfilling. So, one could say I knew as much about pharmacy and its history as an average person. I’ve always imagined that pharmacy and the entire profession as a whole was relatively modern. In other words, I never really took pharmacy as a profession with a history. I’ve always thought that pharmacy and medicine, as one, essentially made its largest strides with the technology boom of the 21st century. During my visit, I realized I was both right, but also, wrong in a sense.
This semester has been a tough one but I feel like I have learned a lot about pharmacy over these past few months. I have had a lot of courses so far and in each one, I have been able to make connections to the practice of pharmacy. In this essay, I will reflect on some of things I learned in my courses and how they relate to my future career as a pharmacist. I will also identify areas where certain topics intersect in different courses.
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.