Wow

Posted by Matthew Lewis at Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Another rotation done, and I've moved on to the next one. Just one more left and then some exams and I'll be a pharmacists...doing who knows what.

I say I don't know what I'm going to do next year because I did not match for residencies. Currently, I'm scrambling to find a residency. This means that places that did not find a student can be contacted by students without a place. There were roughly 3000 applicants for 2000 positions. Now there are 1000 applicants for 104 positions. Students much better than myself didn't match, and students much worse than myself didn't match. However, I'm giving it my best shot and one place looks promising, since I received a phone interview as 1 of 11 people whittled down from 128 applicants.

Oh, I'm also in Montana. I'm doing a rotation with the Indian Health Service out here. It is completely beautiful. You can't get cell service by the way, but at least the internet is still available so I can stay connected to friends and family. The Northern Cheyenne are a storied people, being one of the tribes that defeated Custer in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. I hope to learn a great deal of their culture.

The issues that the Northern Cheyenne face are increased rates of diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia coupled with poor *health* literacy (which is different from being able to read at all). There is also a great deal of substance abuse, and this has impacted which medications the pharmacy carries.

All in all, I'm looking forward to helping these people out with their medications. We should be getting our access codes and clearance today, so it will be the first full day of working with patients. I'm excited to make a difference on the rotation site and relax and recollect myself while off duty.