Rotation 1: Community pharmacy

Posted by Polly at Tuesday, August 27, 2019

My community pharmacy rotation was completed at Grass Lake Community Pharmacy in Grass Lake, MI. This was a good rotation to ease me into APPE. This pharmacy was an independent pharmacy with a big presence in the community. I have never worked in an independent pharmacy before, so I did not know what to expect! My past IPPE rotation was at Kroger and it was by far the busiest rotation I was at before APPE. My expectation of the rotation was quite low because of my past experience in a chain community pharmacy. However, my preceptor went above and beyond what he had to do to make me feel comfortable and to experience what a pharmacist does. My first week, much of the time was technician work and becoming familiar with the pharmacy. This included answering the phone, understanding how to document opioid access, becoming comfortable with the computer system, and knowing what products we had on the shelves.

The next four weeks, I was eased into the work of a practicing pharmacist. I was able to have consultations on my own, take blood pressures when requested, check filled prescriptions, and take prescriptions over the phone. A majority of my counseling was on probiotics and it was not something I learned at school. A lot of research had to be done for me to become familiar with the products the pharmacy had. I had plenty of time to complete the projects the school gave me as well as complete a project of the pharmacy on the side. My overall experience was better than I expected!