The 8 week slump... let's go back to community

Posted by mariarx at Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Wow am I behind in blogging. Having a 6 week off block full of residency applications, interview prep, and lots of traveling really made me lose track of time and I sadly neglected my blogging.

I last left off with the end of rotation 5, Emergency Medicine at UMHS. Rotation 6 saw me at Meijer Pharmacy for my community rotation block. I do have a fair amount of community experience, and my preceptor Alan Tanabe definitely took that into consideration in planning out my time with him.

Alan is a great preceptor who is an example of the difference community pharmacists can make. He does a lot of MTM and medication review interviews, in-store A1C and cholesterol checks, and a LOT of patient counseling. The pharmacists at the Meijer store in Ypsilanti are pretty vigilant about making sure they fix gaps in medication therapies and working with their patients about medication costs, side effects, and OTC recommendations.

As a P4 my time was primarily spent doing patient counseling. Alan would have me walk through the aisles looking for those people standing in front of a huge shelf of medications with a confused look on their face. By my second week I got pretty good at knowing where most things were in the aisles. I would also spend time in the pharmacy, counseling on any new medications being dispensed, answering questions, and calling doctor offices to make changes to therapies. I had the chance to sit in on medication review meetings with Alan and his MTM patients as well. Seeing the trust the patients have in their pharmacist was great! I also put together a poster about tylenol/acetaminophen and pamphlets about tylenol, and OTC cough and cold products. These I presented in my final week.

I know hospital pharmacy is a growing field, and one I hope to pursue, but it was nice being back in the trenches talking to patients regularly, and being an advocate for them when things got confusing and difficult. My time there was fun and interesting; the pharmacists and technicians working there are a great team.

I haven't decided if I want to write about Midyear/residency yet... I know a lot of my classmates went through the process and last years group wrote a bunch too. If anyone is interested in experiences about midyear and PPS for residency purposes, the administration programs in particular, then I'll write something up. Till next time!

Canton Meijer Pharmacy = Counseling!!!

Posted by Anna at Tuesday, September 04, 2012

My third rotation was at Meijer Pharmacy in Canton, MI. Having had about two years of retail pharmacy experience, working in the community pharmacy setting for five weeks was definitely a nice break after two very unique rotations.

                            

The primary goal of this rotation was spelled out by my preceptor on the first day: maximize patient interaction. This meant that when on-site, I was the initial resource for any pharmacy-related questions from patients, any new medication counseling, and all over-the-counter medication recommendations. The site was a very busy pharmacy, functioning with one to two pharmacists and four to five technicians at any given time. I was not treated as “free labor,” and I was not expected to perform pharmacy technician activities. Essentially, I was a supplemental pharmacist, which provided the opportunity to review and reinforce much of my therapeutic and pharmacy law knowledge. This rotation also required little off-site preparation, leaving more time at home to work on other projects and deadlines.

Overall, I would highly recommend this community rotation site. The pharmacists were incredibly welcoming and gave me the freedom to step out and apply my knowledge. The pharmacy technicians were efficient and self-sufficient, and they were quick to call for me me whenever a patient had a question or needed additional counseling. It was a great work environment, and I could not have asked for a better community experience.

My next rotation will be quite a change from the hustle and bustle of a large retail setting: I will be working primarily from home for the next five weeks completing a drug information rotation with Lexicomp!