Winter Break 2009

Another semester has gone by, in fact my last didactic fall semester has come to an end. Now I am on winter break for another 3 more weeks. Thankfully finals week wasn't too bad, since our pharmacokinetics and professional practice management course finals were noncumulative. There was a brief snow scare that would have made things more complicated if our exams would have had to be rescheduled but thankfully it didn't end up having an impact on our exams.

I recently found out that 3 of my fourth year rotations will be taking place at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, which is something that I am extremely excited about. The closer I get to fourth year rotations the more enthusiasm I have. I don't have much to say about school now that we are on break. So Happy Holidays to all!

Completion of P1 Fall Semester

Finally, I just finished my first semester in pharmacy school with my last final in Introduction to Pharmacy Practice. Overall, the finals weren’t so bad as I originally thought it would be. I thought Introduction to Pharmacy Practice was hard for me due to the specific details that I had to recall. I have a feeling that the final will be curved as it was for the midterm.

It feels like I just started school but I have already completed 1/8^th of my education. A long and rigorous journey still lies ahead. There will be more studying to look forward to as we hit more in-depth subjects. From pharmacogenomics (genetics and medication relationship) to individual organ systems, I will be expecting more interesting topics to absorb in the upcoming semester.

However, studying isn’t the only thing to look forward to next semester. I’m looking forward to the Phollies on April 29, which is a day to enjoy student made videos. Also, the Apple Blossom Festival is another activity that I look forward to experiencing for the first time. Unfortunately, the excitement will have to wait until we return from our month long break.

It is time for me to catch my flight back to California.

Have a happy holiday and new years everyone!

Nearing the end of Fall Semester

Cold and beautiful is the two words that I would use to describe the weather today. It snowed, and boy, was it cold! Unfortunately, I didn’t stay outside for too long because of the weather and I had to study for finals. Next week is officially finals week for us. The school is considerate because they provide us an extra day for those last minute studying. It actually begins on Tuesday for this semester.

I just finished taking our anatomy and physiology lab final yesterday. Therefore, I have another 5 finals and 1 presentation to worry about for finals week this upcoming week. The lab exam was composed of two parts, one part is done electronically and the other part is written. The written exam focused on identifying the parts of bones and the eye while the electronic portion of the exam was a mixture of multiple choices and matching. Overall, the exam was representative of what we have been learning for the semester in the course and wasn’t too hard.

As for the other finals, we have one for the IBHS course that I have talked about in my previous post. There will also be finals for Patient Counseling/Communication, Pharmaceutics I (math calculations), Psychosocial Aspects of Disease, and finally Introduction to Pharmacy Practice. Our presentation is for our service-learning course. BJD wants to provide us with an opportunity to learn and develop a sense of community involvement through service learning.

That’ll be all for now since I have to return to my studies.

Finals!

Again, this won't be a very long post - finals are right around the corner. This semester, I have 6 finals during finals week...a lot more than P1 year! We have finals from Tuesday to Friday, with Monday being a "study day". I have 2 finals Tuesday (Outpatient Pharmacy Lab and Pharmacology), one Wednesday (Pharmacokinetics), two Thursday (Outcomes and OTC), and one Friday (Biostats).

Because there are so many, I am having trouble figuring out where to start. I decided today that I would start with the first final and just go from there, even though the first finals are not necessarily the hardest ones. One thing that is very helpful though are the students in our class who make their own study guides for certain exams and then send them out to everyone to use. These are useful and I usually use them to compare to my own notes to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Immediately following my Friday final, me and 3 other girls in my class are driving to Charlotte, NC for a half-marathon. I have been training for the past couple months and am anticipating this race very much. It might be a little difficult after finals week (I'll be so exhausted!) but will feel good at the same time I'm sure. Then after that we have 4 weeks off for Christmas break! I will be spending half of the break in Winchester and half of the break at home in State College, PA.

Alright, time to study again.

Extremely Thankful This Thanksgiving

One of the biggest things I am thankful for this year is getting my first choice for P4 year rotation cluster of Baltimore! On Tuesday right before we all headed off in our separate ways to enjoy Thanksgiving with our families and friends, e-mails were sent out to all P3 students notifying us of where we would spend our last year in pharmacy school. As I had mentioned in my earlier posting I was very anxious to see where I would end up, especially since there were rumors going around that some people would not get any of their top 3 choices. So when the e-mails were sent out on Tuesday lots of drama was to be seen. Some like me were ecstatic to get their rotation assignments, while others were caught by surprise due to their unexpected assignments. A quick peek at Facebook revealed who was sticking around in Winchester and who would have to move out come May. In a few weeks we will be deciding on the exact sites we want to go to within our rotation clusters.

But before I can get too excited about this upcoming May, there are a couple of weeks left in this semester and there is still all of spring semester too. When we return from Thanksgiving break we will have one more week of classes that will involve papers and presentations but thankfully no more tests (the university has a policy that professors are not allowed to give us tests the week before final exams). Some final exams will be cumulative and some will not be. Whenever I sit down to study for my cumulative finals it amazes me how much we covered in a semester and how quickly we have reached the end of the semester.

As always many, if not all, of our final exams will be on Perception, a computer program that locks you out of all other programs while it is in use. Since most of the exams are multiple choice, Perception can tell you what your grade is as soon as you submit your answers. I have mixed feelings about this. Sometimes I like having a period of not knowing how I did because the exam was hard and I have the mentality of "ignorance is bliss". But then again many other times knowing how I did instantaneously makes me feel like I can move on, past how I did (good or bad). Another good point of Perception is that it allows professors to see how students do statistically on exams. For example they can look at one specific question and see that only 25% of students selected the correct answer. This causes professors to evaluate whether or not the question was fair or not and if they deem it to be an unfair question then they may toss the question out. In this case I would say technology can be a student's friend.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

More P1 Updates

It is time for another quick update before I resume studying for our 2^nd exam next week in Integrated Basic Health Sciences (IBHS). For those of you who are not familiar with the course at the school, IBHS is a condensed course series in anatomy and physiology. It is divided into 3 modules and each of them lasts about 4 weeks. Each module is a 2-unit course and the exams are usually given every other week. At first, the pacing of the exams might be overwhelming for some, but I think it is beneficial in the end. This allows you to focus on a specific subject for each exam.

However, studying isn’t the only thing that we do. Last night, our student officers hosted a Thanksgiving potluck in the cafeteria at the Winchester campus. This was a big opportunity for the Ashburn students and the Winchester students to intermingle and show off our cooking skills. We had the opportunity to taste the various unique dishes of casseroles and 3 styles of turkey. Family members as well as some of our professors had even joined in the festivities.

Things have been quiet over here in Ashburn as all the professors have relocated to the new building. However, it would not be too long before we will be moving in as well. The students will be moving into the new building, which is two blocks down the road, for next semester. I still have not visited the building yet, but I heard it is still under construction. With the movement of the professor’s office, we have to bear another month of driving back and forth between the 2 buildings to speak with professors and retrieve our paperwork.

It’s is time for me to return to my studies on the central nervous system. Stay tuned for the next update on the life of a BJD P1.

Study Break

Not writing much - just some updates. I am in the midst of studying for a pharmacology exam that we have on Tuesday.

This exam was supposed to be last Thursday, but sometimes if the professor feels that we are moving too quickly or the material was not explained clearly enough by a week before test time, they will consider pushing the exam back. In this case, we were not able to finish the material for the exam in time so we moved the exam from Thursday to Tuesday. It is nice that professors are conscious of the amount of time we have to learn such a large volume of material and that they do all they can to make sure you can cram it all in there in time.

After this exam on Tuesday, I have a presentation and paper due on Wednesday. My group in Biostats got picked to go for our end of the semester presentation on the first day available (that day being Wednesday). Our assignment was to write a research study as if you conducted it, minus the results section. The purpose is for us to use what we learned in class about statistics and research. In addition to the paper itself, we have to do a 15 minute presentation to the class about our study. Since we have this big exam on Tuesday, I am thinking Tuesday night will be devoted to presentation practice for this project. Once our presentation is over on Wednesday - I am in the clear until finals. That doesn't really mean much, but I will at least be able to enjoy Thanksgiving break a little bit. We have off from Wednesday the 25th to Friday the 27th for Thanksgiving break. Students who live close enough to home usually head there to have the big meal with their families (which is what I do). However, those that live flying distance away usually get together and have a big meal of their own - so either way, it is a nice holiday.

Ok - study break is over - more updates after this storm has passed.

Looking towards next semester

It's hard to believe that this semester is coming to an end. I only have 2 more large exams before finals week and the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be growing. That said, it is already time to start looking towards next semester. This past week, our class schedules were posted for next semester. Then today, online registration for classes opened and we scheduled our regular classes which are pre-chosen for us, plus our elective choices. I decided to choose an elective called Drug and Relationship abuse because that kind of material seemed interesting to me.

Tomorrow, we have one of the last 2 big exams in nonprescription products (OTC). Writing this is actually my study break because there's definitely a lot of material that I need to cram in my head for this exam! It is not that the material is difficult, but the sheer volume of it and the number of drug names we have to remember is quite overwhelming.

Another thing that has been going on is that my husband and I decided we were ready for a dog and have decided to get a pup in January of 2010. The whole process has been very exciting and we can't wait to get her.

Speaking of looking forward to next semester...it is definitely going to be a busy one. With getting a puppy, co-organizing rush week and pledge events for new members of KE, and starting I-CARE, I am hoping I will have time to breathe! As a new member coordinator for KE, a lot of work is required between January and March to help teach the pledges about the organization and have them complete the required work for membership. It consists of creating a pledge book, being available for weekly meetings, organizing the rush night, getting together bids, matching bigs with littles, ordering their shirts and pins, having various social events, and coordinating the rest of the fraternity with their iniation and induction. YEAH. Lots of work! But I know it will be lots of fun because I have a great co-new member coordinator to help me. We are really looking forward to working more with the other fraternities as well to promote comradery among us all.

Ok - now time to focus on the more immediate future - OTC study time.

On pins and needles

This past week many P3s were meeting with the experiential learning coordinator to discuss their P4 year of rotations. I personally started thinking about rotations from the beginning of pharmacy school but especially since the first day of our P3 year. Rotations are where we get practical experience in the pharmacy world. We start to apply and utilize all the pharmacy education we have had for the past 3 years. It’s also the year where many people firmly decide what they want to do with their pharmacy careers. Experiences in the community setting may lead one to pursue a career as a retail pharmacist, while others may have wonderful experiences working in the hospital setting. The first step of planning for our P4 year rotations is deciding where we want to do our rotations based on geography. The school has 6 geographical clusters to choose from. Some are more competitive than others, so waiting to hear where one will be located is a tense process. Hopefully by Thanksgiving break geographical assignments will be posted and the next phase of planning for rotations can start. I myself have this constantly in the back of my mind and I need to remind myself to focus on my current courses instead of worrying about rotations.

Speaking of future steps to becoming a pharmacist, a major one is taking the NAPLEX. The NAPLEX is taken after graduating from pharmacy school and is an absolute necessary requirement to being a licensed pharmacist. Recently the school announced that recent the 2009 graduates had a 100% pass rate in taking the NAPLEX exam. It is now two years in a row that all Shenandoah pharmacy graduates have passed the NAPLEX during the May to August testing window! It’s always good to know that our education here at Shenandoah has fully prepared us for standardized exams like the NAPLEX.

P1 Student Introduction

Greetings Everyone!

My name is David Ngo and I am a first year pharmacy student at BJD. I graduated from the University of California of San Diego (UCSD) with a degree in Pharmacological Chemistry. After graduation, I was working as a pharmacy clerk for two years at the UCSD Medical Center. So far, I have been generally pleased with the course work and the social atmosphere at the school.

I was attracted to this school because of its small size and its embracement of technology. For instance, lectures are telecasted from the main campus in Winchester to the satellite site in Ashburn and vice versa. Sixteen classmates and I are located in the Ashburn facility owned by George Washington University. Major advantages of being on the satellite campus are 24 hour access to the facility and the opportunity to visit Washington DC by the free GWU shuttles with out charge. Unfortunately, the satellite class is only for the first year and I’ll be joining the rest of my colleagues of about 60 at the main campus for my remaining years.

Stay tuned for future posts on the life of a first year pharmacy student at BJD.

Business school or pharmacy school?

Part of the curriculum here at BJD involves courses that are not so heavy on the scientific or even healthcare aspect of pharmacy, but rather the business side of things. I personally have always had an aversion to business. I understand its importance but would rather leave that to someone else to worry about. I would prefer to focus my energy on the healthcare side of pharmacy. Now that I have stated my biases, at times I feel like many of the topics we cover are focused on business principles rather than pharmacy principles.

For example currently we have a class titled “Professional Practice Management”. I think its name could easily be changed to “Business Management”. Much of the lectures we have had in this class make me wonder at times if I have mistakenly enrolled in a business class. Case in point some titles of our lectures in that class are: “Business Plan—Location Analysis”, “Marketing”, and “Inventory Control” among others. In fact a major assignment for this class is a group project where we must come up with a detailed business plan for opening up an independent pharmacy. In this project we tie together the various elements we have been presented about the business side of pharmacy. Some parts of this project are more interesting to me e.g. designing a lay-out for our pharmacy, while others make me grateful that this is a group effort and not just me working on it. For anyone who is interested in owning and operating an independent pharmacy or even working in the business area of pharmacy for a large pharmacy corporation then these kinds of assignments and courses should be very welcoming. I on the other hand have to remind myself that while I highly doubt that I will be operating my own independent pharmacy in the future, who knows one day I may find this information very valuable.


Among other things like the P2 class, our P3 class has an exam every week from now until Thanksgiving Break. I personally greatly appreciate the spaced out exams (it creates much less stress). In fact we will be having our first ICARE Hematology/Oncology exam this week. Like our other ICARE courses, we had been expecting a bonus quiz to earn a few extra points for cushioning our midterm grades. However, by today many people had given up hope that we would get one. Yet we were surprised with one first thing in class. I wish I could say that the material on the pop bonus quiz was stuff I knew inside and out, however that was not the case. On a brighter note, the bit of studying I had done paid off a little. So between now and Friday I will have blood and cancer on my mind in anticipation of our exam.

Thankfully Phi Delta Chi will be hosting “Carnival for a Cause” right after the exam, where they will be raising money for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. One of the things I am truly looking forward to is making my own caramel apple. But I think the highlight will be seeing a professor get a pie in his or her face. At one point or another I think all students after an exam fantasize about professors getting hit in the face with a pie.

1 Exam Per Week

As seen in the previous post - last week was the Kappa Epsilon breast cancer awareness survivor's dinner. It was put on by the current KE president-elect, as it is each year. It was very well done and the survivors really enjoyed themselves. There was a raffle with a lot of great prizes, and a buffet with great food. The flowers on each table were beautiful and it was just a very classy dinner! The speaker was a survivor and she came in to the theme of Rocky with pink boxing gloves, a pink robe, and pink streaks in her hair. It was a very good motivational speech and I had a great time - it was a nice break from school for sure.

From this point on, the P2's have 1 exam per week until Thanksgiving break. Then there's 1 week that is the calm before finals week. This past week, we had a nonprecription products quiz that is based on the first half of the material that will be on the next exam. This coming week, we have a pharmacokinetics recitation due on Tuesday (which is like a long homework assignment) and then a pharmacokinetics exam on Thursday. I have to work tonight at CVS from 3-10, so I will do the recitation and the bulk of my studying tomorrow and Monday after class. I think the following week we have our nonprescription products exam, and then the week after is pharmacology. Having 1 exam a week is definitely not as bad as midterm time when there are 3 per week, but it still forces you to always have something in the back of your mind.

Another class we have, Biostats, requires us to form a group of 5-6 people and write our own research study. My group decided to get a head start on this project and we have been working on it since last week. We hope to be the first group to present so we can get that huge project over-with and off of our plate before finals start coming around.

The main campus also offers IM sports which pharmacy students can participate in. Right now, IM soccer is going on and each class in our school has their own team. The P2 team, Rx Assassins, beat the P1 team last week in a very exciting game. I was on the soccer team last year as a P1 (they always need girls to play) but soccer isn't really my thing so I opted out this year. It is still fun to go and cheer though :)

Alright, time to get ready for work.

Preparing for serious situations and fighting breast cancer

Well I know it’s been a while since my last blog post so before it gets any later I guess it’s time for an update of what P3 year has been like so far. Last time I wrote about being in the middle of midterms. Right now is a nice time in the school year, where we don’t have any immediate exams so my days are not all about studying for an upcoming midterm. With that said though, it would be naïve to think that even though there is not an imminent exam I can completely ignore schoolwork. I still have to study new material as it is being taught and not leave it to day long cram sessions before the exam, otherwise I would be setting myself up to do poorly.

Thankfully after all the intense mid-term studying we had Fall Break, where we have a Monday and Tuesday off. Some people spend this time just catching up on sleep and life, others like me travel to other places leaving all thoughts of pharmacy school behind for a little while. I went up to visit friends in Minnesota, which although it was colder than expected (they had snow even with their trees’ leaves still being green) I had a good time nonetheless. On the way back from Minnesota I witnessed an interesting and intense situation.

My flight out of Minnesota was bright and early at 7 am. Getting there proved to be a little difficult since there was an accident on the main road to the airport, but after all my rushing and running I made it onto the plane in the nick of time. As the plane was taxiing down the runway to take off the lady in front of me started to tap an elderly woman sitting next to her to wake her up. However the elderly woman was not responding, the younger woman even called out her name several times but the woman would not come to. Then the younger woman was calling for help with a panic in her voice that I have rarely heard before. The flight attendants rushed over and the younger woman explained that she felt the elderly woman all the sudden shake and then go unconscious and how the elderly woman was unable to wake-up. So the flight attendants immediately asked if there was a doctor or nurse on board and thankfully there was. The nurse came over from her seat and saw that the lady had a pulse and was breathing. By now the pilot had been contacted and asked to return to the gate so that paramedics could come on board. At one point the elderly lady did regain consciousness and when she was asked if she knew where she was she did respond “airplane”. But when the paramedics were transferring her to a wheelchair, she lost consciousness a second time. This experience taught me that one should be confident in the first aid training and CPR techniques that one is taught. In situations like mine it may be possible that there is no nurse or physician around to help and someone else may need to step in. Pharmacists should be prepared not just for routine patient encounters but also urgent encounters such as this one.

Later on this past week I helped fellow pharmacy students with their training for the real world. In an effort to better prepare pharmacists for encountering patients first year pharmacy students take part in a patient counseling assessment as part of a communications course. They are told to look-up information about a certain drug, such as: route of administration, frequency of dosage, indication, side effects, storage, etc. One of the organizations that I am a part of, Rho Chi, had practice patient counseling sessions with the first year students. From my previous experience I know that with practice people become more confident and thus do better on the actual patient counseling assessment, which is why we decided to offer such a service to the first year students. I firmly believe that in order to improve pharmacy as a profession we need to help one another be better individual pharmacists and this was one way to do so.

Last but not least this short week ended with Kappa Epsilon’s Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Month Dinner. This is a dinner where we raise funds to donate to a breast cancer charity. We also had a breast cancer survivor come and speak about her experience. Many people work hard to put this event together as was evident by the decorations and coordination present. Breast cancer is a platform issue for Kappa Epsilon, so not only do we have this dinner but we also sell t-shirts. At health fairs we even provide informative pamphlets about breast cancer and the proper way to conduct a self-exam and other facts to be aware of in regards to breast cancer. I think the dinner turned out quite well. I even left with a free vase of lovely flowers.

Time to Exhale

It is Tuesday, October 13th, the second day of fall break. It's finally time to breathe! It felt great to sleep in until 9:30 for the past two weekdays. My 3 exams last week went pretty well and I am just happy to have them behind me!

This past weekend my parents and aunt/uncle came to visit me at my husband and I's new townhouse in Stephens City (about 5 miles south on Winchester). We had a really good weekend - went to Three Fox Vineyards which is a winery near Sky Meadows State Park. They were having an event where they made lunch available and had alpaca's transported to the vineyard. They had a place where you could buy alpaca clothing and it was very interesting and different. After the winery we went to some local shops and then out to dinner at IJ Canns, which is an American Grille with very good food.

Sunday we went to Marker-Miller farms where they were having an Apple Festival. We ate apple cider donuts and picked tons of apples for my parents to take home with them. It was a very relaxing visit and I am glad I finally had time to spend with family and not have to be worrying about tests.

This coming week I don't have any tests or quizzes so I am good to go until next weekend. This Friday, KE is having a dinner for breast cancer survivors called "Fight Like A Girl". The president-elect of KE has to put on this dinner every year in the month of October (Breast Cancer awareness month). I have helped the president-elect a great deal with this dinner and I am looking forward to it a lot. Members of KE helped put together raffle baskets for those attending and this Thursday we will put together flower vases for all of the tables, among many other small tasks - so needless to say, it will still be a busy week.

This coming weekend is my weekend to work and next week the quizzes start up again...break is always short and sweet and then things start right back up!

AHH MIDTERMS!!

So - 2 midterms down from last week...and 3 to go for this week. I am taking a study break to write this post.

Last week we had a pretty difficult Nonprescription Products exam on Tuesday - it went pretty well for me, but the hard part was the sheer volume of information. There seemed to be sooo much stuff we needed to know! It was hard to cram it all in my brain! At least the material is interesting and it can be applied almost immediately if you work in a retail pharmacy. Then last Friday we had our Biostats exam - this is taught by two professors who each sort of focused on a different aspect of biostats. Half of the exam was about research methods and sampling techniques, while the other half was more about anaylzing data using descriptive statistics.

This week, my three exams are in Pharmacotherapy Outcomes, Intro to Healthcare Management (an elective), and Pharmacology. The outcomes exam is tomorrow and I feel pretty comfortable with that material. The elective exam I think will not be too difficult, but it will probably have some good thinking questions that require your own personal thoughts and perspectives on important issues dealing with healthcare management. Finally, pharmacology - I am nervous! The material for our last exam in pharmacology was taught by a different professor than it is now. The new professor has a completely different teaching style and it is difficult to get used to. Not to mention, the material itself has also gotten more difficult. I am doing my best right now to just take a deep breath, step back, and think logically about the material. The key is to take a little bit at a time and try to understand things on your own terms. He is going to have some review sessions for us this week so we can ask him questions if we have any - which I think will be helpful.

After these three exams...it's practically FALL BREAK! We do not have class next Monday and Tuesday and I am sooo looking forward to it. My parents and aunt/uncle are going to come down from PA to visit my husband and I. It should be really fun. There is also an Open House for prospective pharmacy applicants at our school this Saturday which I will be speaking on a Q&A panel for. I went to one of the open houses before I applied and it was very helpful.

OK - that's all I have time for. Next time I write I will be de-stressed! Can't wait!

In the midst of midterms

It has been a while since I last wrote, but it has been a busy last few days. Right now as P3s we are in the midst of our first round of midterms. So far we have had 2: one in our ICARE Endocrinology/Reproduction (ICARE Endo/Repro) class and another in ICARE Infectious Disease. The ICARE Endo/Repro exam was all about diabetes and a little about hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism and adrenal gland issues. Our ICARE Infectious Diseases exam was all about bugs and drugs. Whoever came up with the naming scheme for the various microbes out there did not think of us poor students who would be required to learn all those names.

Both of these exams were computerized exams. In undergrad I never had computerized exams, so it took some getting used to when I first got to SU. I am the kind of test taker that underlines, circles and crosses things out on my exam, so not being able to do that was a big change. At first I was intimidated by not being able to use my good old techniques for taking tests. However, they do give us scratch paper to write things on during the exam if we want to. I remember after my first computerized exam I felt better about taking tests on a computer. Honestly though, I would prefer the old paper and pencil versions. A benefit or drawback (depending on how you think you did) of computerized exams are that you get your grade as soon as you click a little button labeled “Submit” and then your grade pops up with all the mistakes you made. And then immediately you proceed to chastising yourself for stupid mistakes made or rejoice in the fact that you did so well.

So that’s it for now, sorry it’s shorter than normal but I’ve got more exams to study for.

Midterm Time

I can barely fit this post into my schedule! I went home to PA this weekend for the PSU vs. Iowa game (we lost - not happy) and just got back into town 2 hours ago. I have 2 midterms this week and 3 the following week so needless to say - it will be very busy!

This past week we had our first kinetics exam. We have not gotten them back yet, but I feel like I did fairly well - definitely had to study for it though. On Tuesday we have our first Nonprescription products (OTC) exam and then Friday we have our Biostats exam. The biostats exam used to be on Wednesday, but if the class can get a unanimous vote, the exam can be changed to a later date. This made it a lot easier on us as far as study time for both exams goes.

Since we already had a quiz in OTC, I know the first 4 lectures pretty well. Today I plan on getting through at least the next 3 and then doing the last one tomorrow. I don't like to save it all for the last minute, but I know tomorrow is going to be a late night.

This past Saturday was the annual Pharmacy Softball Game - where all of the students and faculty play a game together at Jim Barnett Park. I am sad I missed it this year but I am sure it was a lot of fun.

Well sorry to keep it short but I really better get to this OTC material...let's hope all goes well!

Extracurriculars

This week has been quite interesting. As you have heard from the last post, there was a commotion about parking that broke out during the middle of class. Ticket officers who have not visited our school in 5 years decided to ticket all students in the parking lot this week. As you can imagine, this did not go over well with us. The tickets were for $30 each, plus you would have to pay an additional $115 dollars to get a parking pass for our (unmarked) lot. The outcome of the issue has yet to be determined - no one knows if we need to get these passes or if an alternative pass will be suitable. Some students have gone so far as to start a petition stating that such ticketing is outrageous because no sign marks the lot and it is not written on the SU parking map that our lot requires a pass. We will see what happens with this one!

This week SU also hosted a free bowling night for all students. My friends and I definitely took advantage of this, especially because it was on the night after our first exam. It is held at a local bowling alley and students pretty much get the whole place to themselves from 9-11. All games and shoes are included in the package so you wouldn't have to spend a penny unless you wanted food or drink. Another place where you might spend money is to pick and play your favorite songs - which is something my friends and I often can't help ourselves with. Overall, it was a great night of release after a tough week of studying leading up to our first big exam...

...Speaking of the exam, it went really well for me, and it seems like it went well for a lot of other people too because the average was an 88%! I definitely felt like I grasped the material well and wasn't too worried going into it, but then afterwards I was surprised and pleased with my score. It only motivates me to keep up the good work and continue trying to do my best.

This weekend there were a lot of little assignments that needed to get done. We had kinetics homework, biostats homework, outpatient lab prelab and 20 top 200 drugs to memorize, and a kinetics exam to study for. I also had to fill out my application for a leadership fraternity called Phi Lambda Sigma that is due on Monday by 5pm. This involved updating my CV and completing their application which involved a table to fill in and 2 short answer questions. I hope I get in!

Well - kinetics test is on Thursday - time to start studying...

Blood Pressure and Parking Issues… What a Week!

Here at BJD we have a new course called “Standardized Patient Assessment Laboratory I”. It’s not a brand new course, but really a merging of two courses that were previously taught. In this lab we practice writing SOAP notes and learn new assessment skills. This week the skill we were working on was blood pressure. Now my past experiences at taking someone’s blood pressure has always been to hook up the patient to an automatic machine that pretty much did everything for me as long as the cuff was properly placed on the patient’s arm. In this class though the professors expected us to be less reliant on technology (for once) and to take the blood pressure with a stethoscope and a syphgmomanometer (don’t ask me to pronounce that).

I was kind of excited about this because it would be my first chance to legitimately use my brand new stethoscope that had been sitting in my closet for a while. So when it came time to actually take the blood pressure I executed the overall technique quite well, but for one hitch…I couldn’t actually hear the blood rushing back into the blood vessels when I was releasing the pressure from the cuff. Unfortunately that is not a minor detail, since without actually hearing the necessary sounds, even if I do everything else completely correctly, it won’t matter. So my poor partner had her blood pressure taken more than once, while each time I earnestly listened for the “thud” sound that I was supposed to hear. That is definitely a skill that I will be getting more practice in. So if you see me walking around with a stethoscope and a syphgmomanometer, you have been warned.

For another one of my courses, “Leadership by Design”, I am required to answer three questions on a daily basis. One of them is “What surprised me today?” Some days I honestly don’t have anything to say. Well on Tuesday I had something to write: cars in the parking lot were being ticketed in what I think is the first time I ever remember any cars being ticketed here at BJD. The level of upset and surprise was evident on people’s immediate Facebook status updates. Cars without a Shenandoah University (SU) parking permit were being ticketed and unfortunately that was a great deal of cars. One of the reasons that not everyone bought a parking permit is that our pharmacy school is located on a different side of town than the main campus, so they didn’t see a need to buy a parking permit since we don’t really use the main campus parking lots. Unfortunately this is an example of a disconnect that exists between main campus and the Health Professions Building (HPB), where not only the pharmacy school is located but also other health related majors too. Our location is close to Winchester Medical Center (WMC) which not only for us students is an ideal location, but also for the faculty whose practice sites are the WMC. On the other hand it has the drawback of being detached from the main campus.

Last but not least I wanted to mention the departure of one of the best professors I have had thus far at BJD, Dr. Phipps. In my P2 year he taught Pharmacology and a course called ICARE: Cardiology (a therapeutics and pharmacology course about diseases related to the cardiovascular system). At first it took a while to get used to his teaching style since he didn’t rely on PowerPoint presentations the way many other professors here at BJD do. But once I got used to that I really felt like I was learning a great deal from him. What I think made him a good professor was not only his skill at conveying his knowledge of pharmacology and cardiovascular issues but his fairness as well. He did his best to stay true to whatever promises he made. This week we had our last lecture with him in another course. Next week he will be leaving BJD to join the faculty at another university, their gain is our loss.

Who said this was going to be easy?

As I am sure every one who has every graduated from high school, college, graduate school, pharmacy school, or a residency (maybe more that one of all of these), I am not alone in receiving my fair share of advice about how my life and my job would be this next year. For those students out there thinking about residency, believe me...it will be one (or more) of the toughest and maybe most exciting years of your life. And, yes you will be exhausted by the end! So as I was finally finishing the second year of residency, several mentors told me, "don't worry, your first year of faculty after this will seem easy!" I was warned that things would pick up quickly after the first year or two and then be full swing after that, but that I should enjoy the "slow pace" in the beginning. All I can ask is "Where did those faculty members do their first years?", because I have hit the ground running here at BJD! Which, for someone who has not been used to blogging in the past, has put the task of writing about all of what I'm doing low on my exceeding long and ever growing To Do list.

These first few weeks have been a time of adjustment for both myself and the students. It is always interesting to see how students react to a new member of the faculty. We always get the "bad wrap" as the hard teacher because we have expectations and standards that may be different than what the students are used to or expect. Hopefully, the students will see that all our hard work is for their best interest.

So as the first month here at BJD is finishing up, I am settling in to my clinic and lab sessions, finding my way around the building, and learning that life as a first year faculty member is much more fast paced than I was advised. It is exciting and scary all at once to keep up with everything that needs to be done and I know even more will be added to my plate as the months continue. The comforting fact is I know that I love my students, patients and colleagues so I can take this all in stride.

My advice to all of you reading this...take all the advice you get with a grain of salt! ;) But, more importantly, find a career you love and you will be happy going to work everyday! I can definitely say that I am not bored. :)

Website Updates

This week was a nice short week, but for some reason it still felt long to me. I had several meetings to attend had to update the two websites that I am webmaster for so they would be ready to be launched.

The first website I worked on was for the class of 2012. My husband works for Apple and knows how to create websites and such, so he helps me with a lot of the code part of it. This site was created at the start of last year and since then all that needs to be done are the updates. Updating this site basically consisted of updating the calendar, the officers, and announcements. This year our president and treasurer are different than for the p1 year. Also, we added a social chair because we plan to have more events as our class has grown closer together.

The other website is for APhA. This site is replacing the old APhA site and has a nice clean look to it. New pictures were taken of all of the officers and uploaded this week and I finally finished up the site on Wednesday night and the webmaster of the pharmacy school uploaded the new site on Thursday and it went live! I haven't heard much feedback yet, but from what the people I have shown it to have said, it seems like people like the way it looks. I also created a facebook page for APhA and invited all of the current members to become fans. This way, I can send messages about upcoming events and announcements to members in a way that will not clog their email and by way of a venue they are used to.

This Friday was the P1's White Coat Ceremony. This is where all of the P1's gather in one of the larger class rooms and are presented with their first/official white coat. The coats are more form fitting and better quality than most retail coats and also have The Bernard J Dunn School of Pharmacy embroidered on them. Parents and siblings usually come out for the ceremony as it is a symbolic night - the start of the road to becoming a pharmacist. It seems like such a long time ago that I got my white coat! After the ceremony, celebration is definitely necessary.

This week we also had our first OTC quiz. It was only 10 points and on paper (usually exams are on perception, an online testing system). I did very well and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I like to be better safe than sorry when it comes to studying, especially for the first quiz or exam. This coming week I have my first exam in Pharmacology. So far, this class has focused on enzymes, binding/response curves, and several other topics. I really make an effort to pay attention in class so that when it comes time to study, I am more familiar with the material. I have not yet started studying for this exam (it's on Thursday), but it is on my list for things to do tomorrow. Hopefully it will go as well as my first quiz!

Outside of class

Another week has gone by, although this one seemed faster than most since we had Labor Day off. This week was filled with all our typical classes and at the moment nothing really stands out to mention from class. So I think I will talk about activities that occurred outside of class this time.

On Thursdays we have something called “Seminar Hour” where no pharmacy students have class at that time so that they can attend an organization’s presentation or activity. There are various organizations that are active here at BJD, from the professional e.g. APhA-ASP (American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists) to the fraternities e.g. Kappa Epsilon and others. Every week a different organization hosts the seminar hour. This Thursday APhA-ASP was hosting. They had Cindy Warner, President Elect of VPhA (Virginia Pharmacists Association) and Tim Musselman, Executive Director of VPhA come and talk to us about what VPhA does and what we as students can do to become active with this state level organization that represents pharmacists of all fields. In addition to that they also came to present Jamie Larson, Michelle Chandler, Julie Horak and I with a plaque for winning the state-wide Self Care Competition.

The Self Care Competition was where we represented BJD and competed against Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy, Hampton University School of Pharmacy and Appalachian College of Pharmacy. The competition was held back in August at VPhA’s Annual Convention in Virginia Beach, VA. So the four of us were very excited and dressed up ready to be presented with our plaque… but there was no plaque. For some reason the plaque wasn’t ready yet. So we just took our pictures with the representatives of VPhA and sat back in our seats empty-handed. At least we took pictures at the competition to prove we had won. Since we won this past year, it can now be said that every Virginia pharmacy school has won the Self Care Competition at least once.

Later that same day was the Greek Olympics. At BJD we have three pharmacy fraternities: Kappa Epsilon, Phi Delta Chi and Kappa Psi. I personally am a member of Kappa Epsilon, so if I do seem biased towards them there’s a reason for it. Every fall we hold Greek Olympics, where all three fraternities and anyone from the P1 class (first year pharmacy students) who wants to participate, compete in outdoor games. The first year pharmacy students are their own separate team because they are not recruited to join any fraternities until the spring semester of their first year. So on Thursday practically everyone who was a member of one of the three fraternities was wearing their fraternity’s t-shirt, Greek letters were everywhere. The games we played consisted of a three-legged relay race, hula hooping, egg holding relay race, water balloon toss, spinning with your head on the bat then running relay race (if you know the official name please enlighten me), and the classic tug of war. Last year Phi Delta Chi had won, so there was an air of competitiveness between us (Kappa Epsilon) and Phi Delta Chi. To ensure that games were fair, each fraternity’s president was keeping track of points for all the groups.

Kappa Epsilon is filled with more girls than the other fraternities but we sent out our guys to represent us in the hula hoop competition (ironic isn’t it?). Although they did respectably we ended up losing that competition (no surprise there). However we did redeem ourselves in the water balloon toss, since we came in first place in that event. Of all the games the one that gets the most competitive is tug of war. Kappa Epsilon and Phi Delta Chi were the first two groups to compete. Although I have to say Kappa Epsilon really tried, Phi Delta Chi still beat us. Overall it was a day of friendly competition that ended with Phi Delta Chi winning the whole thing again, but we placed a respectable second. There’s always next year!

Let The Exams Begin

Labor day weekend was an amazing break before the exams begin for the P2 year. I went home to visit my family and attend a PSU football game with my husband, Gannon. The game was great - definitely a weird feeling to be an alumni though, I'm still not used to it. Sunday was a day of family and food. Definitely ate A LOT! Then on Labor Day, Gannon and I drove home and attended a "crab fest" that a couple of P2's were hosting. Tons of freshly steamed crabs right from Maryland - YUM! But after party time was over...it was back to the grind. It is definitely time to start cracking down on the studying.

This Thursday we have an exam "teaser" - a quiz in Nonprescription drugs. It is on self care, fever/headache/pain, vaginal infections, and menstruation/PMS/contraception. The material is pretty dense and there are only 10 quiz questions. This of course means that all of the material must be learned just to make sure the 10 multiple choice and true/false questions can be answered correctly. Love it when that happens....

I find that the best way for me to study for these types of tests - the ones that require a lot of memorization of facts and numbers - is to re-write the lectures into a notebook. The simple act of writing them all out makes me focus on the words and sort of become familiar with the material. If there's a reading to go along with the lecture - I add that into the written notes too by writing out important points from the reading or things that emphasize what was said in lecture. Then, I commit everything to memory after I go over the notes I have written with a highlighter. Before the test I read the highlighted notes about twice more and I am good to go. If there's something that is particularly hard to remember, I write it again until it sticks. This is my method and I have seen others use it in my class too...but everyone has a different way that they study.

So my plan is to get everything re-written today and tonight and possbily go over half with the highligher. Then tomorrow I'll finish up in time for the quiz Thursday. I have tried studying further in advance but I have found that I actually can retain the information easier if I study closer to the test day...even though "cramming" is not usually the recommended way to study.

Just got an email today that the BJD SOP softball game is scheduled to take place September 26th. I won't be able to go because I will be going to another home PSU game - but I have heard it is really fun! All of the pharmacy classes (P1 - P4s) get together and play a softball game with the faculty and staff. It is fun to see the faculty outside of class and have some fun. I think it definitely has an influence on how tight students and faculty are at SU.

Another fun event I will have to miss because of work is the Greek Olympics this Thursday. This is where the three Greek fraternities in our school organize food and games for all students and they can come out and watch us battle it out. This year, my fraternity, Kappa Epsilon, was responsible for getting the food - our president took care of that and got food donated from Walgreens. The other two fraternities, Kappa Psi and Phi Delta Chi, are organizing the games. I wish I could go!

Well, I think it's about time I start studying.

Earning Labor Day Off

I can’t remember the last time I looked forward to Labor Day as much as I did this year. I think this year was the first time in a long time that school was busy enough that I feel I have earned having a Monday off. The amount of material we covered in these first 2 weeks was enough to earn us a bonus pop quiz or two. Though thankfully, our quiz in Infectious Disease ICARE (an intense therapeutics and pharmacology course) wasn’t really a “pop” quiz, since Dr. Johnson warned us that it would be coming.

Given that we did get fair warning I think everyone in the class studied hard for that first bonus quiz. Since the quiz was on Dr. Newton’s (a professor that has been with the pharmacy school since day 1 and one of our first professors) material, he gave us our quizzes in his trademark green alternating with white sheets. He does this so that even if you are tempted to cheat, it wouldn’t do you any good, since your neighbors will have quizzes different from yours (not that he really believed we would cheat, but more so to remove the temptation to do so). He was a professor we had in our P1 year, so seeing those green and white sheets again for a moment made me realize how far I’d come since my first year. So anyway we answered the dozen or so questions, hopeful that our studying would have helped us earn a few bonus points. Unfortunately however, we later learned that the most bonus points we could earn was 1 point regardless if we answered all the questions correctly or just the minimum of five questions. Yeah that caused a minor stir, since many felt that the amount of studying they put into it should have been rewarded with more bonus points.

Something that probably caused an even bigger stir was the school’s final decision regarding how to handle final exam rescheduling for students who would miss some final exams in order to attend ASHP’s (American Society of Health-system Pharmacists) Mid-year convention in Las Vegas. Initially as the secretary for SVSHP (Student chapter of the Virginia Society of Health-system Pharmacists, a branch of ASHP at our school) I had sent out an inquiry as to how many students were interested in attending the convention. I got back dozens of replies, however many students were reluctant to make a firm commitment because of not knowing how the missed finals would be handled. I know many students hoped for the finals being given earlier, so that they could go to the convention without the dark cloud of studying for finals hanging over them while they were in Las Vegas. But when the school formally decided that only two days of finals would be excused and those missed finals (which for the P3 class was a total of 3 finals) would all have to be made up on the Saturday right before winter break, many students were upset. So when I sent out the next e-mail asking “who was still interested in going?”, not surprisingly many students no longer were. I personally do hope to do a residency and believe that by going in my P3 year I will be better prepared for next year when I will be formally applying. So the school’s decision to lump three exams all on one day really didn’t help my dread of finals week. I think I found a way to make it work, but until I buy that ticket to Vegas and actually register for the conference, nothing is set in stone. Right now I am thinking that I’ll probably stay one day less than I originally planned to in Vegas, so that I only need to make up one exam as opposed to three, since the thought of having three exams in one day, is just asking for unnecessary stress and study-induced insomnia.

Another contributing factor to why I looked forward to this long weekend was the fact that I felt like I had spent a lot of time in meetings this past week. I think being involved in school in non-academic ways makes one a well-rounded person and enriches the whole college experience. So I don’t mean to sound overwhelmed by saying there were many meetings. Since it is the beginning of the year the first meetings mostly consisted of: welcome back + here is what we plan to do. Right now at this point in time it feels like this will be a busy year and hopefully I can add “interesting” to that too.

First Week Down, 15 to Go

Hello all,

Well - a first week of class at Pharmacy school is much different than the first week at an undergraduate college. I went to Penn State for undergrad and we used to call the first week "syllabus week", meaning that every class during the first week only lasted about 20 minutes while the teacher read over the syllabus (pretty much a week to goof off)...well, that's not the case here. Our teachers know we are smart enough to read over the syllabus ourselves. So instead, on the first day, they dive right into the nitty gritty of their material.

This first week has been a little rough, 1) because I had to work 25 hours at CVS and, 2) I am still in summer mode! I would find myself sitting in class, paying attention and really grasping the material, but as soon as it was over...I wanted to go home and relax with my husband, watch a movie/TV or run outside...and not so much do the studying, reading, and reviewing that I knew I should be doing.

But, besides my crazy work schedule, my first week back was actually pretty good. It was great to see all of my friends again and also good to see the P3's that I had just begun to know at the end of my P1 year (they were then P2's). I feel like our group gets along really well and I like the atmosphere at the school. Our classmates are also really helpful to each other. People share their home-made study guides, charts, and cheat sheets with the rest of the class, hoping it can benefit them as well. I usually use the guides that are sent out and find them helpful supplements to my studying.

So - Fall semester classes for a P2 consist of Pharmacology, Pharmacokinetics, Nonprescription Products (OTC), Pharmacy Outcomes, Biostats, Biostats lab, Pharmacy Practice Lab, and an elective, which for me is Intro to Health Care Management. Also, since P1 year, I have become much more involved in some of the organizations in the school. I am webmaster of the student government of the class of 2012, webmaster of APhA-ASP, and new member coordinator (pledgemaster) of Kappa Epsilon fraternity. I will go more into those things later.

Now the key is to get myself motivated enough to start studying for quizzes and exams that I know are coming up. I have mapped out all of the exams both on a google calendar and in my planner that I carry with me almost everywhere. It helps me manage my time more efficiently which I have learned is very important for pharmacy school.

This coming week I have lots of organization meetings, 10 hours at CVS, and of course classes to attend. I have a trip home planned for labor day weekend to go to the first Penn State home football game and visit with my family - and I have my first quiz in OTC the following week - so we will see how this goes!

Back for P3 year

Hi!

Monday was the first day of my P3 year here at BJD School of Pharmacy at Shenandoah University. It almost seems like it has taken a while to get here but then again it seems like just yesterday when I first got to Winchester.

I came from the suburbs of DC, where life was different for me. I didn’t come straight from undergrad, I decided to work in a pharmacy for a year before I came back to school. I went to school outside of DC (kindergarten through all of undergrad). My undergrad years were at a big state school right outside of DC that was very different from SU. So when I first got here I remember wondering: would I be able to adjust to a small private school in a smaller town. Now without any hesitation I can say that I think I have adjusted quite well (although I will be the first to admit that I miss the DC area, but being only 90 minutes away, that’s easily remedied).

What I came to realize over time was that a smaller school allows me to really get to know the people around me, from my classmates to my professors. That individualized attention was something I found lacking in a big university. Now here at my third year of pharmacy school, when I walk by former professors they say hi to me by name (whereas in the big university at most I would get was a smile from a former professors when I would walk by).

Monday morning started bright and early with what was supposed to be laptop exchange. As P3s we trade in our poor abused laptops for a new school issued laptop. We were told to be at the laptop exchange at 8 am. So shortly before 8 am, I and other pharmacy classmates were in line waiting…and waiting. Finally at 8:15 someone came by who was able to at least reach the laptop guys and then informed us that they were on their way and would be there in 15 more minutes. Well 15 more minutes went by and still no laptop guys. Since our 9 am class would be starting soon, I figured I’d go to class and just switch my laptop later.

Our first P3 class was Patient Assessment I, which was about patient documentation and SOAP notes. SOAP notes…something that as a pharmacy student you will not be able to escape, so make sure you are comfortable writing them. At first, writing a SOAP note is like being thrown a mix of useful and useless information that you have to dig your way through to find the relevant information to correctly write it. With more practice it should seem less and less like a puzzle.

In between classes I along, with many others switched our laptops and rushed back to our next class which had already started. But it was okay since our next class was Professional Practice Management, which was just a nice and quick review of the syllabus and schedule to come. We were done before I even had time to get distracted.

Last class of the day was ICARE Endo/Repro, which is a part of a sequence of classes where pathophysiology of diseases and the relevant therapeutics are taught. These classes are not to be taken lightly (aka no starting to study the night before the exam). The first lecture of this course covered diabetes, a disease state which seems to be increasingly common. Anyone who has worked in the retail setting has probably seen at least hundreds of prescriptions related to this disease state. I personally have helped out at a few of our school’s APhA diabetes clinics so knowing more about this disease state makes me feel that I will be better informed to help future patients.

So that wraps up most of my first day of P3 year and I already feel like it is only going to get busier.

P2 Student Introduction

Hi Everyone!

My name is Sarah Nordberg and I am a P2 (Pharmacy Year 2) student here at BJD. I came to BJD after getting my bacholer's degree in Nutritional Sciences from Penn State University. I was attracted to this school because of it's advancement in technology, it's location (small town feel), and the people I met while interviewing here. After a year of being a student, I am very happy and love the people in the school and faculty and staff. The atmosphere is great and I am excited to continue my educational experience here.

More about me...I am married and live with my husband in a townhouse in Stephens City (about 3 miles south of Winchester). I work at CVS as a pharmacy intern - both during the summer and during school. My hometown is State College, which is where Penn State is located, and try to visit there a couple times a semester.

My goal with this blog is to help those who are interested - may it be prospective students, parents, fellow students, etc. - gain insight as to what life is like as a P2 here at BJD. I hope you enjoy!

Taking the scenic route to scenic Winchester, VA and the BJD School of Pharmacy

Do you remember being a child and having people ask you, "What are you going to be when you grow up?" Many students I come across have known they wanted to be a pharmacist for several years. Maybe they have a family member in pharmacy or maybe it is the exposure of the profession to more consumers and patients, but more and more students today seem to have had some idea they would end up in pharmacy early in their lives. I, however, did not...and this is why I have taken sort of a scenic route into the world of pharmacy education.

When I was deciding what my major was in college, I chose Math....not because I thought it would land me some great career or earn me lots of money, but because I loved math. Yes, some will call me a nerd because of this...but I have learned to embrace that title! When you get towards the end of your senior year of college and begin to worry about jobs, the questions start flooding in..."What are you going to do with your degree?", "What will be your career?", "How will you pay off your loans?" Somehow I didn't have a good answer for any of these questions. Many wondered if I would teach with my degree. Although I have a mother and sister who are both high school teachers and had always enjoyed helping others learn, I wasn't sure this was the career for me. Plus, I hadn't studied education in college and without student teaching I didn't think I could survive a day in the classroom. Graduation day came and so did the excitement for the future and fear of failure. I was standing there with a BA in Math and no prospects for a career to use that degree!

Fast forward a year, after working some retail jobs and a going no where sales position, I decided that I needed to stop wasting my education and do something I really enjoyed. At that time I thought I would giving teaching a try. Living at the time in Charlotte, NC I found that the school system was desperate for Math teachers. So, without any formal teaching experience I starting teaching high school math. This was a scary, exciting and rewarding experience all wrapped into one. I started taking education classes at this same time and found that I really enjoyed teaching. It also had it's struggles though and one day while standing in a pharmacy waiting to pick up my prescription, I realized I wanted more.

I refer to the experience as a "TV special" kind of moment. It sounds crazy, but all the hubbub of the busy pharmacy sort of disappeared into the background and I was focused on the pharmacist counseling an elderly woman on her medications. I couldn't hear what was going on, but something in watching that interaction from afar made me realize that pharmacy could be the perfect fit for me...this was the math and science I always loved, a chance to work with people and an opportunity to continue to educate. In a whirlwind of one year I had then taken the PCATs, applied to pharmacy school and was headed back home to Maryland to the School of Pharmacy.

As I went through pharmacy school my ideas of what a pharmacist could do really changed. While I always had a love for the community setting, I realized that this wasn't just about dispensing medications and counseling patients even. This is what led me to do a PGY-1 in Community Practice. My love of teaching also stayed with me and throughout pharmacy school I took advantage of opportunities to teach including being a TA in the Women's Health course and doing a teaching rotation my P4 year. This love was further strengthened as I had the opportunity to teach in the pharmacy curriculum during my residency. As I was finishing my PGY-1 residency I realized that I really enjoyed practicing in the Ambulatory Care setting and wanted to continue my training in a PGY-2 residency. When looking for a program, I made sure that I would have continued opportunities to teach. This search led me to Wilkes University where I was able to practice in the VA and a Family Medicine Practice as well as teach at the School of Pharmacy. I enjoyed this role so much that it confirmed that I would pursue a career in academia.

Looking for a school to teach at I wanted one that had a warm community atmosphere, an innovative curriculum and a faculty that was dedicated to helping students achieve their potential. It was a perfect fit when I walked through the doors of Shenandoah University. Plus, the school had the beautiful location to boot!

I am excited to see what experiences lie ahead for me as I start this adventure as a first year faculty member. What I know already is that although the road has been long and challenging getting here, it has definitely been worth it so far. And, although my path my be different than some of my students...and perhaps a bit more scenic...all of these experiences have helped me to become a better pharmacist and educator. I look forward to growing over the next year and letting you have a glimpse into what life is like as first year faculty. :)

Welcome to our blog!

Welcome to the Life at the BJD blog!

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a pharmacy student? How is life in a professional graduate school different than undergrad? What is it like to live in Winchester, Virginia? Looking to ask a few current pharmacy students questions? Then you’re in the right place.

This blog will chronicle the ups, downs, ins and outs of several pharmacy students and a first year faculty member at the Bernard J. Dunn (BJD) School of Pharmacy at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia.

We invite you to check back often, ask questions and find out what life is like at the BJD.