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!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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.
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!
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. :)
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. :)
Friday, August 14, 2009
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.
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