Last Semester of Classes

So last week was the first week of my last semester of classes ever! If you got a little confused by that last statement, I am basically saying I am almost done with pharmacy school classes! The classes that I have this semester consist of: pharmacy law, sterile compounding, patient assessment II, ICARE: GI/nutrition, ICARE: neuro/psychiatry, ICARE: musculoskeletal, institutional practice elective, and pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics III. So although this will be my last semester of classes it will not be my easiest.

In addition to classes some of the organizations I am involved in are also busier in the spring. A major example is Kappa Epsilon. This past week has been Greek Week at pharmacy school. At SU, pharmacy fraternities are not allowed to recruit new members until the spring semester. On the first day of Greek Week we have an event called Round Robin where interested 1st and 2nd year pharmacy students get a brief introduction to all three different fraternities that we have. Then each fraternity hosts an event on its own on a separate date so that prospective members get a better idea of what each one is about. Kappa Epsilon had a luau theme on Tuesday night with plenty of good food to enjoy and various activities that allowed the interested students to mingle with existing members. Although I think we should have done the limbo before we ate all that food.


Another organization I am involved with is Rho Chi. Rho Chi is an honors fraternity that recruits the top 20% of the P2 class during the spring semester of pharmacy school. In the not too distant future we will be sending invitations to these smart pharmacy students to join. This weekend we are holding a health fair in conjunction with the APhA-ASP (American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists). This health fair will be held at a local soup kitchen here in Winchester, where our target population probably does not receive proper health care. So it will be interesting to see how we can help them. I hope this will be a mutually beneficial experience, in that this under served population gets some health advice and that we pharmacy students can improve on our patient interaction skills.


Besides all this we will be finalizing our rotations for the upcoming P4 year. So as you can imagine although this will be my last semester of classes, it will be a very busy one.

Spring Semester: First Week of Classes

The semester has begun. The first week of classes was pretty uneventful...but definitely hit me hard and made me start thinking about getting focused again. All of our classes require no introductions anymore (what undergrad calls "syllabus day") - unfortunately, there are no days like that in pharmacy school. This semester we have started ICARE, which is much dreaded by the P2's. It is more intense than other physiology and pharmacology classes we have had in past and combines all aspects of our difficult classes. So far, it hasn't been too terrible..but there's only been 1 week. The classes are longer blocks of time and more frequent so the material has the potential to build up pretty easily. We will see how that goes!

Another thing that has ruled my time on the first week back is planning for rush week which is next week. Myself and another member of my fraternity, Kappa Epsilon, have been planning both our time for the night of round robin on Monday and for our individual rush night for KE on Tuesday. The purpose of round robin is for those who may be interesting in joining a fraternity to see what they are all about. Each one has a different platform that they suport and it's up to individual preference with which one you think is the right fit. After the initial night of round robin, each fraternity has their own themed party night with dinner provided on the remaining nights of the week. Ours is Tuesday and the theme we chose is Luau. Because I am a new member coordinater, it is my responsibility, along with the other coordinator, to plan this night and all that comes with it. So...needless to say we have been super busy this week designing and printing flyers, handouts and invitiation, ordering food, planning games, and much more.

Other than planning for KE rush, I have been going back to my regular hours at CVS. This semester, my weekday to work is going to be Friday and I also will have to usually work some of Saturday and a few Sundays. Another big thing is next Friday, my husband and I are going to be getting a golden retreiver puppy! We are super pumped and can't wait for this much anticipated addition to our family. My schedule at school will allow me to come home and let her out frequently and my husband also will be working from home some days of the week...so we should be able to manage with everyone else going on as well. Can't wait! Ok, time to get a head start and begin studying for the first ICARE Respiratory exam - its only 10 days away!

Winter Break!

Hello all -

Haven't written in a while. I have been caught up in the Holidays and fun times over Winter break. It has been wonderful to be relaxed and to have nothing to do in between work and errunds. My husband and I both worked for the first week and a half of break (I worked at CVS) and then we headed home for the next week and a half for the holidays. We had about 4 different Christmases with our two families and the extended part of those families all over the state of Pennsylvania (this happens when you are married). I was exhausting but fun. It was great to spend time with my brother and sister-in-law from New Hampshire who we seldom get to see.

Now there's one week left to break and I have a long list of things to do around the house. We just took our Christmas tree down yesterday and resituated the Christmas boxes in our storage space..It was sad. Things I have to do include thank you notes, cleaning the house, going to the bank, getting groceries (we are completely out), and other random things. Currently, I am on hold with the IBM parts department. My computer that the school leases to us has a dead battery. We were warned that we should replace this battery before the warrenty was up in July 2009 (1 year warrenty), but my summer was so crazy with vacations around that time that I forgot! So, I am stuch on hold and going to have to buy the replacement battery which I don't know the price to yet...

Another thing I have to do around the house is to puppy-proof it - we are going to be getting a puppy in about 3 weeks! She is a golden retriever and her name is Lily. We are super-excited and are going to be so exhausted in those first couple weeks! At least most of the rush time for fraternities will be over by the time we get her so I will have an ounce or two more of free time. My co-pledgemaster and I have been working on things over the break for the upcoming round robin and rush nights that are held during the second week of the spring semester. Each fraternity has a rush night where anyone who is interested in joining can come and meet the other members and see if that fraternity might be something they want to be a part of. Each fraternity has its own platform to offer. Our rush night is Luau themed with hula hoops and smoothies for those interested. We have to plan the whole night including the food, games, decorations, and apparel. After rush night, we send out bids and those who wish to join return the bids to us by a certain date. Then we start pledge meetings and so on. SO I will be kept pretty busy the first couple weeks of school...there may be no exams yet, but I will have rushing and a puppy to worry about instead. I can't wait!

Still on hold...I am going to work on some more stuff around the house. I work about 25 hours this week so I will have enough time to get all of these things done AND relax! I must enjoy winter break to its fullest!

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.