Overdue Update

I’ve been over due on updating my P1 life this past month. To summarize the events within the past month, we experienced a big snowfall before the start of spring break. I did not have class for about a week as a result of it. The snowstorm gave me more time to study for the exam that was postponed. However, I thought it was irritating to prepare for the exam and later hear an announcement of another day of canceled classes. With this lost week, schoolwork got rushed as we tried to compensate for the missed days. Unfortunately, we ended up holding an additional class session after our normal classes to make up for the missed lecture in pharmacogenomics.

Schoolwork eventually leveled off and I had more time to become involved with my extracurricular activities. During the last weekend of February, several organizations, including some from our school, operated the health booths at the nearby Apple Blossom Mall in Winchester. From offerings such as free flu shots to health screenings, it was a health fair to promote wellness to the community. I was there with some of my fellow brothers in the Vial of Life booth by the Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity. These vials that we handed out would contain important medical information that can help in emergencies. With a decal on the front door of the house and the fridge, the emergency personnel will know about the vial in the fridge.

Despite academics, I still have to set aside time for social activities. This past week, I went with several of my classmates to a club in Washington DC called “The Park at Fourteenth”. With four different floors playing different music, there is something for everyone. Besides clubs, good food is also our focus. About 40 minutes away from Ashburn, there is a Korean community in the city named Annandale. My fellow classmates and I went there for a Korean barbeque buffet restaurant called “Il Mee” at 10:00 pm for their nighttime special. At the current price of $10, it’s a great deal if you can wait that late to eat dinner.

That’ll be all for now and stay tuned for more updates.

Spring Enthusiasm

It has been a while since I last wrote here and quite a lot has occurred. Rotation sites and dates have been announced. Another ICARE is over and done with. Our first law exam has come and gone without much of a scar being left behind. Oh and I went to my first national pharmacy convention.


So rotations are not too far from now, trying to stay focused on classes is a bit of a challenge because of how excited I am about my upcoming rotations! I start off easy with a community rotation at a company that I have worked at before, so I think it will be a nice transition away from schoolwork. Then, after that, I have 15 weeks at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. I am very excited about those 3 rotations. I will be completing my inpatient/acute care, drug information, and one of my selective rotations there. I have heard positive feedback from other pharmacy students who have had the opportunity to work at Hopkins. Not only did they gain much knowledge from their preceptors but they also had a variety of experiences. It will probably entail a great deal of hard work, but I am nonetheless excited because of how much I stand to learn from that experience. Next up will be my ambulatory care rotations at Kaiser Permanente. I am also looking forward to that rotation because I have the least experience in the ambulatory care setting. My past jobs have been in the retail setting and I did some IPPE hours in a hospital setting. Afterwards I will be at Georgetown University Hospital for my second selective rotation which I know will deal with the neurosurgery ICU and infectious disease. After our infectious disease course here at school I definitely think this rotation will be important. Regardless of what setting I will end up practicing in, infectious disease will probably have a role because of its wide scope and the more experience I gain in that area the more my future patients will benefit. Then I will be ending my rotations at Suburban Hospital with my institutionally based rotation. Suburban Hospital is also affiliated with Johns Hopkins. The rotation line up that I have is exciting and I wish I could fast forward to mid May so I could get started.


But before I can happily skip to rotations I still have classes that I aim to do well in. Right before Spring Break we finished our ICARE course in GI/Nutrition. We have now started ICARE Musculoskeletal. Another major class this semester is Pharmacy Law. The previous class (current fourth year pharmacy students) really scared us about pharmacy law. So when the time for the midterm came I made sure to study hard for it. I wouldn't say I studied too much for the exam but it was not as nerve-wracking as I had anticipated it to be. However, that class has at the very least reminded me that pharmacy suits me better than law does. I think a reason why some pharmacy students may find pharmacy law intimidating or difficult is that it requires a different frame of mind than our other pharmacy school courses do.


During our spring break the APhA Annual Meeting and Expo was held in Washington DC. It was my first time going to a national pharmacy convention and in overall it was an interesting experience. There were not only pharmacists from all over the country but pharmacy students too. Some events we had to attend were discussions as to what issues we as pharmacy students wanted to support that would potentially, later on, help shape the profession of pharmacy. We had to attend these events since we wanted to get reimbursed through the school for our costs of attending the conference. There was an expo, where various pharmacies had booths & freebies. Also branches of the federal government related to pharmacy e.g. FDA, IHS etc, and pharmaceutical companies were there showing off their latest products. There was even a booth there promoting grapefruit juice and also various other pharmacy organizations had booths there too. One of the interesting programs at the convention was a student information showcase on PGY1 (post-graduate year 1) community pharmacy residencies. This branch of pharmacy residencies is smaller than the more widely known PGY1 residencies that are done in a hospital setting. Going to such an event and seeing all the various possibilities for a pharmacist is a great way to become enthusiastic again about the field of pharmacy.

Conclusion of the Toughest Week in Pharmacy School

This past week is known as "hell week" and we find out about it as soon as we become P1s. Especially in the spring semester of P1 year, the P2s talk about their upcoming "hell week" that consists of midterms/finals in every course for the semester. I knew my time would come, but I was skeptical that the week was really going to be worse than any usual finals week. Yeah, it was way worse.

Monday we had a midterm in Kinetics and a final in ICARE (respiratory). Tuesday, I had an IPPE site visit in the morning with an assignment due by 4pm, and in ICARE (cardio) we had a 2 hour lecture that would be on our exam on Thursday...oh crap. Wednesday we had a midterm in Drug Literature Evaluation. Thursday we had an ICARE (cardio) exam. And finally, today (Friday) we had a large group project due for Drug Lit which was a monograph for an assigned drug. I put the assignment together for my group and just submitted it about an hour ago. YES. Finally home-free for spring break! I survived p2 hell week.

That's not to say that I did well on all of those exams...I just said I survived the week. I did well enough to ensure that I can still get either B's or A's in all of the classes, but not much more than that. There was just soooo much difficult material and the exams were really tough. I think what set this week apart from final exam week is that it is in the midst of all of these other things going and and assignments that are due. Also, during finals week, we don't get material for an exam 2 days before that exam. Having a new puppy might also have something to do with how hard the week was...she definitely takes up a lot of my time and when my husband works late, I often don't get to start studying until 7 at night.

What have I learned? Watch out future p2s! It is as bad as they say. I have also learned that it would be very beneficial to me to be better at keeping up with material in ICARE as we go along. I told myself I would from the beginning, but the puppy kind of prevented that. Now that she is crate trained I will definitely do this more.

I am sooo ready for spring break! My in-laws and parents are both visiting over the break and I will be picking up some hours at CVS. I can't wait to visit with family and be rid of the stress for a at least a couple of days. *Exhale*

Blizzard 2010

So...today is our 5th consecutive day of NO SCHOOL due to 2 snow storms back to back. The first storm was probably the biggest one that Winchester has had in a loooong time. It is the biggest one that I have seen, that's for sure. The accumulation near us was 30 inches of heavy, wet snow. The second storm was only about 5-6 inches, but was accompanied by high winds and gusts which drifted a lot of the snow onto roads and created blizzard conditions. So, I have pretty much been stuck at home with our new pup for the past week. My husband has been diligently shoveling our cars out over and over and also shoveling a deck and a portion of the back yard for the pup. Good thing I have him!

Because we haven't been able to get to school, the teachers and faculty have made a way for us to still get our lecture material either live or via iTunesU. My classes on Monday and Tuesday were recorded on Camtasia which is just a program that teachers record the audio of their lectures on and post on iTunesU. We can then download the audio and follow along on our slides. Yesterday, my ICARE course took place via Elluminate. This program was really interesting and worked pretty well. The teacher gave the lecture live while all of us students logged in from home (and I was in my PJs!). The lecture slides were also visible as the teacher went through them. We were able to ask questions as well either through a text box or via audio. It went pretty smoothly for the first time trying it out and I think my ICARE lecture today will also be held this way. I am happy that there is a way for us to keep up on the material for class without having to schedule make up classes or cut into our spring break time.

Hopefully tomorrow we will be back at class and I can actually SEE people again! That is definitely the weirdest part about this whole thing...I feel very isolated from the world. Things will be back to normal soon. Who knows how long this snow will be on the ground though! My guess is April...but hopefully we will get some really warm days that melt it before then :o)

Giving Back

Wow is it already February? This semester is in full swing now. I have already taken my first exam too and I am currently studying for my second one. Besides exams another big thing for me personally that came to fruition was the Jubilee Kitchen Health Fair. It was a health fair held at a local soup kitchen here in Winchester that I organized with the help of many other people. As pharmacists we are in a field of work that is often about directly interacting with patients, and by volunteering we not only benefit the people we serve but we also hone our patient interaction skills.

We had been planning this health fair since November and to see it finally happen was great! The health fair was a collaborative effort between our school's chapters of Rho Chi, APhA-ASP, and SVSHP. Our target population may have little, if any access to health care, so the few services and brochures that we did provide were greatly appreciated. Initially we were unsure of whether or not they would be receptive to us. We didn't wear our white coats, so that we would seem more friendly and approachable. That, and our smiling faces, and helpful volunteers aided us in attracting about 80 people. Our most popular stations were our blood pressure screenings and our free giveaway table. Although going to a doctor and getting a prescription may not be a viable option for all of the patients we saw, as pharmacists we don't have to just rely on drug recommendations. Our educations are also about recommending non-drug lifestyle changes. The smiles and words of gratitude we received were truly appreciated. It felt like one of those days where I was having a real positive impact on other people. I hope that even after I leave for my rotations this event will be held and made even better than it started out to be.

Beginning the last semester of the P1 year.

It has been a while since I have updated the P1 blog. The weather has been getting colder for the past few days. We are expecting another encounter with snow tomorrow. This might be a good motivator for me to stay home and study for our upcoming pharmacogenomics exam on Monday. I anticipate this semester to be quite intensive based on our schedule. There is an exam almost on a weekly basis, mainly from the course in pharmacogenomics or the IBHS series.

Another new interesting tidbit for us students in Ashburn is that we have finally moved to the new building. The new classroom can seat 46 people ideally, but the design of the room is best suited for 40 students. One row of seats doesn’t provide a good view of the presentation screen. The transition wasn’t smooth during the first week since there was no fridge, microwave, and vending machines for us to utilize. Also, the video conferencing system wasn’t working exactly in tiptop shape. The video signal would suddenly disconnect periodically. A new gimmick we have to get use to as well is that our microphones are always on. Any slight noise will be picked up and transmitted to the main campus.

During the second week of the semester, my classmates and I attended the Fraternity Round Robin event on the main campus. Each fraternity was given 15 minute for introductions and intermingling. The three professional pharmacy fraternities are Kappa Psi, Kappa Epsilon, and Phi Delta Chi. Also there is an honor fraternity called Rho Chi which, is limited to the top 20% of the class. Afterwards, each fraternity held a rush event in the following days.

Guess that will be it for this post and stay tuned for more updates.

Sleep Deprived

This week has been the toughest week of my time at pharmacy school. Last Friday, my husband and I got our puppy, Lily. She is an 8 week old golden retriever mix and is definitely a handful. We got her Friday and we had our first ICARE exam yesterday. SO, in the midst of middle of the night potty breaks, hyper playing, potty training, crate training, and manner training...I also had to find time to study for the Respiratory ICARE exam PLUS a quiz in another class on the same day. Needless to say, it was the least prepared that I have ever felt for an exam. Luckily, it all turned out ok and I was able to get the grade that I wanted...I still am surprised with myself and have no idea how that happened!

Another thing that has been going on is rush week with all of the fraternities. This past week, we handed out our bids to the P1 and P2 class to people who may be interested in joining KE. Something that seems to happen during rush is that people tend to group together with their friends and join whatever their friends are joining. A lot of joining a fraternity is about joining the one that is right for you and that you would feel most passionate about. The large majority of people decided to pledge KY and PDC, and very few pledged KE. It is kind of disappointing for my pledgemaster partner and I, but I guess it means that I will have more free time that I anticipated which is great because I need to make time for the pup. Despite the low numbers, I am excited about who we are getting and I can't wait to see what KE does this semester with our events, fundraisers, and flamingo flocking in the spring. It's always a really good time :o)

Despite the exam yesterday, two exciting things did happen that made the day a bit better. First, I got an invitation to join Rho Chi, which is the honors fraternity at our school. They only take the top 20% of the class and I am thrilled that my hard work has paid off and I made the cut! The fraternity is highly thought of in our school and I am honored to be asked to be a part of it. That means that I am now in 5 organizations, and an officer in 3 of them. I never would have thought that I would be able to handle all of this time committment, but it actually isn't that bad. I still have time for myself, my husband, good grades, and now hopefully a puppy! The other exciting thing that happened was I got asked to be a bridesmaid in one of my best friends' wedding this coming New Years Eve. I was the first of my friends from back home to get married and it is exciting that now I get to go to one of their weddings and be a part of it!

Next week we have another ICARE exam, but in cardio...which I hear is more difficult than respiratory. I plan to start studying for that one tonight, so we will see how that goes. Time to get back to class!