CharmingHedgehog Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 Now that I have officially passed all my courses, I thought I'd give some unsolicited advice. I don't claim to have succeeded, and it is not my intention to brag about my meager accomplishments. Since I graduated from U of T, this may have an Ontario slant... I'm assuming here that you do not intend to use pharmacy as a spring board to other professions How to succeed in pharmacy school First and foremost: You must like people. If you don't like people, and got into pharmacy, then learn to like people, or at least pretend, with consistency, to like people. Otherwise your patient won't have good care, you won't be happy being bugged by patients all the time... generally bad stuff all around. 1. Apply to a good school You want to look for a school that will give good experiential opportunities. That is probably more important than how many of your prof have won the nobel prize 2. Make friends These are people who will be your future colleagues. They may recommend you for jobs... collaborate with you on business plans... you can collaboratively study with them, and get past year notes from their friends! 3. Stop caring so much about grades There's a running joke in pharmacy... what do you call a person who graduated from the program with a 60% average (that's the minimum to pass), and almost failed their board exam? A pharmacist! Community pharmacy will almost never care about your grades (the almost is there in case someone does ask. Personally, I haven't heard anyone requiring it). Hospital residencies will ask for a transcript to make sure you aren't failing, and your are doing OK in the "important" courses. Pharmacy is pretty much a good time to relax, work together with people, and really focus on what you should learn. That brings me to the next point.... 4. Know which courses are important aka care about grades selectively For some strange reason, I was required to know what a sodium channel looks like in a course (medicinal chemistry). I have great respect for researchers, but as a practicing pharmacist, you will almost never need to know, or be able to draw, a sodium channel. Similarly, unless you go to industry drug research, you probably won't need to know the Michaelis Menton Equation... Conversely, to be a good pharmacist, you'd better know your pharmacology and therapeutics. Statistics is surprisingly useful too! So a 70 in med chem may not be as worrying as a 70 in something useful, say therapeutics. 5. Love your CEs and IPEs CE = continuing education IPE = interprofessional education They can be sessions conducted live, or online This is a great place to learn some useful things, and to meet other people - network. For example, one of my friends was involved in the IHI (institute for Health Improvement) project, and her group's solution was implemented and accepted at the local hospital. Now the project is being written into a paper. I had an opportunity to attend a emergency response seminar + online course + live simulation. Through this, I not only learned about disaster response, but was also in touch with a prof who is super involved in online continuing education for healthcare professionals -- an area I'm interested in. Voila, I am now working for her. 6. Forget the pointless volunteering/extracurriculars Pharmacy school is the end. You aren't trying to "get in" to anywhere anymore. So do something you enjoy. If you are interested in something, and take part in it, you'll probably also get more involved anyway. A resume should only be 2 pages or less, so there's no space to put random EC's down. Most employers are only interested in your work experience anyway. For me, I was interested in quality improvement, so I took part in the IHI projects as well. It turned out that in my third year summer, the position I applied for specifically wanted someone who had quality improvement experience to lead implementation of a project in a hospital... so I got the job, and it was a great experience. 7. Find a good job/co-op as soon as you can Good = either a wide variety of companies so you learn different systems, or a long time commitment with one company Obviously, if you don't have any prior experience, you have to start with a volunteer/slightly crappy job. But sometimes you get lucky and get a studentship with a good preceptor in one of the chains... or a job with a helpful independent pharmacist. The goal after pharmacy school is to get a job. So when your interviewer asks you to talk about your pharmacy experience (and they love to ask that), you have to have something to talk about. Ask around about companies that give good studentship opportunities; ask which hospital has good summer student programs. If you really want a particular summer job, prepare yourself for it, and actively go get it. For example, in my 2nd year, I heard london health sciences has a really good summer student program, I really wanted to apply. But, strangely, there was no ad for it! I went ahead and applied anyway. It turned out I was the only applicant from U of T that year, because they messed up the job posting and it didn't get sent out. Also, if you work at different places, you will also avoid being super affected by a bad manager/preceptor who turns you off the entire area forever. A couple of my friends had horrible hospital supervisors, and now are completely refusing to even consider hospital pharmacy. 8. Join organizations, contribute to the student body Be active in the student government (class council, faculty council, pharmacy society council, CAPSI council, etc etc) Play your strengths. For example, I pretty much fail at campaigning and socializing sort of thing, but I'm good at website design/desktop publishing. So I did web design. Apparently that particular skill is in high demand =S so I was able to be more and more involved in different organizations and projects. I met a lot of great people, and got very good advice from some of the upper years I met. It's OK to randomly help out your classmates, then you make a name for yourself... which will also make running for future council positions easier 8b. A sub point, because I really want to encourage everyone to join the Canadian Association of Pharmacy Students and Interns (CAPSI). At a local level, people never really know what they do. But they put on symposia, competitions, community education events such as handwashing, allegy awareness, and so on so forth. As part of the local or national council, or the national council, it is a much much different experience. It is a great opportunity for personal growth. You are taking on the responsibility to doing research, coordinate events, "marketing" the event, communicating with fellow council members and the student body, and promoting the profession in general. Take the VP education on CAPSI national for example, he/she is responsible for coordinating 3 CAPSI competitions a year in each school (judges, sponsors, materials, winners, prizes), determining topics for the twice a year symposia. Imagine the experience you will gain from that position, and the people you will meet! 9. Never, EVER EVER sign a contract in first year Unless you are 100% sure you will work for shoppers/walmart/loblaws/etc for the next 4-5 years, don't sign a contract, especially in first year. Even though the job market is down in Ontario right now, most of my class have a paid internship, and will have a job. By signing that contract, you may be limiting yourself to other pharmacy experiences during your school. If you want to withdraw from the contract at any time, you'd be paying a hefty penalty... not really worth it in my opinion. 10. Most importantly, CHARM your managers and supervisors. You may be able to get a job from them. Always give your 100% because you'll never know when you need them. Pharmacy is a small world! You are a representative of your school. Don't mess it up for every student that comes after you by slacking off! 11. Finally, don't be ashamed to do something else If you find out through your school career that you want to do something else, and you have done a thorough evaluation of your other options, do it! People's ideas and beliefs change, there is no point of doing something you hate for the rest of your life. Although also remember, pharmacy school is not the same as pharmacy the profession. You may develop negative feelings toward your program, but remember that the profession is drastically different! Also keep in mind, pharmacy is a relatively profitable profession. If your other interest doesn't make a lot of money, you can still part time as a pharmacist That is all! That's pretty much my 2 cents. I'm sure I've missed something, and other people will definitely have different opinions from what I've said. So for reference only! Sorry for such a long post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul parker Posted May 13, 2011 Report Share Posted May 13, 2011 I completely agree, great aricle! I’m glad I stumbled across this website! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanMaverick Posted May 17, 2011 Report Share Posted May 17, 2011 You forgot to mention how you should avoid community pharmacy like the plague and that a residency is, while daunting, an incredibly useful and rewarding thing to complete. Disclaimer: I'm 10.5 months into my 12 month residency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharmingHedgehog Posted May 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 You forgot to mention how you should avoid community pharmacy like the plague and that a residency is, while daunting, an incredibly useful and rewarding thing to complete. Disclaimer: I'm 10.5 months into my 12 month residency. About 80% of people in my class ended up in community pharmacy, and most actually preferred it. Had a couple of friends who hated hospital. Personally, I like hospital for the therapeutics and hours, but depends on a person's preference I guess. Community may make more money, and less complicated problems. Also, more chances to be in a managerial position, or just quit and open an independent =D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted May 21, 2011 Report Share Posted May 21, 2011 i see that you've found new and creative ways to not study for the pebcs =P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharmingHedgehog Posted May 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2011 As a member of my past and future classes, and future colleague, you should fully endorse my creativity outlet *nods* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umad? Posted July 17, 2011 Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 Community pharmacy will almost never care about your grades (the almost is there in case someone does ask. Personally, I haven't heard anyone requiring it). Hospital residencies will ask for a transcript to make sure you aren't failing, and your are doing OK in the "important" courses. Pharmacy is pretty much a good time to relax, work together with people, and really focus on what you should learn. That brings me to the next point.... Sorry, the bolded part isn't true. Residencies are highly competitive and you need to maintain a high GPA. agreed with everything else tho. (former ualberta pharm c/o 2013) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharmingHedgehog Posted July 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2011 I think GPA is weighed in maybe as must as, your ECs and your application. So if your GPA is not great, then your ECs and app and interview can compensate for that... as long as you aren't failing in the key subjects. I have a friend who couldn't make the cutoffs for UWO (even with undergrad marks), and didn't even want to try for UT or Queens, yet she managed to get a pretty competitive residency in Alberta. So I don't think you have to claw tooth and nail for marks, as compared to you would need to do in "pre-med" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marklee Posted August 12, 2011 Report Share Posted August 12, 2011 Just Remember Three things: 1) Stay focused 2) Study 3) Don't procrastinate Thanks for providing such a wonderful information here. Actually,I was looking forward to such a info.I really appreciate it.Hope to see such a informative stuff in future! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hermandez Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 I think the overwhelming response here is going to be that time management is the key. The biggest difference for me between Pharmacy school and undergrad is just the huuuuuge amount of material that you are responsible for. You have to quickly learn how to manage your time wisely and also how to sift out the VERY important stuff from the LESS important stuff when it comes to studying. You'll get the hang of it! Congrats on your acceptance! Pharmacy school is really great... tough at times, but very rewarding! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marguerite Posted October 23, 2011 Report Share Posted October 23, 2011 How much of biology? and chemistry? Is it realistic that a mother of seven children achieve pharmacy studies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul parker Posted January 11, 2013 Report Share Posted January 11, 2013 healthy discussion guys keep it up Frank Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeniferJoe Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 Great post. Every one should read this article to successful achieve their targets. It’s very useful advice to build the carrier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.