As we welcome the new year, many of us start to reflect on the year gone by and to set resolutions for the upcoming year.

Healthier diets and exercise are popular goals, but many forget simple things such as smiling, learning, and laughing. These goals may be the healthiest resolutions of all and may have the most satisfying outcomes.

Moving is a time of change. As I boxed up memories one afternoon, I found an essay I wrote to myself as I approached my pharmacy school graduation. I remember saving this essay as a symbol of my commitment to the profession. I had just finished my final clinical rotations and was working part-time in a community and hospital pharmacy setting. Time has passed since I wrote my essay, and the world of pharmacy has changed for many people.

Despite these changes, one primary focus remains constant: the patient. Offering top-notch patient care is the focus and core of my daily work flow and skill set. Counseling patients is not only an opportunity to discuss medications and health care, but also a chance to develop a true rapport with patients. Trusted relationships are the cornerstone of care. They are just as important professionally as they are personally. Knowing and understanding your patient population is the key to changing negative outcomes into positive experiences. Whether your work environment is spent in a community, hospital, specialty, or industry setting, a simple hello and eye contact can lead to a variety of discussions and interactions.

Graduation is a time of significant change, filled with fear of the unknown, but also anticipation of the accomplishments and opportunities waiting just around the corner. As you approach each change—whether it is a new job, graduation, a new year, or a new city and home&mdash;I encourage you to reflect first on the present, so it can help shape your future. Being a health care professional is a powerful responsibility. Counseling remains a duty and it also serves as an excellent icebreaker and opportunity to build trust in a variety of pharmacy settings. I am honored to share my essay with you and hope it will encourage you to ask questions, talk about your experiences, and start changing health care one corner at a time.

Before I get a chance to take in a breath of fresh air, a patient is running up to me in the local community pharmacy parking lot. She must have seen the white lab coat hanging from the seat in my car. As the woman approaches me, she grows a bit shy and looks down. She notices the white lab coat I just changed into is short and observes the patch embroidered on my left sleeve. I look toward her and ask her if she needs help. She hesitates and I get excited. I wonder what she is going to ask me. Does she have a question about her medication? Does she need medical attention? Will she ask something the pharmacist can answer? The woman sees me looking at her intently awaiting a response. She finally blurts out, “Do you have a bathroom inside I can use?”

Not all questions asked by patients are interesting. People often march all the way down drugstore aisles back to the pharmacy counter just to ask where the detergent in the sale ad is located. Instead of saying we do not know or referring them to a drugstore clerk, we confidently tell them the soap is down aisle

Why do we do this? We are trained health care providers spending time answering questions about sale items and bathrooms. Yet, we answer all patient questions because we are not only trusted professionals but we always are there to help. With community pharmacies located on almost every corner competing for business, a patient’s every care and concern becomes a very valuable tool for pharmacists.

Treating all patients as individuals with certain needs has allowed me to discover a lot of things. Mary does not like swallowing pills and throws them in the garbage when her husband looks away. Matt has tried almost every allergy medication on the market and nothing seems to work for him. Jane picks up prescriptions for her neighbor who has chronic pain and can no longer walk. By asking open-ended questions and taking an extra minute or 2 to talk with a patient, you can learn what you will not find in a book. While I am at work, I try to take advantage of every spare moment. Whether I need to reference a textbook for a drug interaction or call a patient to schedule an appointment to discuss her new blood glucose meter, I devote my time and individually focus on every situation I encounter.

As I am preparing to graduate, I hope I do not lose the skills I have developed as an intern in community practice. I continue to be interested in my patient’s health and ask openended questions during counseling sessions. I believe that by talking with patients, they can teach me as much or more than I can teach them! I never want to stop learning. As I continue to grow within my profession, I hope I never become more interested in how fast I can fill a prescription compared with how well I can fill a prescription. The quality of care that I can provide to a patient always will be my number 1 priority.

Looking back to when I first entered the pharmacy profession, the patient was not always my number one concern. I was worried about the other interns, technicians, pharmacists, nurses, physician, and company reports. When I realized that all I needed to do was worry about the patient, my workload became much simpler. Health care is a field of constant change, but the patient never changes. The patient is why I will have a job and continue to be interested and learn. My patients will motivate me every day to help my community and always be available for any kind of help. The dedication I have to my patients and to my community pharmacy is why I wake up to my alarm clock every morning—even if I do have to hit the snooze button once in a while!

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Careers

Developing a rapport with patients is an important step toward achieving positive outcomes.

Counseling Tips from a Pro

	Can you guess which fruits and vegetables had the top 5 scores in nutrition density?

#5: A 1-cup serving of this leaf provides vitamin A, vitamin C, and calcium. In addition, this powerful veggie is a good source of iron, vitamin K, folic acid, and fiber. Hint: This powerhouse is the vegetable of choice for a notable sailor.

#4: A 1-cup serving of this leaf provides vitamin A, vitamin C, and calcium. In addition, this powerful veggie is a good source of iron, vitamin K, folic acid, and fiber. Hint: These greens are attached to a well-known, colorful vegetable. 

#3: This leafy green provides vitamin A, vitamin C, magnesium, and other vitamins and minerals. Hint: This leafy green is available in a rainbow of colors.

#2: This vegetable is packed full of vitamin A, vitamin C, and calcium. Hint: This Asian lettuce has many varieties and is a stir-fry favorite. 

#1: The most nutrient-rich food contains more than 15 essential vitamins and minerals and provides more iron than spinach, more calcium than milk, and more vitamin C than oranges. Hint: This often-overlooked vegetable is a close cousin to mustard greens, cabbage, and other greens.

Answer to #5 is spinach. Although kale has a similar nutritional profile and made the list of powerhouse foods, spinach beat the trendy leaf for the number 5 spot. Nutrient Density Score: 86.43

Answer to #4 is beet greens. Although beets are more popular, beet greens pack a mighty nutritional punch. Try using them raw in salads, sautéed in a stirfry, or add them to soups. Nutrient Density Score: 87.08

Answer to #3 is chard. Chard is used in Mediterranean cooking and is often enjoyed sautéed. Nutrient Density Score: 89.27

Answer to #2 is Chinese cabbage. Many greens, including bok choy, fall under this category and are most often used sautéed, steamed, or raw in salads. Nutrient Density Score: 91.99

Answer to #1 is watercress.  Many greens, including bok choy, fall under this category and are most often used sautéed, steamed, or raw in salads. Nutrient Density Score: 100.

These powerhouse foods ranked in the top 10 highest nutrient density scores: chicory: 73.36, leaf lettuce: 70.73, parsley: 65.59, romaine lettuce: 63.48, collard greens: 62.49.

You know that fruits and vegetables are good for you, but do you know which ones are the best?


Nutrition: Test Your Skills

Effective com&shy;munication skills cannot be taught but must be learned through experience.

After receiving a thorough education, completing clinical rotations, graduating pharmacy school, and passing the North American Pharmacist Licensure Exams, young pharmacists are ready to take on their first full-time pharmacy job. However, despite their training and quali&shy;fications, new graduates may be unsure how to conduct themselves in the professional pharmacy world.

Here are some dos and don’ts to help recent graduates adjust to their new positions.

Just as you were advised to get involved in school, joining professional organizations and becoming an advocate for the profession will help fur&shy;ther your professional goals and keep your passion for pharmacy alive.

“Stay connected with major pharmacy organizations, attend their meet&shy;ings and conferences to stay abreast of the new trends in the pharmacy profession at large, and meet new colleagues and expand your profes&shy;sional network,” said 2013 Next-Generation Pharmacist Future Pharmacist of the Year award winner Hoda Masmouei, PharmD, in an interview with 

Attending national meetings is a good start, but to gain valuable expe&shy;rience, Dr. Masmouei suggests taking an active role in local or national associations.

“If you can, become active in regional, state, or national chapters of pharmacy organizations and practice your leadership skills within the profession,” she said.

Communication is the key to any successful relationship—especially those with your coworkers and superiors. The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education identifies communication as an important skill for new pharmacists to possess on their list of competencies for community, health-system, and managed care pharmacy.

For the most part, effective communication skills cannot be taught but must be learned through experience.

Speak up if you have questions or concerns about any aspect of the pharmacy or the work you are doing. Be open to communication with coworkers and try to create and maintain good relationships with everyone you work with.

Although you have received extensive education and training, you do not know everything—many skills come from experience.

To help guide you through the unknown, seek out an experienced mentor you trust and feel comfortable with. Mentors can provide valuable advice on career transitions, professionalism, career advancement, and other areas that are not necessarily taught in school.

“Find a pharmacy mentor who has experience in the line of pharmacy your job is in, who is abreast of the trends, and is familiar with you enough to be able to help you make the decisions that are right for you when the time comes to make changes,” Dr. Masmouei suggested.

Many people have helped you get through pharmacy school, land your first job, and do well in the position. Remember to thank all these people.

In her book The New Pharmacist: 46 Doses of Advice, the first piece of advice from author Erin Albert, MBA, PharmD, JD, is to send handwritten thank you notes.

“Thank your parents, friends, family, boss, professors, co-workers, and anyone else who got you to the point of being a licensed pharmacist immediately. You did not get to where you are at this moment alone,” she writes.

After sending these initial thank you notes, Dr. Albert suggests that pharmacists make gratitude a habit.

“Also, keep a stack of blank thank you notes on your desk somewhere, and make sure you’re thanking someone in the universe each and every week at a minimum and day at maximum if and when you can.”

If you have a question about a patient or process, do not understand a task, or are confused about anything, don’t be too shy to ask your boss or coworker.

Asking for help does not show weakness—it shows that you are learning. If you don’t ask, you risk making a mistake or completing a task wrong, which can cause everyone on your team extra time and energy to correct.

Understanding your strengths, weaknesses, and limitations will help you to grow professionally and to contribute to your place of employment.

“Invest in your strengths to bring more value to the organization you work for and use your knowledge of your limitations to develop strategies to prevent mistakes,” Dr. Masmouei advised.

Although the health care landscape is changing, don’t try to or expect to make big changes when you are new on the job.

The organization you work for most likely has tried and true processes and protocol in place and knows best how to manage problems. Before you try to reinvent the wheel, spend some time learning the basics, learning how the organization runs their daily activities, and gaining an understanding of the unique challenges they face.

After you have spent some time learning about and understanding the organization and the profession, then you can begin to think about ways you can improve it.

When you are immersed in a new job and new environment, phar&shy;macy school may seem like the distant past, and keeping in touch with anyone from school can be difficult. However, your professors, preceptors, and anyone else who helped you along the way can serve as important contacts, mentors, and friends.

Don’t neglect these valuable relationships—write emails, send LinkedIn messages, meet up for coffee, have phone conversations. Do whatever you can to maintain these relationships within your and their busy schedules.

While in pharmacy school, or just before starting your first job post-graduation, you may lay out your career goals and the steps you will take to get there. But once you start working full-time, you can easily become distracted by your daily duties.

“Don’t get too caught up with your current job to the point where you forget about mapping your career and where you want to be in the next 5, 10, and 15 years,” Dr. Masmouei said. “Take up tasks in your current job that make you more eligible for the positions you want should they arise.” 

“Find a pharma&shy;cy mentor who has experience in the line of pharmacy your job is in.”

“Thank your parents, friends, family, boss, professors, co-workers, and anyone else who got you to the point of being a licensed pharma&shy;cist immediately.

Asking for help does not show weakness—it shows that you are learning.

These tips can help recent pharmacy school graduates navigate the professional world.

New on the Job: Dos and Don'ts

	Although the community pharmacy residency is a relatively new idea, it can be just as valuable as the clinical pharmacy residency and other postgraduate education experiences for pharmacists.

	These 1-year programs prepare pharmacy school graduates for a career in which they advance and impact the practice of community pharmacy. The residencies are designed to provide pharmacists with experience in the many roles available in the community setting, including patient care, leadership advocacy, and education. As community pharmacy continues to expand, residencies prepare pharmacists to practice within a specialized niche and to adapt with the changing role of the pharmacist.

	Because community residencies are new, many pharmacy students are less familiar with the programs and have questions about them. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions and my answers, informed by my insights as a PGY-1 community resident with SpartanNash.

Q: Why did you decide to do a community pharmacy residency?

	A: Community residents are asked this question a lot. The best, most inclusive answer to why we chose these programs is that we love pharmacy. We love interacting with patients, managing their medications, and working to improve their health. When we look at the health care system, we constantly see areas where the services community pharmacists provide would improve patient care. Moreover, we love pharmacists. We believe pharmacists do an incredible job of caring for their patients, that they should be given more opportunities to work at the top of their licenses, and that they deserve to be rewarded for all of the work that they do.

Q: What does a community pharmacy resident do?

	A: The short is answer is that community pharmacy residents work in a variety of areas to expand the clinical role of community pharmacists. More important than our day-to-day work is that we learn. The program helps new practitioners grow as providers and as professionals. Community residents experience all aspects of community practice and are given the opportunity to determine where they fit in a profession that continues to become larger, more diverse, and more exciting. Here, there is a place for every skill-set. Because community residents are exposed to the many different components of community pharmacy, their tasks can vary drastically on a day-to-day basis. There is no such thing as a “typical day” for a community pharmacy resident. 

Q: What makes for a successful resident in this kind of program?

Q: What can you do after completing a community pharmacy residency?

	A: One of the best and most important characteristics of this type of residency program is that the experience will be entirely what you make of it. Meaning, you will apply what you learn throughout the residency to whatever area of pharmacy you are interested in pursuing. For example, if you want your PGY-1 to train you to be a clinical pharmacist in an outpatient setting, then that is what you will learn. If you want to teach future pharmacists and become a professor, then your experiences will be refocused on that aspect of the program. Residents interested in management and administration will spend more time with departmental leadership learning about the business of community pharmacy.

	No matter which path you chose to follow after the program, community pharmacy residencies provide recent graduates with unique opportunities and experiences to prepare them for their careers. 

Community pharmacy residencies provide recent graduates with opportunities to gain a wide range of experience.

Inside the Community Pharmacy Residency: FAQs and Answers

Are you frequently frustrated by friends and family who don’t understand what pharmacy is all about? If so, you’ll relate to this episode of “True Life.” Take a quick study break and watch student pharmacists attempt to change the perception of pharmacy.

Video: University of Kansas Submission to APhA-ASP PharmFlix 2014

Mental Recess: True Life: I'm a Student Pharmacist 

Spurred by health care reform, the rise of specialty drugs continued in 2014 in an ascendance that is projected to account for nearly half of all pharmacy spending within the next 2 years.

The growth of specialty medications means a growth in opportunities available to pharmacists. The increasing use of specialty drugs will lead to more roles that will require a hightouch approach to patient management. As the medications in the pipeline become more specialized, the skill sets of pharmacists must expand and evolve to meet the needs of their patients initiating treatment with complex biologics.

Understanding current trends in specialty pharmacy will prepare pharmacy students to take advantage of these new opportunities in the specialty space after graduation.

The following explores 10 major trends in specialty pharmacy as a new era of health care focuses the attention of all players—patients, payers, physicians, and manufacturers&mdash;squarely on the specialty marketplace.

1. The Cost of Specialty Drugs Is Skyrocketing 

The cost of specialty medications has achieved what some call “unsustainable growth,” with a wide-ranging impact on patients and providers alike.

Catamaran Corporation reported that, in 2013, specialty medications accounted for 23.5% of total drug spending by only 2.1% of patients. The average cost of a specialty prescription in 2013 was nearly $2900, which represents a 17% increase from the previous year.

Additionally, spending on new specialty treatments increased 7.7%, to $7.5 billion in 2013 and accounted for 69% of total spending on new brand name drugs.

Whether that growth can be sustained in the long term by patients and providers is another question.

“Specialty drugs account for a disproportionate share of overall drug spending because of their extremely high cost,” reports America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a trade association for the country’s health insurers.

AHIP suggests that a number of measures should be taken to mitigate spending growth while improving access to specialty drugs, including encouraging alternative payments and incentive structures for new drugs and technologies and shortening the exclusivity time for biologics.

2. The Specialty Marketplace Continues to Heat Up 

Large companies are buying up independent specialty pharmacies as specialty medications take up a bigger piece of the drug spending pie.

This past year saw a number of big players elbow their way into specialty pharmacy in response to the projected growth.

“It’s hard to build a specialty pharmacy from scratch, so a lot of existing players are starting to acquire some of the smaller, faster-growing companies that have already built specialty capabilities,” said Adam J. Fein, PhD, president of Pembroke Consulting and chief executive officer of Drug Channels. “What we’re seeing is that specialty pharmacy is really a set of services, not a distinct industry. So what we think of as pharmacy is going to be merging, and is merging, with what people call specialty pharmacy.”

Dr. Fein added that this move toward an expanded specialty marketplace requires companies to have their eyes firmly fixed on the future.

“Looking forward a few years, most of the drugs dispensed to patients are going to be low-cost generic drugs or high-cost specialty drugs,” he noted. “Pharmacies need to figure out how they’re going to play that balanced approach.”

3. The “Marriage” of Specialty Pharmacy and Accountable Care Organizations Continues to Strengthen 

The goals of accountable care groups and specialty pharmacies are tightly aligned in supporting and caring for the needs of patients.

With the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, accountable care organizations (ACOs) emerged with the goal of reducing costs and improving patient adherence. To achieve those goals, ACOs are increasingly looking to specialty pharmacies that are already armed with an extensive history of hands-on specialized care.

“Accountable care organizations aligned incentives around managing the whole patient and really integrating the patient experience from the point of diagnosis with the doctor all the way through to successful therapy,” said chief executive officer of Avella Specialty Pharmacy Rebecca M. Shanahan, esq, in a video interview on SpecialtyPharmacyTimes.com. “What that is going to do is put a higher value and focus on the set of services that specialty does. Specialty is often times both the integrator among different kinds of providers and the last link to the patient relative to the success or failure they have in terms of understanding their disease and managing their therapy.”

Despite the aligned goals between the 2 entities, ACOs are not anticipated to have a drastic impact on the management of specialty medications or biopharmaceuticals, according to research by the Journal of Managed Care Medicine.

The study indicated that ACOs would focus on efficiency and more general quality metrics rather than on pharmaceutical access.

4. As Drug Costs Go Up, Adherence Goes Down

Reduced medication adherence is a by-product of escalating drug costs for patients feeling the economic pinch.

As specialty drugs become more prevalent and the costs continue to climb, so too does the potential for nonadherence by a patient population unable to afford these high-priced treatments.

Analysis by CVS Health found that patients who use specialty drugs carry a total health care cost that is up to 8.5 times more than the cost for patients who do not use specialty drugs. This disparity is driven by the fact that patients who use specialty drugs are more likely to have multiple diagnoses, see more specialists, fill more prescriptions, and have more lab tests, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations than the average patient.

Additionally, the shift to high-deductible health care plans by many employers has the potential to lead to reduced adherence and delayed or bypassed care due to high out-of-pocket costs.

Specialty pharmacies will need to remain aware of the impact of the ACA on coverage for specialty medications.

“An unfortunate consequence of many of the exchange plans people are purchasing under Obamacare is that the enormous costs are being shifted to patients,” Dr. Fein said. “That is really not good for the health care system or the patients.”

5. New Patients Continue to Flood the Specialty Space Through Health Care Reform 

More patients are using health care services, which means more money will be spent in the specialty space.

With 32 million people projected to be newly insured by the end of the decade, the growing demand is expected to drive specialty medications to account for approximately 40% of all pharmacy spending by 2016.

In response to this demand, manufacturers have focused their efforts to align with the growing specialty market. Specialty medications currently comprise more than 50% of the pharmaceutical pipeline, with specialty products accounting for 15 of 27 novel new drugs approved by the FDA in 2013. More than 30% of new drugs approved last year were oncology drugs, which are projected to represent approximately 14% of the worldwide market share by 2018, with targeted oncology therapies accounting for more than $69 billion in sales.

“Increasing access to insurance is increasing the demand for specialty drugs,” Dr. Fein said. “Overall, I think getting insurance coverage is a good thing for these patients, but on the other hand, the way it’s been implemented could ultimately drive up health care costs. There is a lot of work to be done to fix the reform that’s been implemented.”

6. Growing Use of Technology Will Improve Patient Outcomes

Increasingly, specialty pharmacies are turning to technological breakthroughs to improve adherence and data analytics.

The phrase “There’s an app for that” has moved beyond the commercialization of convenience tools and into the realm of enhancing patient care and outcomes. Increasingly, providers are looking to technical solutions for some of the age-old problems that have plagued specialty pharmacy. For example, Avella Specialty Pharmacy began using a GlowCap, a device that fits on top of a pill bottle and wirelessly uses lights and sounds to remind patients to take their medication.

Further innovation looms on the horizon, such as Next IT’s virtual health assistant platforms. “Why can’t we use a virtual agent embedded in [smartphones] to help with reminders for medications, and answer questions about the disease process?” asked Thomas Morrow, MD, chief medical officer for Next IT in a video interview on SpecialtyPharmacyTimes.com. “An individual patient may have 2000 to 3000 potential questions about their chronic illness…this is the ultimate Google-type of device, but specific to their needs.”

7. Health Care Is Evolving into a Patient-Centered Ecosystem 

With health care reform putting the emphasis on patient management, specialty pharmacy moves to the forefront.

Specialty health care is evolving to focus less on medication management and more on the total patient. As a result, providers are seeking to improve interaction between the physician, pharmacy benefit management, health care plan, care management nurse, and specialty pharmacy to create a total care ecosystem that fits each patient’s needs.

“Everything we do in specialty has a patient at the end of the activity,” said Randy Falkenrath, MBA, CVS Health senior vice president of specialty pharmacy services, during the Armada summit. “It’s really all about the services we provide in improving their care, improving their quality of life, and finding the opportunity, ideally, to improve a length of their life span.”

In this new consumer-driven market, specialty pharmacy has already found itself uniquely situated with a strong prior record of direct interaction with physicians and patients alike.

“Specialty pharmacy, just through the nature of the pharmacy business, has always been more patient-centered than some of the large institutional organizations,” Dr. Fein said. “One of the things about specialty products is that you’re treating a small patient population. That means it’s easier to devote resources to individuals who have these conditions.”

8. Biosimilars Are Coming, Possibly Sooner than Expected 

On the heels of the FDA accepting the first application filed for a biosimilar, the United States may finally be on the brink of biologic price competition.

Novartis Group company Sandoz entered uncharted waters in US drug manufacturing on July 24, 2014, as it became the first US company to file an application for a biosimilar with the FDA through the pathway created by the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009.

Branded biologic oncology products alone currently represent more than $20 billion in global spending and are anticipated to be the top target for biosimilar development over the next 5 years.

Estimates vary on just how much relief biosimilars will offer on the cost of specialty drugs, due to the fact that manufacturers who have long since recouped their original investment could subsequently lower the price of the reference product once a biosimilar competitor hits the market. Drug companies are still putting in their due diligence to prepare for the impending flood, however. For example, Pfizer has extensive educational programs to provide information for patients and physicians on the potential of biosimilars.

“We need to find a way to communicate the importance of biosimilars and the high potential they have, especially the quality behind the molecules and how the entire concept of biosimilarity is based on the molecular structure of the candidate drug. It is a big challenge,” Dr. Coindreau said.

Specialty pharmacy is growing, and student pharmacists should keep abreast of the latest industry trends.

Specialty Pharmacy: What Pharmacy Students Should Know

After celebrating its 75th anniversary, the 

Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) College of Pharmacy

 remains dedicated to providing training and education to future pharmacists in an evolving field.

“We continue to tackle today’s global pharmaceutical opportunities and challenges in a nurturing, student-focused, educational environment,” said dean Dennis F. Thompson, PharmD, FASHP, FCCP, in an  exclusive interview with 

In addition to their PharmD program, the school offers a combined PharmD and MBA program, residency and research opportunities for students, and an expanding rural health program that provides clinical support to critical access hospitals and rural community pharmacies.

In addition, the school is home to the SWOSU Center for Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences (SCRiPS). The center promotes research in the pharmaceutical sciences and strives to advance drug discovery and development. SCRiPS provides students and faculty with research and scholarship opportunities.

“We are dedicated to harnessing the passion and work ethic of our students, faculty, alumni, and stakeholders to create the very best pharmacy education,” said Thompson.

Q: What is the teaching style or philosophy?

 We take tremendous pride in educating the next generation of pharmacists. The College of Pharmacy offers an innovative and student-focused curriculum. Our faculty members excel in the classroom, taking advantage of our small class sizes to provide learning experiences with personalized attention. We utilize combinations of active learning, flipped classrooms, traditional lecture, and case-based problem-solving methods. In addition, we have a series of 6 pharmaceutical care labs that provide a continuum of activities leading to the advanced pharmacy practice experiences.

Q: What are some community outreach activities or programs the school participates in? What volunteer opportunities are available to students?

 There are a number of opportunities for SWOSU pharmacy students to get involved in their community through service and fund-raising activities. Faculty and students at the college help to provide free medical and pharmaceutical care to local residents in Oklahoma City and Weatherford who are in need. Students are also involved in international medical missions, such as our 2014 mission trip to Panama. Fund-raising for charities and as a mechanism to raise funds for their organizations is a constant part of the student experience at SWOSU.

Q: What opportunities do students have for rotation experiences?

 Students at SWOSU have a wide variety of rotation opportunities at clinical, retail, institutional, and selective/elective settings. A brief list of examples includes nuclear, long-term care, professional organizations, benefit management, leadership, scholarship, academic, and a private physician’s office.  The College of Pharmacy has a strong relationship with the Indian Health Service, and multiple opportunities in different practice settings are available for students throughout the state.

Q: What advice do you have for students who will graduate this year?

 Consider doing a residency to enhance your patient care, research, and administrative skills. Develop your leadership skills and continue to be involved in professional pharmacy organizations.

After celebrating its 75th anniversary, the Southwestern Oklahoma State University College of Pharmacy remains dedicated to providing training and education to future pharmacists in an evolving field.
