, students from the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy at the University of Hawaii at Hilo discussed their unique experiences as students in Hawaii. The state has a distinct culture and different patient populations from the mainland United States, and the students said that has led them to have unique perspectives on culturally competent care and pharmacists’ roles in the community.

Andrew Schuler, fourth-year pharmacy student: 

At the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy, every student took a class called Communication and Culture, a class that educated us on the importance of understanding the challenges of a language barrier, as well as how religious beliefs may also be a challenge when it comes to treating a patient's disease. The most important thing you must do is listen to the patient, understand their concerns, and by doing that, you will gain their trust to be able to treat them appropriately.

Taylor Elola, second-year pharmacy student: 

One of our courses during the first year was actually called Communication and Culture. And this class focused on learning to communicate vital drug information effectively to patients, a lot of motivational interviewing to promote patient adherence and compliance; and most of all, like in depth, education about different familial, cultural, spiritual, and even religious practices, and customs that may affect a patient's outlook on medications, vaccines and health care overall. From this class, we learned more about these customs and practices as well as our role as health care providers to be empathetic, respectful, be active listeners and enthusiastic educators. 

Analeslie Martinez, fourth-year pharmacy student: 

So as mentioned, doing these rural health certificates, I learned about the really unique care that rural health communities require or have. I've also been involved in several organizations at our school that promote specific care to rural populations of Hawaii. For example, I'm in this organization that was called Ho'omalu Ola, which actually translates to "guardians of health." And we provided free health screenings to a rural fishing village called Miloli'i. We also did patient education on chronic illnesses, and even provide them with food bags to promote healthy eating, and kind of promoted some education through there as well. I'm also involved in a organization called Pacific Islander Mobile Screening Clinic. And we also provided free health screenings to everyone in the community on behalf of higher emphasis on Pacific Islanders, since they are an underserved population. And what's so unique about this specific organization was that prior to COVID-19, this organization partnered up with the medical school in a Oahu JABSOM, and they would come over here we'd have this really big event on the Big Island, a bunch of community members would come out and we promote health. So it was a great way to connect everyone together. Also, what has been really special about being here is that, um, the opportunities that I've been able to get through my pharmacy rotations, like the IPPE/APPE, is there's so many different locations that we are able to go to so there's rotation sites all over the state of Hawaii, which is really able to tailor the students interests to their passions. For me, for example, I decided to stay on the Big Island for three rotations. I'm going to be going to New Mexico right after, I'm going to be in the Navajo reservation, and also in Gala. And then my last rotation I will be in Saipem. Yeah, so our school has really helped realize my goals of learning through experience where I'm able to really have different types of pharmacy experience in rural locations across Hawaii, the mainland and abroad.

Videos

The most important thing you must do is listen to the patient, understand their concerns, and by doing that, you will gain their trust to be able to treat them appropriately.

Unique Offerings, Curriculum to Prepare for Cultural Differences

, first-year student at the University of Arizona R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy Katrina Zearley discussed why she decided to write a children’s book about pharmacy. After noticing that there were few, if any, children’s books on the subject, Zearley wrote and published 

I Think When I Am Older I Might Be a Pharmacist!

, and I'm here today with Katrina Zearley, author of the children's book 

 to discuss what inspired her to write that. So, to get started, can you introduce a little bit about yourself?

Of course! My name is Katrina Zearley, as you said. I'm a student at the University of Arizona [and] I recently graduated with a Bachelor of Science in pharmaceutical sciences and a minor in Spanish. I'm an incoming P1 at their pharmacy school, and during my time at the University of Arizona, during my undergrad, I've had the opportunity to publish now 2 independent and self-published books, one of which is my children's book that we'll be discussing today.

Wonderful. What inspired you to write a children's book about pharmacy?

Well, I noticed that I did a little bit of research and there really aren't many children's books about pharmacy, not ones that describe the job or what we do, but more so just using the profession to figure out math, like can you count how many pills are in this picture? And I've noticed, even in my own pharmacy and my own work, that a lot of patients—not even children, but sometimes adults—will come in and they don't really understand what it is that we do. So, I figured that if I could write a book about it, and my experience, and from what I've learned, I can teach others about what we do and why we're so important to the world of health care.

Absolutely. Can you kind of give an overview of the book? What is it? What does it teach? You know, if a kid is reading this, what do they get to read?

Yeah, absolutely. So, the general story follows a young girl who wakes up and finds that she doesn't feel well. And she doesn't really know what's going on, but her parents decided to take her to the doctor, who eventually gives her a prescription and they head to the pharmacy. But once in the pharmacy, she's kind of wondering, well, there's so many questions I have for the pharmacist, and I need to know what's going on here. Because you know, it's just a pharmacy, I don't know what's going on. So, she asks a pharmacist a whole bunch of questions, and the pharmacist goes into detail about what it is that we do, how we are critical to the world of health care, not just the middleman that dispenses medications, and how there's so many opportunities in pharmacy, that is not just retail, but the entire world. It also rhymes. So that was fun, too.

Absolutely. That always makes it fun to read. As you alluded to, when we ask kids what they want to be a lot of the time they'll say firefighter or president or an astronaut. Why do you think pharmacists should really be on that list?

Well, from my own experience, as a child, when you're growing up, you don't really know how many jobs are out there. And the pharmacist’s role is absolutely critical to any job that you could have. I particularly enjoy all the aspects of pharmacy that help, you know, from the small details of drug interactions to the bigger details of patient interaction. And that's super beneficial to just have in public health. So, definitely, I didn't even know that I wanted to be a pharmacist, but I think that even writing this book was really locked in for me.

Yeah, wonderful. Well, speaking of your plans for being a pharmacist, what are your plans?

So, I'm hoping that pharmacy school kind of helps me figure out what role in pharmacy that I want to be in because there's just so many. I'm currently in retail as a technician, but I don't think that's where I'm going to stay. I would like to try hospital, possibly ambulatory because I know there's so many aspects of pharmacy that even I only briefly discussed in the book, but I know that there's so much more and so much opportunity for me, so I'll see where pharmacy school takes me.

Absolutely. Is there anything you want to add?

For sure. They're both on Amazon right now under my name, Katrina Zearley. If you look that up, then you'll get probably a link to both of the books, available on Amazon right now. They’re Prime, you can get it next day.

Wonderful. Perfect. Thank you so much for telling me about this. Good luck in all of your endeavors.

After noticing that there were few, if any, children’s books on the subject, Katrina Zearley wrote and published I Think When I Am Older I Might Be a Pharmacist!

First-Year Pharmacy Student Publishes Children’s Book About Pharmacy

Pharmacist careers have evolved far beyond the former roles of dispensing medications, and it is clear that perception has not kept pace with reality about modern pharmacy practice and roles. The role of the pharmacist may conjure what is now an outdated image of someone just putting pills in bottles.

With the growing number of career options, this may even imply different meanings depending on where the patient-pharmacist interaction occurs. Pharmacists are increasingly using their clinical knowledge in many different settings, including traditional community pharmacies and hospitals, as well as alternative settings, such as primary clinical practices that engage patients.

Furthermore, changes have occurred in the field of pharmacy, such as an expanded role of pharmacy technicians, increased use of automated dispensing systems, and more patients opting for mail order or online pharmacies, all of which has allowed pharmacists to consider alternate ways of providing health care in the community.

Among these, post-graduate/residency programs offer pharmacists a unique opportunity to both enhance their therapeutic expertise and to play a significant role in optimizing patient-centered care, together with other health care providers. We often come across pharmacists working in areas such as IT, pain management, cardiology, rehab, and public health.

There has also been a significant interest in the pursuit of post-graduate training programs. In light of the growing numbers of students opting for post-graduate trainings, colleges and schools of pharmacy may want to consider offering electives geared toward exposing students to post-graduate career possibilities and provide guidance toward success.

Even though many pharmacy schools and colleges now offer electives, incorporating them into a curriculum could spark students' interest early on and encourage them to pursue experiences that will not only make them qualified, but also make them competitive for residency programs. In addition to resources such as curriculum vitae, letters of intent, and recommendation letters, several organizations, such as the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and American Society of Health System Pharmacists provide guidance in these areas. By joining these types of organizations for a nominal membership fee, students can access their seminars/webinars or residency workshops.

Through one of the webinars, I learned that residency programs evaluate candidates using a metric system that incorporates individual skills, academic performance, publications, academic posters, leadership skills, professional experience, and APPE experiences. When applying to residency programs, future pharmacists should feel familiar with these evaluation metrics during their early career stages so that they can secure such experiences during school and gain a competitive edge during residency programs.

That being said, there may be students like me who feel they do not fully understand the whole process of residency applications, and on top of that, are not well acquainted with some of the evaluation parameters themselves, thus making this experience somewhat daunting for them.

While future pharmacists are aware of the myriad career options within the pharmacy profession, adapting this information into a curriculum that provides greater clarity and guidance about how to approach these diverse options may prove valuable.

Articles

In light of the growing numbers of students opting for post-graduate trainings, colleges and schools of pharmacy may want to consider offering electives geared toward exposing students to post-graduate career possibilities and provide guidance toward success.

The Benefit of Integrating Residency Workshops Into Pharmacy School Curriculum

® Pharmacy Face-Off Gameshow™, pharmacy students from the University of the Sciences Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and the Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy entered a lightning round with clinical questions.

, the teams were tied with 45 points each. In round 2, each student approached the podium to answer 3 clinical questions on topics such as sterile compounding, warfarin indications, and responsibilities of specialty pharmacists. At the end of round 2, Philadelphia was up with 145 points and Rutgers trailed with 115.

Students participating from the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy included Emily Abdelmessih, Nandini Patel, Cara Trulli, and Kelly Reitmeyer. David Dill, Cynthia Ly, Alex Greene, and Karen Namubiru competed from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, and the gameshow was hosted by Maurice Shaw, PharmD, also known as the Sassy Pharmacist.

Tune in April 8 to see the exciting conclusion of the 

Click here to watch the final round of the Pharmacy Face-Off Gameshow™.

In part 2 of the Pharmacy Times® Pharmacy Face-Off Gameshow™, pharmacy students from the University of the Sciences Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and the Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy entered a lightning round with clinical questions.

Pharmacy Students Tackle Clinical Questions in Round 2 of Pharmacy Times® Pharmacy Face-Off Gameshow

 spoke with students at the Idaho State University College of Pharmacy and its partner program at the University of Alaska Anchorage College of Health.

 Yeah, pharmacy in rural areas, I think the barriers really come up like working in that setting. A huge thing that I work with is like the indigent population, within my clinic, I work in a family medicine clinic. And so, I do a lot of like patient assistance programs for people to get free medications from drug companies. And that's a huge thing that, you know, barrier we have to overcome is cost of medications. Again, just distance people come like, lots, you know, hundreds of miles sometimes even to come to clinics. So, just making sure that everything gets done within those visits. And, you know, it's not as easy as just saying, hey, you know, actually, I forgot, you need this one paper for this application. So can you come by the clinic and drop it off? That's just not possible for a lot of these people. And so, just being on top of those things, so yeah, hugely different. For me, just working, working in the rural setting.

 I think it's been very helpful to seeing what it really is, like I'm from Indianapolis, so there's not really like it's not the same thing. It's not where you can only get somewhere by boat or helicopter or anything like that. So I think it really has highlighted for me the struggles of getting proper medical care in a rural area, especially where if you're somewhere that's only accessible by certain routes, where you can just like drive, or even where a peer driving can be a lot, especially without snow and ice and it can still be really dangerous. Um, I think it's just really opened my eyes to like how badly those rural areas do need medical care and how difficult it can be and how important it is to have people who are trained in rural areas where they might not have accessibility to, you know, a level one trauma center or you know, other resources that may be nearby and places that are not rule.

Pharmacy Times spoke with students at the Idaho State University College of Pharmacy and its partner program at the University of Alaska Anchorage College of Health.

A Different Perspective of Rural Pharmacy Work for Pharmacy Students

In this month's episode, fourth-year student Ashley Lam discussed how pharmacists and pharmacy students can get involved in environmental issues. In addition to advocating for sustainable prescribing, Lam said students can get involved in organizations such as Rx for Climate and can encourage patients to make sustainable choices.

Podcasts

Fourth-year student Ashley Lam discussed how pharmacists and pharmacy students can get involved in environmental issues. 

Pharmacy Focus: Student Edition - Episode 6

 So we're a smaller campus here, we have about 40 students. And that really has allowed us to develop relationships across the graduating classes, which I really appreciate because going into the program, it was such a new environment for me. And I really relied on the experiences of my upperclassmen to help me to help me navigate pharmacy school and getting my doctorate and so it's really nice to be able to pay that forward as a third year Pharmacy student. Also, there's strong connections between our campus the Alaska Pharmacists Association, and the profession of pharmacy at large. I feel like I've contributed to this as a student through my community outreach. But additionally, when traveling on my rotations, I've been extremely lucky and I'm so thankful of pharmacists in that area, who have offered me housing and shared their lifestyles of living and integrated me socially within the community. And this is really just one example of how my own lived experiences of how stakeholder support within Alaska is an integral role in our succession in our success as a profession.

 It's been really cool. Um, first of all, not people we're not a lot of people really know about the program up here. Pretty much everyone that program up here isn't born raised Alaskan, I'm one of the few who's not actually. So it's kind of cool, because people are always like, "Oh, my God, you're studying in Alaska." I think also kind of on the same thing as the roll thing. There's a lot of opportunities just because there's only so many of us students, it allows for a lot of opportunities for us to go out and do things that a lot of places elsewhere, cannot do like a lot of other schools, like even Idaho, like they have both their campuses there. And then they have like ITCOM and like medical schools and stuff. So they're like competing a little bit more for opportunities and spots and hospitals and outreach events. Whereas up here like it's pretty calm, we get all these opportunities. There's almost too many opportunities. Like, I want to do everything and I don't have the time to do everything.

Pharmacy Students and Their Experience In the First Pharmacy Program in Alaska

The COVID-19 pandemic caused massive disruptions in pharmacy schools, and even once some classes resumed in-person, students had a myriad of barriers and motivators to attend. To learn more about these impacts, we spoke with Cara Rutledge, a student at the University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy, who researched class attendance during the pandemic.

This episode also features Carolina Mussenden, a pharmacy student at the Nova Southeastern University College of Pharmacy who is simultaneously pursuing her MBA. Mussenden discussed the importance of leadership positions as well as finding balance between academics and extracurricular activities.



Are you interested in writing for Pharmacy Times? Reach out to AAntrim@pharmacytimes.com to learn about various opportunities to get involved!

Even after some pharmacy school classes resumed in-person, students had myriad barriers and motivators to attending because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pharmacy Focus: Student Edition - Episode 4

Handling finances can be especially overwhelming and stressful for pharmacy students, so we spoke with Tim Ulbrich, PharmD, co-founder and CEO of Your Financial Pharmacist. In this episode, Ulbrich discusses how to handle student loans, budgeting for the holidays, and what students should be prepared for in 2022.

If you're interested in writing for 

, reach out to AAntrim@pharmacytimes.com.

This episode was recorded prior to the Biden administration's extension of the student loan pause in repayments through to May 2022.

Handling finances can be especially overwhelming and stressful for pharmacy students, so we spoke with Tim Ulbrich, PharmD, co-founder and CEO of Your Financial Pharmacist. 

Pharmacy Focus: Student Edition - Episode 3

In addition to the academic lessons necessary to become a pharmacist, hands-on research experience can help students learn practices and skills that are essential to being an effective, patient-centered health care professional.

My dream of becoming a pharmacist became a reality the moment I received my letter of acceptance from California Northstate University. After receiving this letter, I reached out to Ashim Malhotra, PhD, MS, PharmBS, FAPE, my faculty adviser and mentor for the 2021 Walmart Scholar Award, to explore the various experiences a first-year pharmacy student could be involved in, and he invited me to his research team that was focusing on targeting the mitochondria for novel drug discovery in pancreatic cancer.

Through this research experience, I learned how to conduct best pharmaceutical sanitation practices, how to connect disparate scientific concepts that serve as the underpinning of patient-centered care, how to write and communicate scientific literature, and how to manage my time while working in a high-stress environment.

Research is important for both the advancement of medicine and for patient-focused, efficient pharmacy practice. It is important that pharmacists pay attention to every detail when verifying prescriptions and ensuring good pharmacy practice includes providing patients with their medications at the highest quality standards of care possible.

Proper disinfecting and cleaning of the counter, pill counting trays, and devices, coupled with proper personal sanitizing techniques, provide patients with clean, uncontaminated medications, which became more important than ever after the emergence of COVID-19. During my time with the research team, I learned several of these sanitation skills, including the aseptic technique, continuous mammalian culture, experimental design, and quality assurance assays.

Performing the different assays helped me better understand the impact of pharmacological products on biological mechanisms. For example, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) assay is an experiment that determines the effect of oxidative stress on various intracellular pathways through the measuring of ROS, which are natural by-products that can affect cells in multiple ways. Since ROS can also trigger apoptosis, it is used as a target in treating patients with tumors and is a predictor for efficacy of anticancer medications.

Performing this assay helped me connect cellular biology concepts to pharmacotherapy treatment, which gave me a better understanding of why we learn these concepts in pharmacy school and why it is important to have a strong background in foundational science.

Aside from working with a research team, I had the chance to improve my scientific writing and communicating skills, both of which are essential in pharmacy. Scientific writing and communicating with other health care professionals can be daunting, but collaboration and coordination of novel ideas and treatments are necessary to contribute to the advancement of medicine.

Fortunately, the research team I was a part of actively exposed me to the world of scientific literature and how to appropriately communicate data through the creation of posters, book chapters, manuscripts, and presentations. By presenting at conferences, such as the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Midyear Meeting and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Annual Meeting, I learned to practice my presentation skills in front of other health care professionals, further fortifying my professional confidence and competence.

Lastly, time management is an important skill for any future pharmacist. Without it, I would not have been able to balance school, work, and research. On top of that, effective time management gave me more time to focus on my well-being during the school year and decreased my overall stress.

Although performing under stress is not a skill taught in school, it is a valuable skill to have for any professional pharmacy career. During lab meetings, we are put on
the spot and asked to explain our experiments and their significance. Being ready to answer unexpected questions is stressful, but it is similar to being on rotation and being asked questions by a preceptor.

Working with a deadline and being put on the spot in the lab also helped prepare me for my advanced pharmacy practice experience rotations and, subsequently, will continue to help me throughout my career. Acquiring the skills related to time and stress management coupled with the opportunity to integrate foundational sciences with experiential learning is challenging, but it is comforting to remember that these experiences are universal. Not only pharmacy students, but many students from other professional backgrounds are also experiencing similar challenges.

As an academic goal, the desire for the betterment of human life (ie, drug discovery research) is a noble goal in and of itself. Yet, more specifically, the ultimate goal
of the pharmacy profession is to improve the quality of patients’ lives and decrease disease burden and related morbidity and mortality. Being a part of Malhotra’s lab helped me understand this specific goal with greater clarity, gain the skills I needed to perform at my highest level on rotations, and develop my professional persona as a future practicing pharmacist.

However, the lessons I’ve learned from my research experience go beyond the professional sphere, which is largely due to the efforts of my mentor over the past 3 years. For pharmacy students—both current and future—I would highly recommend finding a faculty member that conducts research that is of professional interest. In addition to practical experience, a mentor-mentee relationship in pharmacy school can provide guidance to help achieve personal, academic, and career goals. My experiences helped me contextualize the universality and significance of hypothesis-driven, evidence-based, scientific discovery and scholarship, as well as the need for practicing effective and audience-targeted communication as a pharmacist.

 s a PharmD candidate at California Northstate University College of Pharmacy.

Student Voices