Any woman who has tried being both a full-time mother and a full-time student can tell you that is not an easy task. It is even harder when you are a student in a graduate program, such as the PharmD program at pharmacy school. I was already the mother of a beautiful little toddler during my prerequisite coursework, so when I started pharmacy school, I thought I already knew what was ahead of me. I thought that my life in pharmacy school was going to be the same as it was in community college.

My first semester as a student pharmacist was tough. By the time I started pharmacy school, my daughter was 2 years old. Before starting classes that fall, I asked my relatives and friends for recommendations about babysitters. However, the recommendations that I received were not suitable for me and my little one. I finally found someone who suited me, but she required that I pick up my little one by a certain time each day, and I had no choice but to accept her conditions.

My experience that first semester taught me that it is possible to manage pharmacy school and motherhood if one is very organized. I even learned a few tips that I would like to share to help other parents balance their responsibilities to their children with their pursuit of continued education.

Anyone who is planning to attend pharmacy school should learn to be very organized. It will save you a lot of stress, regardless of whether you are a parent or not. Keep track of upcoming deadlines, learn how to prioritize coursework and projects, and manage your time well. Doing so will ensure that you not only complete your assignments on time, but also that you still have time to spend with your family at the end of the day.

After my first semester in pharmacy school, I started to plan everything that I had the power to plan. For example, because I had more time to spare during weekends than I did throughout the week, I would use that time to prepare ahead all of the food that my family needed for the week, since it is important to us that we eat home-cooked meals. I recommend making a list of the tasks that you need to complete each week, for both your family and school, and using that list as a guide to plan your schedule for the week.

One important piece of knowledge that I have gained during my time as a student pharmacist is that there is no time to procrastinate in pharmacy school. You will need to learn good time management skills. The amount of material that you’ll need to review for an exam far exceeds what you might study for a typical undergraduate course, and the time for studying it is very short. You will have a quiz, test, or exam almost every week, which leaves no room for putting off assignments.

Developing a studying routine is a good habit for all students, but it is especially important for student pharmacists. After my first semester, I made sure that I developed a studying routine and stuck to it. For example, I would plan to watch all my lectures during weekdays, and use my weekends to revise and review all of the course materials from the previous week.

Juggling the responsibilities of parenthood and a graduate education is not easy. There will be times when you feel overwhelmed by your commitments to your children, family, professors, and peers. However, if you take the necessary steps to ensure that you are organized, have a plan, do not procrastinate, and develop a study regimen, I am confident that you will find the task much more manageable and set yourself on a path to future personal and professional success.

, the student blog of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. To read more insights from UMSOP students, go to 

Marie-Helene Meikengang Njomene is a PharmD candidate at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.

Articles

Any woman who has tried being both a full-time mother and a full-time student can tell you that is not an easy task.

Balancing Pharmacy School and Parenthood

Critical care is a rapidly expanding pharmacy specialty, and today's pharmacy students have more opportunities than ever to become successful critical care pharmacists if they demonstrate their expertise and their commitment to the lives of their patients. As our role as pharmacists expands towards decentralization in the hospital setting, the ability to analyze and practice evidence-based medicine will become crucial in providing optimal patient care. In particular, being hands-on with the interdisciplinary health care team will be imperative to identifying patients’ needs.

Working as pharmacists in the intensive care unit begins with our ability to be engaged and meticulous in identifying key patient interventions. Pharmacists must be able to assess the status of each organ and determine the patient’s problem list. Addressing the patient’s neurological status, checking vitals for hemodynamic stability, managing pain, and knowing when prophylaxis is indicated are all factors in providing a care plan for the patient.

Along with the roles aforementioned, the pharmacist aids in evaluating the need for fluids, diuretics, or stool-inducing medications, while taking into consideration the patient’s input/output, nutritional status, and comorbidities. Additionally, pharmacists must remember to address liver function, as well as any drug monitoring parameters. Ensuring that patients are on their home medications, identifying possible intravenous to enteral agents, and verifying proper medications are also important in performing an intervention. Antibiotic stewardship is a core part of critical care, and many times, the physician will rely on the pharmacist’s recommendations and expertise.

There are many other variables contributing to a patient’s stay in the intensive care unit, and it may often prove challenging to address each variable. Prioritizing a patient’s problem list correctly can be useful when mapping out a clear treatment approach; listing short term goals for a patient's hospital stay and long term goals for after discharge can be a suitable mechanism in this regard. Goals for each patient are both patient and disease specific, and require understanding a patient’s baseline; for example, the blood pressure goal of a patient with hypertension will be different than the goal of a patient without hypertension. Often, something that may appear pertinent will not be addressed during the hospital stay because it is not contributing to the chief complaint and underlying cause of the patient’s current health state.

As health care providers, we take an oath to provide the best attainable care to our patients. Today, the pharmacist’s role continues to grow into an integral part of the medical field. We are no longer verifying orders alone, but also contributing to rounds, managing medication therapies for our patients, and participating in codes and medical emergencies. Ultimately, intensive care pharmacists are accessible and skilled health care providers who go above and beyond their minimal required duties to care for the patient while doing their due diligence to promote the highest attainable level of care. How will you make a difference in your hospital and career? The opportunity is find out is here.

Dina F. Kheir is a 2019 PharmD candidate at the Florida A&M University College of Pharmacy.

Critical care is a rapidly expanding pharmacy specialty, and today's pharmacy student have more opportunities than ever to bceome successful critical care pharmacist.

Being Critical as a Critical Care Pharmacist

When most students go on summer break, they often spend time traveling, relaxing, catching up on Netflix, and posting pictures of their food on Instagram. For the more scientifically curious students at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFU) College of Pharmacy (COP), summer consists of working in a lab or in front of a computer, compiling data.

The COP hosts an 8-week competitive summer research program where students can spend the season working alongside RFU researchers making new scientific discoveries. The purpose of the program is to give students the opportunity to create new knowledge and explore the research aspect of their future profession.

Dr Eric Walters, COP’s Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, has been the director of the program since its inception in 2012. According to Dr. Walters, students in the program have a wide range of experiences, including “basic science laboratory work...clinical research...social science aspects...and scholarship of teaching and learning.”

Third-year pharmacy student Yelena Yeghoyan focused her 2018 summer research on the social aspect of graduate school. Yeghoyan analyzed use of social media to encourage participation and engagement in the classroom. She said she hoped to find a way that social media can be used to minimize distraction and maximize learning.

It can be difficult to focus at school when Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are just a click away, but according to Yeghoyan, “such distraction can serve a very useful purpose when implemented appropriately and supervised thoroughly by the teacher or the class facilitator.” Students and professors would mutually benefit from a more engaging way of presenting information, she concluded.

Other studies by the COP feature scientific discoveries that can be used to customize medications for patients later on. Bridget Fleming,

a third-year pharmacy student, applied her interest in biology to the summer program by examining how cell apoptosis and drug resistance are affected by hTERT translocation into the mitochondria. Although this sounds very abstract to a non-biologist, this knowledge can be used to help patients in the future.

The hTERT enzyme can affect cell survival. For example, cancer patients who have a high amount of this enzyme outside the nucleus can experience drug resistance. Fleming and her team worked to create a yeast model for testing HIV therapies or other medications with this concept in mind.

When asked about her interest in this project, Fleming wrote that she likes working on this topic because “it shows how biology can really affect patients” and she hopes that “one day we can help patients taking specific medications and help the patient either have fewer side effects or have the medication work more effectively.” With pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine taking off, the information from this study can undoubtedly contribute to this growing field.

In addition to advancing the academic community as a whole, the COP summer program at RFU benefits participants by expanding their skills. Dr. Walters noted there are numerous assets to partaking in the program.

“Students have gained experience not only in carrying out research, but in analyzing the...work of others, and seeing how it can be applied to patient care. [They also] have had the opportunity to prepare and present their research at in-house, regional, and national meetings,” Walters said. 

It is exciting that future pharmacists can learn new skills during the summer that will help them in their clinical practice and improve patient care. Thanks to RFU’s commitment to research, the COP contributes to new scientific discoveries that can impact our lives for the better.

 at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science College of Pharmacy in Illinois. 

The College of Pharmacy at Rosalind Franklin University hosts a competitive summer research program where students can spend the season working alongside RFU researchers making new scientific discoveries.

Summer Program Draws Pharmacy Students to Research

 is proud to present Student Voices, a series of articles and videos that empowers student pharmacists to lead the conversation on pharmacy.

In this clip, Kimberly Wu, a PharmD candidate at the Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, discusses why it is important for pharmacy students to be proactive in their education, activities, and work.

Students who wish to participate in Student Voices are encouraged to send an email to rmarotta@pharmacytimes.com and to share their perspectives on pharmacy by using #PharmacyStudentVoices on social media.

Videos

Being Proactive as a Pharmacy Student

In this clip, Kimberly Wu, a PharmD candidate at the Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, discusses why it is important for pharmacy students to get involved in student organizations.

Getting Involved as a Pharmacy Student

In this clip, Kimberly Wu, a PharmD candidate at the Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, discusses why it is important for pharmacists and pharmacy students to be more caring to others.

The Importance of Compassion

In this clip, Karishma Patel, a PharmD candidate at the Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, explains how finding the right mentors can help pharmacy student to achieve a healthy work-life balance.

The Importance of Mentors in Finding Work-Life Balance

In this clip, Arsany Makkar, a PharmD candidate at the Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, shares his thoughts on the evolving role of pharmacists.

The Evolving Role of Pharmacists

In this clip, Arsany Makkar, a PharmD candidate at the Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, discusses the roles that pharmacists can play in the government.

The Pharmacist's Role in Government

It seems as though every month, we hear something in the news that affects the pharmacy profession, whether it be a new blood pressure guideline, buzz on mergers between pharmacy benefit managers or chain pharmacies, or a pharmaceutical villain who jacks up prices on a monopolized market. So as a future health care professional, I often find myself asking, “What does all of this mean to me?”

During their time in pharmacy school, students often find themselves attracted to a particular practice setting; in my case, I developed a passion for community pharmacy during my Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience rotations. I loved the interaction I had with the patients and felt empowered whenever I was able to counsel them. Because we are at the forefront of patient care, however, those of us who work in community pharmacy—whether as pharmacists, student interns, or technicians&mdash;often find ourselves receiving the brunt of patients’ frustrations, even for matters outside our control: insurance co-pay issues, refill requests that were never sent to us, and out-of-stock medications that we haven’t been able to get for weeks. As such, there have been times when I’ve felt defeated and questioned whether I had made the right decision by going through the rigorous curriculum of pharmacy school.

Yet there have also been times when the smallest speck of knowledge that I’ve gained as a pharmacy student has made a world of difference to a patient. One day I helped an older woman whose husband had complained about having something in his eyes. Based on her explanation of his condition, I suggested buying regular artificial tears and trying to wash it away. Although this seemed to be a simple consultation, the woman was extremely grateful for my help and immediately gave me a warm hug. Experiences like this remind me why I’ve chosen to become a pharmacist despite all the challenges that come with working in community pharmacy.

Pharmacists are perhaps the most accessible members of the health care team. Although many fear that the roles of community pharmacists are slowly being filled by modern computerized systems, we have an advantage that no machine could ever replicate: empathy. We may be working against the odds when the systems in which we operate do not allow us to take the time to sit down with patients and give them the individual care they deserve. But we must not forget that we play a crucial role within both the health care team and our communities, one that enables us to make a difference in our patients’ health.

And as we can see from the impact that pharmacists have had on immunization rates, the pharmacy profession will continue to adapt to meet the needs of a shifting health care landscape—and our patients will be better off because of it.

John Choi is a 2019 PharmD candidate at the Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

It seems as though every month, we hear something in the news that affects the pharmacy profession.