Last Sunday I recited the pledge of a pharmacy student in front of my family, which consisted of my little sister, mother and father and my older brother who was being facetimed. Even though we had recited it together during class it didn’t impact me as much as when I was saying it to my family. It made all this seem a little more real, like I am really in a professional program on the way to receiving a PharmD. This was an emotional moment for me because at one point in time I was convinced that I wouldn’t be able to go to pharmacy because I didn’t have perfect scores, so to be able to have gotten this far is almost unbelievable. While reciting it I felt an immense sense of pride, like “yep I’m doing that, this is me”. I could also see the pride in the eyes of my family which further delighted me. After reciting the pledge, I had a long conversation with my brother in which he told me how proud he is of me and how I should keep pushing through. This further strengthen the feeling of pride and brought with it a sense of joy knowing that I was making my family proud. I feel like reciting the pledge both in class and to my family was an incredibly positive experience, this is because I think it helped to sort of center me. It’s almost as though before I had recited this pledge I was just going through the motions and it hadn’t really sunk in that I’m now in a professional program and will be receiving a Doctor of Pharmacy at the end of it. I plan on in cooperating as much of the oath in my daily life especially the part about building a professional identity founded in integrity, ethical behavior and honor. From now on I plan on always carrying myself as befitting of a pharmacy and realizing that it is apart of my identity and not something I turn off once I get out of class or leave campus.

After last class we were told to take the APhA Career Pathway Evaluation Program for Pharmacy Professionals. The five critical factors I selected were Job security, working with a team, income, helping people, work schedule. The career that was ranked the best match for me was Long term care/geriatric. To be completely honest I never knew there were so many different avenues/ options, sure I knew the basics like retail, community, academic etc. but I had never even imagined that there could be more. Learning about all these different options/ job opportunities honestly alleviates most of my worries, coming to pharmacy school I kept hearing of how there were no more available pharmacy jobs and how pharmacy schools were churning out more pharmacists than there were jobs. I watched a couple of pharmacists I was close to get laid off or have their hour cut. I even had one pharmacist, a family friend, ask me if I really wanted to be a pharmacist and tell me that I should instead go to nursing school as apparently the need for nurses have increased. If I am being honest all these comments/ actions were a little disheartening so to find out that I am not limited to only retail and clinical pharmacy was a relief indeed. Now I can’t say for sure if LTC is the right fit for me as, again, I only learned about it recently. After reading through the career profile I do acknowledge that it does meet my critical factors. According to most pharmacist who responded to the survey it has great job security, income and a very flexible schedule, furthermore you get to work with other health care professionals to design the best course of action. However, I don’t think it would be the perfect fit for me per Se because even though those were my top five critical factors, I still had others that I don’t think this career path will fit. For example, I feel like I am a person who thrives off pressure and fast paced environments and I can’t really picture a nursing home being a fast paced/pressurized environment. Nevertheless, I am a firm believer of “it never hurts to try” so I am not going to make overlook this career path until I have worked there, maybe during rotations, and who knows I might end up liking it. In conclusion I was pleasantly surprised with the results and I like that I don’t necessarily need anything extra to pursue it but t a residency or certificate training program might help me stand out. Even though I feel as though my best match might not be a perfect fit, I am just happy know that there are many other career paths a pharmacist can pursue.

The PILS assessment we took in class revealed that I was both an Enactor and a Producer; I got a tie between as the number of A responses (Enactor) and the number of Bs (Producer). I agree with the Producer learning style, as I generally do prefer working by myself, at my own pace, and in my own time. I enjoy working in very small groups of like-minded people and I hate being the center of attention, preferring to be the one observing from others. I place a high priority on getting things done properly, according to the rules, and I am my own worst critic. All of these attributes align with the Producer learning style. I don’t agree completely with the Enactor outcome. For example, I do agree that I like dealing with people and that I learn best in a hand-on manner; however, I only lead when there is no other option and not because I am good at it. Furthermore, I do not have an entrepreneurial spirit. I know that I am a visual learner, and I am finding that I am also a hands-on learner. I have noticed over the years that when I am able to apply what I have learned to my everyday life; I am able to retain the information more. I have also realized over the years that I am absolutely not an auditory learner, so whenever a professor stands in front of the class and talks at the class, I am unable to retain or remember anything. I just find that I remember things better when I can write things down. It is for this reason that I am not capable of learning from listening to a professor because I am usually not able to write as quickly as they speak.  This leaves empty spaces within my notes. In the future I plan on exploring more learning habits; for example, instead of studying passively, I can start studying actively. Additionally, I may ask questions when I am confused, rather than telling myself that I can look it up in the book later, knowing that I won’t end looking it up. In this situation, it would be better to hear the answer from the professor.

August 2016-June 2020

August 2012-June 2016

August 2020-Present

November 2016-Present

Cultural competence or cultural sensitivity to me is realizing and respecting the fact that there are differences in cultures around the world and what you might think is completely normal/right might not necessarily be so for others. Reading this book and learning about the Lees experience with Lia's healthcare team I noticed that I could never pick a side. Like sometimes I completely agreed with the healthcare system but other times I leaned more towards the Lee's. However after completing the book and the activity I have realized that it's okay for me to not be able to choose a side as this is what being culturally competent is all about. I am able to distinguish that there are differences in the views of the two groups and that neither one is more correct than the other, therefore there is no need to pick a side. I felt the book was incredibly positive as it shined a light and allowed us, as future healthcare providers,to see just how damaging and detrimental not being culturally competent can be. The activity allowed us to see this same ideology from different healthcare professions. One advantage for patients whose care is provided by a culturally sensitive team is that their voice is more likely to be heard. The most important aspect of becoming culturally competent is that you learn to listen to people instead of just pushing your thoughts and ideologies onto them so a patient with a culturally competent team would be able to express and have their views on the care they are receiving heard and accommodated if possible. Moving forward I will make sure that as a healthcare provider, and person in general, that I try and listen to people instead of thinking that just because I went to school for X amount of years I know better than someone who hasn't been to school or didn't get the same amount of education and trying to instill my views on things inside them.

I have always thought of acupuncturists as the people that stick little needles inside your body to relieve pain, I realize now that it isn't the case at all, so to find out that they can reconcile home and hospital medication was quite a shock for me. From my understanding this means that they are not only entitled to know a patient’s medication history, but they are allowed to make adjustments to it. This was shocking and confusing for me because as far as I know they acupuncturists aren't even allowed to prescribe medication so why would they need to know what a patient is on? Furthermore, if they aren't allowed to prescribe why would they be allowed to make adjustments to a patient’s medication? I feel like that is the same thing as a patient asking their friend, who has the same level of medical knowledge that the patient does, how to take their medications. Another thing I learned was that pharmacists, in some states, can prescribe/administer medication. This one was exciting for me because it is something, I feel like can help pharmacists better care for their patients and ensure medication adherence, especially ones with maintenance medications that can't afford to miss a couple of days because their doctor is on vacation. I think learning with other health care professionals is incredibly beneficial because it prepares us for when we enter the workforce and have to work with a team. When a patient is taken care off by an inter professional team, I feel they have a higher chance of overcoming their condition because each professional on their team would have an area of expertise thereby providing different perspectives on the patient’s condition. This means different methods of treatment that when combined would help in suppressing or even curing the patient completely. When a patient is treated by one health care discipline, they lose those different ways of thinking so if a treatment isn't effective the professional becomes stumped because they don't have a team to bounce ideas off of.  Moving forward I plan to master my craft to the best of my ability so that if I am ever placed on an inter professional team, I am able help my team members.