Road to PharmD

An interesting snippet from an article I ran into. The author boils down the last step of the patient care process in order to simplify the decision that has to be made: The three critical things you must know are embodied by the simple question: Is what I am about to do going to make the situation? Better:  If so, do it. Worse:  If so, don't do it. Have no impact:  If so, let the patient decide. Source: http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/the-only-3-things-you-need-to-know-to-be-a-good-pharmacist/pharmaceutical

It's obvious how this topic might apply in pharmacy. Health care is forever changing as new policies arrive, new research arrives in the market and when cultures change. It's important to be able to adapt to these changes and consider what the best approach to your practice may be. Critical thinking can be defined as: The disciplined mental activity of evaluating arguments or propositions [or situations] and making judgement  that can guide the development of beliefs and taking action. At the end of the day, pharmacists are medication therapy experts. Expertise consists of at least these things: Confidence, Rapidity, Efficiency, Accuracy, Recalibration (when to slow down) Everyone starts as a novice and can become an expert. This transition is done through experience and using judgement to make decisions. It may be helpful to have a way to measure your learning process. through SMART learning objectives. Some overlap with aim statements. Specific - precise about ...

This session was quite intriguing and again was able to break many of the misconceptions about end-of-life care and dying. It's important to keep in mind that during these times as a healthcare professional, you connect with families and patients to find out what's important to them. It's about sitting with them (literally) and being there as a human being. It's almost as the importance of considering their perspective is as important as the care you want to provide. Pain and grief can come from many sources: social, spiritual and psychological to name a few. People often want hope and meaning upon their death. Although some times a cure is not possible, they would like their last days to be of quality to them. Double awareness: seeing death as good and bad. This enables you to find better responses of what you have found to be important to people in end-of-life care. Be aware of your own attitudes and how they might fit into the team (including patients, fami...

Most of the session was straightforward and I was able to clear up some of the roles and abilities of some healthcare professionals. But what was most memorable was the story from a patient who was also a healthcare professional. Personal Story She was a cancer patient and discussed some of the things that were frustrated to her during her time as a patient. Many parts of the healthcare system were hard to navigate, even for a healthcare professional. It was impressive how many people and roles were involved in her care, but it makes it that much harder to work together to provide her with painless care. Interestingly, her care was much better once she had a final diagnosis, but doesn't quite make sense if the key to fighting cancer is finding it early. Skit There was also a mock skit that demonstrated how a lack of interprofessional teamwork can lead to patients be very confused, which lead to a decrease in the quality of care provided. I think the most important part ...

A career development professional had given a presentation about some topics related to finding work and resume writing, as well as leading a panel of pharmacy managers and current pharmacists about how to best approach the hiring process. Think of you being a product and your resume as being the advertisement. People and communication skills are key in an entry-level position. Skills involved knowledge translation. When resume writing, identify the skills they are looking for and ensure you show them. The job search process can be divided up into: Plan, Strategy, Tracking and Evaluation From the panel: Hiring attitude Hire the people who know what they are getting into Enthusiastic and interested Impressive interviews PREPARED Genuine and honest References: Immediate supervisors (don't forget about getting their permission)

I have been fortunate enough to be paired up with a practicing pharmacist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (TRI) as a mentor for the year. Our first meeting consisted of a series of Q&A for a while and then a tour of the pharmacy in TRI. Here are the few things I took away from this encounter: 1. Literature is important in hospital pharmacy practice It may be a good idea to start becoming familiar with the language of the literature by reading papers concerning some drugs of interest 2. If you want to work in hospital pharmacy, it is important to get experience somehow. It may not be in the form of a residency, it can be in the form of a job at a community hospital and from there allow you to gather experience. 3. Doing projects may be useful if they interest you. 4. Specializing in pharmacy means to essentially spend a lot of time in a particular area of care. 5. It became apparent to me that showing motivation consisted of at least these things: Hav...