Six hectic weeks, and one not-so-hectic-but-still-busy week have come and gone since semester started. What is life like for a pharmacy student? Well...
first week started off with a bang. Second week intensified, with tutorials, labs, and placement commencing. Weeks 3 to 6 have gone by in a blur, but there were several highlights during this period. The first was undertaking a couple of courses run by the Faculty of Pharmacy. The Faculty, in conjunction with Blooms the Chemist, runs a business skills program, and modules such as leadership, negotiation, retail management, and how to buy a pharmacy are offered. These are free, optional courses which run for five sessions, and, at the end, you get a nice certificate (I'm a sucker for certificates) plus an invite to a spunky awards ceremony, where there's plenty of food and alcohol (if you're so inclined).
These courses are also a good way to network, which is important for an industry as small and as closed as pharmacy, i.e. where everyone knows everyone else. Last but not least, it's very inspiring having the heavyweights of the industry tutoring you. This semester, my tutors for the leadership and retail management courses are a former HR manager for Vodafone, and one of the major partners in the Blooms the Chemist enterprise, respectively. Last semester I undertook the negotiation skills course, which was run by the owner of Roy Young Chemist.
Another highlight was conducting my first medication review with a real patient, which is required for placement. Conducting medication reviews is just one of the many professional services a pharmacist can provide. It is basically an exercise commissioned by the GP of the patient in question, and its aim is to optimise medication use in the patient, i.e. recommend any missing therapy, or cut out any unneeded or unwanted medications.The pharmacist interviews the patient, then combines the information obtained from the interview with any relevant pathology results or other information the GP may be able to provide, in order to make recommendations to the GP.
I was able to interview an elderly gentleman who had a history of heart failure and prostate cancer, and I discovered several concerning facts, including the fact he smoked 10-12 cigarettes a day, virtually had no exercise, and was severely underweight following his last hospital admission, and had trouble gaining weight. It was a very enriching experience--phoning the patient's doctor (which is a challenge pharmacists face on a not infrequent basis), and being able to interview a real patient with real problems and coming up with practical solutions.
Another highlight was the careers night run by SUPA (Sydney University Pharmacy Association). Careers covered included community pharmacy (which is the proper word for local chemist), hospital pharmacy, academia/research, industry, and working in a professional organisation, such as the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA). So for any prospective pharmacy students who may be reading this, pharmacy isn't as inflexible as you think it may be!
Ciao for now, and I promise I'll be blogging on buildings on campus very soon!