Another Quick Update!

  I'm sorry for the silence, it was mostly the fact that my computer pretty much died on me and I needed to buy some parts and reformat the whole thing that began the downtime. It's been a frustrating, depressing, and chaotic few months. But I did finally get hired as a pharmacy technician after six months of looking for work. My first day was yesterday October 31st. I'll try updating when I can, but that might not be until the weekend.

Pharmacy Technician - Initial Interview with Aerotek Scientific - Quick Update

I'm still here! But been busy! Second interview, getting additional references, going in for drug testing tomorrow, and still have to finish up classes of course. full updates when I have more time to do all. But things are looking promising on the Pharm Tech end!

Pharmacy Technician - Initial Interview with Aerotek Scientific - Part 1

The NCPPS report interruption continues. I had my interview on Friday with Aerotek Scientific.

I made it there thirty minutes early, and wasn't too nervous. Made sure I had my documents and just be calm. I went into the building 15 minutes before the interview, went into the office, and was told my interviewer would be maybe 5 minutes late. No big deal. More time for me to just relax and made sure I was completely stress free. I was even offered a glass of water which I gladly took. I hadn't had many fluids that morning, and I didn't want my mouth drying out.

The first part of the interview was conducted by the same person that interviewed me over the phone. This was the part where she wanted to get a good handle on me, what kind of person I was, and wanted me to elaborate on my resume.

The very first question she asked, was asking if I knew much about Aerotek Scientific. I immediately cursed myself for not researching the company more before going in. I, at the very least, was able to tell her that my cousin actually got his first temp job through them. (Which is true. I talked to him on Wednesday, and he mentioned it, and that's exactly why I didn't research more. He vouched for them and that was good enough for me.)

She explained that do the hiring for a lot of science related fields, and while it isn't always the case, when it comes to the UCSF Pharmacy, they're the ones that do all the interviews and hiring decision, and the checks will come from them. But I can still put down on resumes they I worked for the UCSF Pharmacy.

With that introduction we went onto learning about me.

As a quick reminder, the thing about my resume is that I have almost no work experience. Pretty much the only real work I've had is working on a contract by contract basis for fashion shows conducted by Macy's. She wanted me to describe work, and I told her about the very efficient and structured nature of how it is behind the scenes of a fashion show, when you're part of the team that cues the models to walk the runway. The main directors watch from above, they call over headset to the door handlers when the cue the models, then the models walk out. But also at the same time, the runners at each entrance have to make sure each model checks in two segments (song/clothing style/theme) in advance, and door managers report back to the head director. Models are given numbers for each communication back and forth. I dont' know if I explained that well... but I also don't know how many people really want to know these inner workings, so I'm trying to be brief.

In summary, I wanted to describe is a team based, multi-tasking role that I had, as one of those runners.

She asked about what kind of stressful situations I've had to work in. That was when I described my role in the 42nd Annual International Children's games. How I was part of a team that had to organize and coordinate all the translators for the 60+ (80+?) teams of pre-teens/teens from all around the world. We had to set up and be there to make sure each team was properly greeted as all those teams arrived nearly 24/7 in the span of three days. Highly stressful. She asked how I handled that stress, and I simply told her during the downtimes we made sure to support each other and make sure everyone was getting at least some breaks and proper rest.  Was that a good response? I don't know, but it was the one that I had.

Shen then asked me to describe a situation where I had more of a leadership role. That's when I described to her that I have also been a part of a community service organization that holds an annual Multi-Cultural AIDS Awareness Day even on the campus of SFSU that I coordinated for three years. It's a role that takes months of planning, and delegation of 30-60 individuals on the day of. And of course it's for a good cause. I could have sworn that I talked about this before, but I can't seem to find a post about it. In short we organize organizations from both on and off the campus to come educate about HIV/AIDS in various facets (prevention, counseling, etc), have people offer up free testing, have speakers come and talk about current issues, and have multi-cultural entertainment as a symbol of the indiscriminant nature of the disease.

From there she asked me that it seems like I've been involved with a lot of groups, and she wanted me to describe a situation where I had to deal with... I forget exactly how it was worded. I want to say motivation problems, but I don't think that was it. That was more how I answered the question. Talking about I have been president of that same community service organization, and certainly it was at a time that we weren't at our peak.

She also asked me how I keep myself motivated. And I think this was probably my most unique response of all. I let her know that I have a pharmacy blog that I update, both as a way to keep my thoughts organized for when it comes time to filling out applications, and as way to immediately help others who have the same interest as me. I'm sure most people have vaguer and less tangible responses when it comes to that question.

I can't remember the placement of these next questions, but they were all asked at some point. She wanted to ask again what kind of shifts I was interested, what it was like commuting to school, if I was open to full-time or part-time or contract work, etc. I may not have given the best response when I said I didn't much like taking public transportation because of how long it took. She then mentioned that parking is difficult around UCSF.

I will say that I have done my research (SPOILER! I called back for the final follow up interview scheduled for Monday), and saw that taking BART (a subway/train system in the Bay Area) and bus actually isn't that bad. UCSF is located much closer to me than San Francisco State is. The travel time is essentially cut in half. And all day parking at UCSF is $22, plus $5 for toll, $8 of gas... while taking public transportation will be around $10. Not driving is probably the way to go. And now that with this information, I'm prepared to give them a knowledgeable response.

And with that, this post is getting long... since the interview was in two parts, I think I'll turn this into two-part post. This first part of the interview, in fact, went on for maybe 30 to 40 minutes and was one on one. The second part of the interview included a new person telling me more specifics about the job. That will come up next.

Pharmacy Technician Birthday Surprise!

Job Interview!

I have to interrupt the 5th Annual NCPPS reporting to report some good news! Today is my birthday and what do I wake up to? And email from a staffing agency, the wonderful Aerotek Scientific (which helped my cousin get his first temp job), and they contacted me saying they're looking to fill some pharmacy technician positions!

The surprise is that I never submitted my information to them. They got my info from the Pre-Pharmacy Association that I helped to found.

It caught me off guard and I was nervous, so I drank some water and ate some breakfast before I made the call. My phone interviewer was a lovely person, and after the standard questions of when you'll be available, what kind of shifts do you want, how far are you willing to commute, and what kind of pay you're looking for (My answer: Anything and everything, and I'm not looking for pay, I'm looking for experience and the opportunity to work with a pharmacist so I can get a letter of recommendation.), it turns out that the position is at UCSF itself!

I have an in person interview Friday, I just need to bring in proof that I have my license, two professional referrals, and answers to questions such as - Why Pharmacy? - Explain some situations where you had to multi-task in a hectic enviroment - and so on.

I don't know a better way I could have started my birthday.

The plan: Find my proof, because it seems to be misplaced, find a second person to give me a professional referral (already asked one), and make sure I have some clothes for the interview.


Quick Update

As for the 5th Annual NCCPS reporting, for my previous reports, I always brought my netbook and typed as speakers talked, making it easy to come home and reformat the information into complete sentences and paragraphs. My netbook battery no longer holds a charge. So I took my ipod nano and recorded audio and wrote notes on the supplied notepad. I'm going to have to relisten to the audio and hope it recorded decently before I can sort out all the information. It'll get up here, but it may take some time as I still have school to manage, so please bear with me.


And Thanks

This is long overdue, but thanks Elaine and California Pharmacy Schools and most recently Lucia for leaving positive comments. It's surprising how a simple comment of appreciation can help to motivate me to keep up with the updates.

5th Northern California Pre-Pharmacy Symposium - Part 2

Ok, that was a lot of information for one day. It's going to take me a while to break it all down. I will say that it was a fantastic event, and there were more workshops that I would have liked to have attended that I wasn't able to go to. I'll probably go again next year. It was certainly worth the $15 registration fee and $8 parking.

I do have some other things I need to take care of today, but for a quick sneak peek, here's how my day went.

I woke up and couldn't find my wallet (Email said to bring ID), so I spent my morning flustered, and eventually just left with my passport instead. The event itself was contained within three floors of the same building, breakfast was the regular (and perfectly acceptable) muffins, bagels, fruit, juice, and water.

The keynote speakers were fantastic. Very good presence and rapport with each other, and lots of great information.

The pharmacist panel was equally worthwhile to witness.

The Dual Degree workshop wasn't paced as best as it could have been so three of the six topics had to be rushed, but there were some handouts to take home.

Lunch may have been the most info packed session of all, because I sat at the table with an IT Pharmacist. Something I hadn't known existed until today.

The Northstate session I chose really broke down their new Team Based Learning approach to teaching (They used to have some lecture incorporated into their curriculum for their first year, and it's all gone now.)

Pharmacy School Fair is what you would expect (in a good way) and was able to get info from all the out of state schools, something I'm very much lacking in.

Ran into some friends during the break, two brothers (one of which was accepted into Pharmacy school this year), and got some info from them.

And closed with the Drug Development workshop. There was lot of information, but I feel like I new most of that already thanks to studying to be a pharm tech. I wish I had chosen to go to the Disaster Preparedness workshop instead.

All in all, like I said, it was an excellent day and well worth it. I would recommend it to anyone, and will go again next year if I have the chance.

5th Northern California Pre-Pharmacy Symposium - Part 1

A real update! Tomorrow I'm going to the 5th Annual NCPPS at UC Berkeley, hosted by The Pre-Pharmacy Informational Learning & Leadership Society (PILLS).  . Here's the tentative schedule as posted on their website.


(Gonna be a big day ahead of me. I've always wanted to attend one of these, but something always came up.)

9:00-9:45	Registration and Breakfast
9:50-10:00	Welcome
10:00-10:50	Keynote Theodore Tong, Pharm.D.; Glenn Y. Yokoyama, Pharm.D., FCSHP, FAPhA; Sharon Youmans, Pharm.D., MPH
11:00-11:45	Session A (Choose 1 option)
	Pharmacist Panel Clinical, Academia, Compounding, TBA
	Pharmacy School Information Session University of California, San Diego
	Pharmacy School Information Session University of the Pacific
	Pharmacy School Information Session University of Southern California
11:45-12:30	Session B (Choose 1 option)
	Pharmacy School Information Session Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences
	Pharmacy School Information Session University of Maryland
	Pharmacy School Information Session University of Minnesota
	Pediatric Workshop Lisa Musick, Pharm.D, BCPS
	Dual Degree Workshop Peter Dean, MS
12:30-2:00	Lunch and Student Panel (Choose 1 panel only)
	(12:30pm-1:15pm) - Student Pharmacist Panel 1
	(1:15pm-2:00pm) - Student Pharmacist Panel 2
2:00-2:45	Session C (Choose 1 option)
	Pharmacy School Information Session California Northstate College of Pharmacy
	Pharmacy School Information Session Western University
	Pharmacy School Information Session Touro University
	Home Care Pharmacy Workshop Shannon Reidt, Pharm.D, MPH & Sara Lofstrom, MA
3:00-3:45	Pharmacy School Fair
3:45-4:00	Break
4:00-4:45	Session D (Choose 1 option)
	Pharmacy School Information Session UCSF School of Pharmacy
	PharmCAS Workshop Sara Lofstrom, MA
	Drug Development Workshop Tao Wang, MD, PhD & Henry Leung, Pharm.D
	Disaster Preparedness Workshop Theodore Tong, Pharm.D
4:45-5:00	Closing & Raffle

Some Thoughts

I promised more updates, my schedule has been pretty packed lately but time to put one up.

I've been posting mostly facts (to the best of my ability... but remember to always double check with the school!), but not so much about how I feel.

So let's try that.  Let's talk fears.

I'm currently in my last full semester before applying.  This is pretty much the end of one period of my life, and the beginning of a transition to another.  A period of my life that's taken a looong time to end.  I've talked about how I screwed up in the past, and I don't know if I can show an admissions committee that I have what it takes to handle pharmacy school.

Another big fear I have is that I have no plan on how to pay for pharmacy school if I do get accepted.  Pharmacy school isn't cheap, and costs are only rising.  My credit is not that good, so I don't know how that's going to affect loans.  So I'm afraid that should I actually get accepted, it'll be as if I ran a race and somehow beat the others that no one thought could be beaten... only to trip on my shoe lace right at the finish.  (Or insert the ending to Cool Runnings, a movie about a Jamaican bobsled team.)

Both of these are basic fears of the unknown.  Everyone has those.  But those are the two big ones.

I'm confidant in my abilities, but I think these fears have led to some self sabotage along the way, including my performance last semester.  And that's the one that hurts the most.  If I don't get in, that will be one of the big reasons I think.

Being as analytical as I am, I do have a backup plan at least.  I'm taking all the biotech courses at my community college, which are pretty interesting.  It won't quite be what I was hoping for, but having that backup plan does provide a shield to prevent a total breakdown.

In Serious Need of an Update

Hey look at that. I got a comment.  For some reason I've been meaning to update, but it keeps on getting pushed back.  But it's a good time to take this opportunity and start up again.

I've missed the Summer and Fall without updating.  Here's just a simple summary to get caught up and continue one from here.

In short, I took Cell Biology and General Biochem in the summer, and I think I found a professor to give me a good Letter of Rec in my Cell Biology teacher.  I haven't asked her to write it yet, but I did ask her if she would when I need it (which will be coming up later this year.)  Those two classes were my final two classes at San Francisco State.

Bad news, I did not do well last semester at my community college.  The biggest problem... I seem to have extremely poor sleeping habits.  It's been going on for a while, and it really messed me up.  I was getting 4 to 6 hours a night most nights for no good reason, and I really need at least 7.5 to 8.5 hours to learn and perform optimally.

I feel like an idiot for what happened.  I feel that my chances in getting in a Pharmacy School in California have been seriously hampered.  While I thought I had a chance before, I just don't know anymore.

The PCAT is becoming more and more important for me to take and researching out of state schools.  All hope isn't lost, but I took a wrong turn that is absolutely all my fault.

Expect more regular updates again from here.

P.S. Thanks to California Pharmacy Schools for sparking the return of my updates by commenting on this post.

Look at that time fly

I need to seriously get back to updating.  The whole Summer and most of Fall has past by since my last update.  Updates to resume soon.

UCSF Pharmacy Information Day - Part 4 - Pharmacist Panel Concluded

[The Questions from the Audience portion of the Pharmacist Panel.]

Q: Do you think that the UCSF PharmD program helped you pass the licensure exam? What was your class passing rate?

4 – UCSF makes sure you're very prepared, although my year didn't do so well. That was because we had an acute crisis care with a crash cart, and you have to do a separate class to get that experience, and the exam had a part that was all about that.

3 – It's all computerized now. I felt very comfortable. In your 4th year, you end earlier than other schools. You end in March. You'll have months to prepare for the exam. When you graduate, the class president/officers will organize reviews. I thought it was helpful.

If you'll look at the schedule, you'll see that  in your 4th yeyour 4th year ends early, and you have three months to prepare. I felt very comfortable taking it.

4 – You'll have a lot of resources.

1 – I was in the last class to take state board that was written. It was much harder.

3 – I don’t know passing rate.

Q: Can you talk about residencies in hospitals?

3 – There are different types. For the most part, when you graduate, you pretty much have to do a year of residency to work in a hospital in a metropolitan area. One or two students did it without it, but that's rare. It'll help you with your clinical skills. Just like in med school, they usually do another three years of residency, rotating through different services. You know the textbook stuff, but you have to put in your hours to be a seasoned clinician.

1 – Part of what happens is that there's a match. You'll interview and you'll be ranked. You need to have communication skills. And know what they focus on. Do your research into where you want to go. If you don't match with them, they won't pick you.

4 – I don't know about other schools, but at UCSF, most people do a residency. 60%. Right now they're working on a law to require that if you want to be [a clinical pharmacist?] you have to do a residency.

3 – At UCSF I feel like we tend to do residencies more than other schools. It’s just our culture, but a lot of us end up doing it. All sorts of residencies.  General residcies, pediatircs, infectious disease, or specialize.

Q: 1 – I have a question. what made you special? Why did UCSF choose you?

2 – Leadership is really important. How do you deal with difficult people? What would you do in a difficult situation? Volunteering and working.

1 – All I had was community pharmacy experience. I knew nothing else. But I was open to learn about it all. Life long learning. Knowing what was happening in the field was important. And communication.

3 – There's a lot of group work. I felt that people so friendly, and successful, but also down to earth.

3 – Try to be oyourself.

4 – I got waitlisted, so don’t ask me.  I agree with them, they’re looking for your personality.

Q: What was the most challenging question?

1 – It depends on who interviewd you.

Q: What is demand like for each of your fields?

1 – It depends on your location. In San Diego, it's hard. In San Francisco, it depends. It cycles. Every 7 years there's a shortage. We're trying, as a profession, to move away from counting, so who knows by the time you're done.

3 – SF General Hospital is trying to cut budget costs. There is a proposal to fire everyone and rehire everyone at 37.5 hours per week. Guess what job classes are exempt? There are two. Radio technologies, and the other was the pharmacist. Currently at my hospital, other departments are freezing, but I kinda don't want to announce this to the people I work with, but we're still hiring. Every year we hire 4 new pharmacists. Staffing pharmacists. If I may, in my own biased opinion, you will always have a job. If you're willing to do the work, you'll always have a job. If you don't have a job when you graduate, call me, I will find a job for you.

2 – It's not a matter of finding a job, it's a matter of finding a perfect job. You may have to make sacrifices based on location, but after that you can do what you want.

3 – If you want to do the worst shift ever, even being a clown for a circus, it's not always available. But with a PharmD, you can choose what you want to do. In bad economic times, you'll always have a job.

4 – In managed care, it's a little incestuous, there aren't a lot of people there. We call others and ask "Are you happy with your job?" That happened to me, and originally I was insulted, but eventually she broke me down. If someone applies we all call each other up. "Don't you dare take so and so." Even with the freeze for other jobs, pharmacists were still allowed to be hired.

Q: Knowing what you know now, what would have done differently with undergrad?

2 – I don’t think so. Once I got in, I still had to take two more classes before I could start. What I did was Foothill for chem lab, BART [subway] to Berkeley for physio, then work. You can do what you want with undergrad as long as you do the prererquisites. My friend was an English major.

4 – We had a music major, econ, engineering,... it doesn’t matter.

3 – If you work for a ballet company, the circus,... as an undergrad, you can’t ge ta lot of pharm experience. Maybe a clerk position. If you can, try to, but it’s not required. Do something to stick out.

1 – For me, I would have tried to… being well rounded is important… if all you take is science, how can you be well rounded? I would have taken more lit classes. Language classes.

3 – To make our job easier, think about how are you going to stick out. Someone brought their violin. That's not to say “Be kooky”, but you'll be in a class full of leaders. You have to bring something. People are always giving back to the school. That’s what the culture is. Don't just come here to UCSF if you want to grind out your classes and just work. If that’s you, this might not be school for you.

2 – Don’t come if you just want to count pills. It’s way too much work if you don’t want to be innovative. Come here if you want to put your name out there. Otherwise if you just want to count pills, it's way too hard.

-----

And that's it!!  Finally after three posts I got through the first segment of the UCSF Pharmacy Information Day. They were all awesome people, with a lot of energy. They certainly sell the school well. There was a lot of confidence in all of them, they all sounded happy, and you can tel they all love what they’re doing.

As a side note, it looked like the moderator gave all the speakers a gift of some Ghiradeli Chocolate.  Mmmmm...

Part 5 - UCSF PharmD Program Overview is next!

UCSF Pharmacy Information Day - Part 3 - Pharmacist Panel Continued

[The panel continues.]

Q: Now that you're currently practicing, looking back, how did pharm school prepare you?

4 – I was the last class before the pathways. I didn't get to be involved with that. It would have been nice to get the HPM (health policy and management) pathway before jumping into it. In pharm school you get skills to be able to compile large amounts of information. You don't get lost in the details. You can see in grey if that makes any sense. A lot of healthcare practitioners see in black and white. In my line of work, you can't just deny a request for non-FDA approved drugs. You have to look at the literature. We're not called the pharmacy department, we are clinical support. We have to keep up with the latest surgery procedures, and use skills in researching drugs. I have UCSF to thank for that.

3 – I took the HPM pathway, and now I'm doing something completely different. You can choose one pathway, but you don't have to stick with it. You still come out with a PharmD. UCSF really opens a lot of doors. We're forced to be so involved. You don't want to be the only one not in a club. All your classmates are all hardworking, energetic, and nice.

How many clubs are there now? There seems to be a new club every year. You get exposed to a lot of careers. UCSF has allowed that to happen for me. I knew I didn't want to do retail. It's good to know you can be in law, insurance, a physician group, research, or management. The pathways do help a lot. in HPM we studied out of Harvard Business School books. It helps you manage people. I remember we used something called word jujutsu. We role played how to deal with different people, how to negotiate a raise, and dealing with lobbyists. You deal with difficult people, and you have to use that, to calm things down rather than add to the fire. You don't want conversations to blow up. That's what UCSF has really taught me. People mostly are well spoken and get their point across [at work]. But you have to back up all your recommendations to the doctors on a daily basis. At UCSF you have to get up and talk. You do it at least once if not 10 times. You learn how to become a great speaker.

2 – UCSF prepares you for anything you want to do. With that said, you're never prepared for anything. For UCSF students, vs other schools, you have so many opportunities opened up for you. They make you think outside the box so you're not so rigid. you have experience in public speaking, presentations, interacting with colleagues. Those skills are just invaluable. Working on the east coast, comparing students here and Rutgers or USP, we're more prepared to deal with people and changes. Things that don't go your way. If you're in community pharmacy, you don't always get people who want to tell you about their winter vacation. You sometimes get yelled at about things beyond your control. The school teaches you how to deal with people like that. You don't just yell back or make the tech deal with that. That's what's great about a pharm degree. You spent 4 years in your undergrad, and 4 years in pharm school, and now you're the manager. That's your responsibility.

3 – You work a lot in groups at UCSF. You learn to be a team member. Now that I'm a working adult (I don't feel like an adult), you can tell sometimes, "You didn't play sports as a kid, did you?" You can tell. You have to work as a team.

4 – You learn about reflective listening. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

1 – First thing is that when you're at a professional school, it takes about two quarters getting over the competitive feeling. UCSF does a good job about that. Gets those basics in you. Also you get to work with world class professors. I'm not sure about now, but I got to work with a nobel prize winner. You can't exchange that opportunity for anything. The connections, the dean, the awards, the opportunities, and the door that are available. That puts you in situations _____. They want to see you as a person. You can learn a completely different skill sets than just the science of it all. How to negotiate, those kinds of opportunities are valuable, how to read a patient's body language, how to approach them based off of that. Will they do what you want? Or will it be a negotiation? Or will you have to lay down the law.

3 – I still use those skills.

Q: Talk about how you see pharmacy practice changing in the future.

1 – Back then it was just, how did it go? Count, pour, lick 'n' stick. That’s all we used to be. Pharmacists were only supposed to dispense meds and that’s it. Now we do medical collaborations. In stores, I rarely counted. I didn't care if I had to ring up patients, I wanted to be there to create a bond. I had patients from poison ivy to pancreatic cancer, and I wanted to be there to provide emotional support. It's shifting to being an information specialist [Note: I like that term. "Information specialist."] It's great to be able to think in grey. Not "this is what the book says".

2 – In terms of drug research, right now we're working on hepatitis c, the standard is a pill or shot once a week, with lots of side effects, and only 40% respond and get cured. Now we're developing new drugs, such as a protease inhibitor. Works similar to HIV drugs. We're moving away from a standard of care with lots of side effects and not that effective. Also, personalized healthcare. We're developing drugs that are easy to pick as low hanging fruit. Develping drugs for stuff that doesn't have a treatment, no more Cialysis. Going away from drugs approved for different disease states. Right now Lipitor is being approved for other stuff than just cholesterol. We're looking for drugs for treatments that otherwise wouldn't have it.

3 – It might be a little unethical to say, it's a huge cultural issue, that we shouldn't be prescribing if we're going to be dispensing. If the pharmacist prescribes and dispenses, you'll prescribe the most drugs to make the most money. But I hope in the future, it'll be more about prescribing medications. Because I'm in a hospital setting, I'm not selling the drug, so I can do this. I'm not making a profit out of that so it's ok.

Now, the doctor says this what I want, what do you think? We had a heart disease patient with renal failure. She was struck between two pathways. In that process, I was the one to decide. I wrote it and the doctor signed it. In outpatient, we can't do that. Hopefully there will be clinical pharmacists in inpatient as well as outpatient. Physicians do the diagnosis, they're good at diagnosis, then we prescribe.

4 – I agree. There are few states where pharmacists can prescribe. I did in Seatle, Washington, and I thought it was normal. And then in California you have to have a protocol to do that. I thought that was weird. Going forward, it may become easier to do. As physicians see that we're more specialized now. With healthcare reform, insurance carriers will be looking at more innovative payments. Instead of pay for service, it may be lump sum of money to manage my patients. They may say, here's how much you have to work with, now do what you can do. It will be more challenging. Cardiology, oncology... will be hard. It's very complex. They may give lump sums for different types of cancer. On the flip side, we have to include a clinical component. Intensive to withhold medication. People will get very innovative. Right now we can't sustain the rise in drug costs. We have a patient, her drugs cost $800k a year. It's for an enzyme replacement. It allows him to walk 20 more meters in 6 minutes. Is that efficient? Well, she has the disease, so she has the drugs. Going forward pharmacy will develop new payment methodologies.

[Now that's the end of the pre-set questions, next post will continue with the questions from the audience.]

UCSF Pharmacy Information Day - Part 2 - Pharmacist Panel

8:30 – 8:55 – REGISTRATION

It was quick and simple. Stand in line, say your last name, and then receive your packet. [More on the packet in a later post.]

9:00 – 9:15 – WELCOME

Also quick and simple. We just went over what was in the packet, and were given a reminder that there was a parking ticket voucher for anyone who parked in the garage.

9:15 – 10:15 - CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN PHARMACY: A PHARMACIST PANEL

[Normal disclaimer: This is not word for word. I'm just doing the best I can to go off of my notes that I typed up while I was there. And I have to say that I loved hearing from these pharmacists, hearing about what it is that they do. I'm most familiar with what a community pharmacist does, and these people don't do that.]

Then we start off with the pharmacist panel! First here's our pharmacists:

1 - Shawn - District Pharmacy Supervisor of Walgreens
2 - Linda - Clinical Pharmacology Specialist Roche Palo Alto/Genetech
3 - Nam - Inpatient Clinical Pharmacist, Clinical Professor, UCSF School of Pharmacy
4 - Katherine - Manaer of Clinical Support Hills Physicians Medical Group

Q: Tell us about yourself. What goes on during a typical day?

4 - I work for the Hill Physicians Medical Group. I manage patients, and a network of physicians to service those patients. 8 pharmacists work in the medical group. If there was a typical day, I wouldn't be in manage care. Every day is different. It's about population based disease state management vs individual care. We view trends for about 300k patients. I look at diabetics to see if they're receiving certain drugs, what other drugs they can use to improve their health care quality, and work closely with physicians. Check on prescription patterns of physicians, and make sure they follow guidelines so it's all more consistent. Strive to improve quality. I work with a 50 million dollar drug budget. Develop guidelines, make sure drugs used appropriately, and work with the contract department for ancillary services.

3 - I work in the SF General Trauma Level 1, in-patient clinical pharmacy side. I work in a hospital. There are two main services: inpatient family medication and an acute care elders unit. I start at 7:30, and sit at a table with physicians, and we talk about our patients. They'll talk about what kind of medications they want to try, and sometimes I'll interject when it comes to dosing, when they may want to switch anti-biotics, or suggest other pain medications that may be more appropriate to an elderly person. I also make sure there are good drugs on the formulary list. We admit about 7 patients a day every day. After we talk about them, we go and meet the patients. That's important. We can see their weight, ethnicity, or if they're confused. In the afternoon, if I have students, I talk with them.

2 - I work for Roche/Genetech, a pharmaceutical company. Not many PharmD's do what I do. Although there are three in my department from UCSF, it's not something a lot of people [who go to pharmacy school] do. There are a lot of PhD's and MD's. I go to a lot of meetings about developing drugs, and don't see patients. Contract out studies. When we get drugs, they've usually gone through animals or lab tests, and the first thing we do is design a study for a single test in humans. Then based off that, other studies get done, and by the end it's a 10 year process. A lot of the time, you don't make it to the end. It will get canceled, or you get moved off the project. I want to make it from end to end. When you study PK [pharmacokinetics0 and PD [pharmacodynamics], you are very valuable.

1 - I supervise 35 community pharmacies, 200 pharmacists. My day is never the same. With 35 different pharmacies, instead of having patients, I have pharmacists. I help solve issues when they have ethical issues or problems. I deal with new negotiations. The Health Policy Management pathway helped with that. I help facilitate patient care programs, make sure people are trained appropriately, marketed, and set up guidelines. MTM programs. Help patients get more formulary drugs. My day is spent visiting all of my pharmacies. 25% is management and personnel issues.

Q: How did you decide to become a pharmacist?

1 – I originally wanted to be a vet, but eventually I became allergic to cats, so that didn't work out. It didn't happen 'til late in college. But I'd been working as a cashier for a pharmacist since I was 16. The pharmacist said I had common sense, I was great with patients, etc, and I should consider being a pharmacist. So I took a year off from college and thought about it. At this point I only had community pharmacy experience. No managed care or ____. I looked into it all, and I liked dealing with patients that you see on a regular basis, so I went into community pharmacy.

2 – I was an undergrad at UCLA, my major was chemistry. [Something about engineering...] ... worked for a semi-conductor company. What got me to apply to pharmacy school... well... I took some courses at a community college for some credits, and then when I talked to a counselor, he said I was wasting my time [because I already had a degree]. I told him I always wanted to go to UCSF, and it turned out pharmacy was the right one for me. I knew the pharmaceutical sciences pathway was the right path, and that community pharmacy was not the right one for me. I did sometimes like working in a pharmacy, but not 40 hours a week. Sometimes I float in the pharmacy just to see some patients.

3 – I have a lot of admiration for people who work and then go back to school. It's not easy. As an undergrad, I was interested in genetics. I love the theory of genetics. I worked in the genetics lab as an undergrad, did a lot of work, published a lot of studies, and did public health at UC Berkeley. I loved the science of drugs. The story of drugs, how drugs bind to enzymes, etc. I came back to be a TA for an undergrad program. I loved it. I come from a long line of pharmacists, and I've been working there since I was 17. I do not like retail, and I didn't think I could do that for the rest of my life. And I didn't want to be blinded and go there for the rest of my life just 'cause my family did. So that's why I explored genetics. But if I went down that way, it would be studying one protein for the rest of my life, and you may or may not discover something.

I do so many things in a given day. You are such a busy bee. I write a box for every task I do, and by the end of the day I'm like, "Wow, I did a lot today." I still go back to my drawings when I teach other students. You can do so many different things, and don't have to just do everything people typically think [a pharmacist] does. I'm the worst counter.

4 – I'm the first of 6 kids to graduate from high school. I also wanted to be a vet. Davis didn't want me. At UCSD I voluteered in a program at a pharmaceutical company. Pfizer owns it now. I enjoyed it. I got to work with animals, and I had a relationship with a high performance lipid chromatographer. I thought about getting a PhD. I looked into the PharmD program, and I liked that it was flexible. I didn't want to be stuck doing the same thing my whole life. If I got bored, I could switch after 10 years and still be working in the same field [Note: This is one of the very appealing aspects of pharmacy for me as well.] I called up and asked if there were pharm programs in California. There were only three at the time. UCSF was the only one that gave me an interview.

[The rest of the pharmacist panel to be continued next post.]

UCSF Pharmacy Information Day - Part 1 - Overview

Alright. Just got back from the UCSF Pharmacy Information Day (rather than going to my graduation ceremony at SFSU). It was worth it.

Coming out of it, I feel better about applying there. And I already knew that I was going to do that.

So here's the schedule:

- 08:30-08:55 am - Registration

- 09:00-09:15 am - Welcome

- 09:15-10:15 am - Career Opportunities in Pharmacy: A Pharmacist Panel

- 10:15-10:30 am - Break

- 10:30-11:15 am - UCSF School of Pharmacy Pharm.D. Program: An Overview

- 11:15-12:15 pm - Pharmacy Student Panel

- 12:15-01:30 pm - Lunch with Pharmacy Students and Campus Tours

- 01:30-02:00 pm - Funding Your Pharmacy Education

- 02:00-03:00 pm - UCSF School of Pharmacy Admissions/Preparing a Competitive Application

- 03:00 pm - Closing/Evaluation

This was the full-day version of the Preview Day that I attended back in October. While four of the six parts to the event were covered last time, they were condensed a bit, and there was still something to learn during each of the major sections.

They started off with a bang, with an excellent Pharmacist Panel that was 100% new information for me. Yet I still learned some good insights into what's it's like being a student, a useful Letter of Recommendation tip, a starting point for researching out of state schools, some useful Financial Aid info, and revised the way I need to look a my pursuit of pharm tech experience.

Everyone talked sooo fast. The day was throwing all kinds of info at me. But as usual, I had my trusty netbook with me, and so I'll be breaking it all down and sharing it all on here over the next few days.

Next Up: Registration, Welcome, and Pharmacist Panel!

Short Job Search Update

The pharm tech I applied for earlier was filled. Not surprisingly really. I have no experience, and my schedule won't be all that friendly (definitely not for full-time work). So the plan now is to get work where I can that will fit my schedule, and to pursue volunteer work.

That work where I can is still that library aide position that I mentioned. I have an interview on June 3rd. If that job has the hours that I need, especially during my 19 unit fall semester, I'll be very happy to have it. I'll get money I otherwise wouldn't have, and work experience that I'm lacking. Anything at all would be nice to have on my resume.

Kaplan PCAT Preview Class

I took a preview class with Kaplan today at 7pm EDT (4pm my time.)  I gotta say I loved it. It was a pretty straightforward live online class. The Kaplan instructor went through the basics of the exam, then we went through 11 sample problems covering the various topics on the test.

Those were some good sample questions. Good at showing me how useful taking a Kaplan course would be, and good at showing me how much I don't know and need to review. If anyone sees this in time and wants to check out the free preview class themselves, you can register for next Thursday's class (May 27th, 9pm EDT) at this link.

And of course at the end of the class, they cover the product that they offer, which is a 14 class program (Sometimes once a week, other times multiple times a week.) that focuses on a different topic each time, and includes two full practice tests.

The classes cover:

Class 01 - 3.5 hours - In class Diagnostic Exam
Class 02 - 3.5 hours - Orientation and Verbal Ability 1
Class 03 - 3.0 hours - Biology 1
Class 04 - 3.0 hours - General Chemistry 1
Class 05 - 3.0 hours - Organic Chemistry 1
Class 06 - 3.0 hours - Reading Comprehension
Class 07 - 3.0 hours - Quantitative Ability 1
Class 08 - 3.5 hours - Midterm Exam
Class 09 - 3.0 hours - Verbal Ability 2
Class 10 - 3.0 hours - Biology 2
Class 11 - 3.0 hours - General Chemistry 2
Class 12 - 3.0 hours - Organic Chemistry 2
Class 13 - 3.0 hours - Quant 2/Reading 2/Quant Mini-Test
Class 14 - 3.5 hours - Final Exam

You can take the classes live in a class, live online, or through on demand files (and private 1 on 1 tutoring is available as well.). If I took the class, I'd probably take the live online version. It costs $1399 ($150 off if you sign up before May ends.) I think it would absolutely raise my score, but that is a lot of money (You do physical materials sent to you no matter which learning service you pay for.).

As it is right now, if I have to go through a second round of applications, then I will absolutely take the course, but at this moment in time, I don't see myself paying for this service.

What I did take away from the experience though is that I most definitely need to do a lot of review and studying. I need to remember all kinds of simple tricks. And I learned that the average score in all these different categories (besides the writing portion) is a 400, and a 440 is needed to be in the 90% percentile.

Not much more to say except that the studying continues!

(And of course, to learn more of the Kaplan services, check out their website.)

Undergraduate work complete! and Now what?

Alright, I took my Psy Research Final today. Piece o'cake! We got our paper back as well, and the way I figure the resubmitted homeworks are going to turn out, as well as other miscellaneous points, I figure that I could have gotten a 42/75 on the final and still passed. And I'm confident of about 70 of those 75 questions. That means I didn't even need the extra credit to get an A in the class. Pretty cool.

And that's it. That's the end of my undergraduate responsibilities, besides submitting my grade from the 1 unit class I took at my community college. (Minor, but important. No degree without submitting that to SFSU. It was part of my graduation plan that I had signed off on to get the semester started.) It's not a great accomplishment. In fact it's a bit of an embarrassment, but it's done. A part of the shame I carry with me can be put aside now.

Resuming study for the PCAT is part of the So now what? I haven't done any studying. I checked the exam dates Friday night, and there are four dates to take it before next round of applications:

June 19, 2010 (Register by May 7th)

August 21, 2010 (Register by July 9th)

October 16, 2010 (Register by Sept. 3rd)

January 22, 2011 (Register by Dec. 10th)

June 19th is definitely too soon, and I'd rather have January 22nd as an option if I don't like my results. If possible, I'd like to take the exam at the August 21st date. That'll be during the first week of the Fall semester, so there won't be any other exams that I'll have to be considering.

I've already begun studying since yesterday. I'll just have to evaluate my progress as the July 9th registration date approaches. Just as important, I need to seriously research out of state schools, because I'll need to be able to say which schools I want my results sent to when I register, I believe.

More info can be found directly at the official PCAT website, including a .pdf of the PCAT Candidate Information Booklet.

Saturday, May 22nd is the graduation ceremony for SFSU. Will I be going? Nope! I'll be going to the UCSF Pharmacy Information Day instead. I went to the Preview Day back in October, and now will be the full day experience. Here's the agenda straight from the confirmation email:

Program Agenda:

- Welcome

- Career Opportunities in Pharmacy (Pharmacist Panel)

- School of Pharmacy Pharm.D. Curriculum

- Why Pharmacy? (Pharmacy Student Panel)

- Lunch with Current Pharmacy Students

- Financial Aid & Campus Tours

- UCSF School of Pharmacy Admissions Process

- Preparing a Competitive Application

- Evaluation and Questions

It cost $25 to register, and that comes with food and parking. Awesome. Parking tickets have not been my friend in the past.

I like that this event happens so soon after finals. It's easier working with momentum. That's one of the reasons why I began studying again for the PCAT yesterday (and am continuing today) before finals was even over. I'll be sure to read over my posts from the Preview Day, and see what I can take away from their day long presentation.

Psy Research - Paper, Poster, Presentation, and Final

Let's do a wrap-up of Intro to Psy Research. Grading is based on weekly homeworks, quizzes, a group research project which consists of a paper, poster, and if chosen, a presentation, and the final (and attendance).

- Attendance and Quizzes

I only had one unexcused absence this semester. That is a vast improvement on my attendance from the bad days, and better even than last year. I'm proud of that. Especially since my classes began at 8am. I have had a terrible record when it comes to attendance for 8am classes, and that's now a thing of the past. My one missed class did happen to fall upon the day we had our first pop quiz, but we get to drop one, so it wasn't too bad.

- Paper

There's not much to say besides it being excellent. We had to turn it in at various stages, and our group paper received a 44/45 the first time, then a 72/75 the second time. We strove for perfects, but never expected it. We were there to learn after all and didn't know everything before taking the class. The final paper was submitted on Friday, and I expect to get a comparable score.

- Poster

As a group we put together a poster summarizing our project, and as a class, we had a poster conference where we'd present our posters to each other and we gave each other scores on originality, methods, and poster presentation. When it comes to crafts, I always insist on a clean look, using a knife/razor to cut paper rather than scissors, and I insisted on keeping everything the same, large font for easy reading. And of course we worked to make sure the content was as good as it could be as well. And at the end of the day, it all paid off, because we got chosen as one of the Top 5 groups to make a presentation of our full study to the whole class for extra credit points.  (10-30 points possible. To keep that in perspective, the Final is 75 points, Quizzes were 20 points each totaling 100 points, and homeworks were 15 points each totaling 150 points.  30 points is a lot!)

- Presentation

I feel that our presentation was definitely the best of the 5 presentations. We had a nice flow, used actual slides rather than a shrunken down version of our poster, we had a study that was basic but well thought out, and we covered everything from what led to the development of the study to limitations and strengths. We took second place.

The group that won got to present on the second day, thereby having an advantage of seeing what the other people did, which is just how it was, but the unsatisfying part was that the winning group relied more on gimmicks and performance to get the class to rank them high, rather than actually presenting a study. But I couldn't completely fault the class, it was our TA that really taught us what a presentation was supposed to be like and how to think of them critically, while the teacher didn't even break down the scoring into three categories like she did on the poster grading sheets.

All in all though, the whole project was a great experience, and working in groups, creating a poster, and presenting in front of a class are all different experiences that I will be able to learn from and take with me going into pharmacy school.

- Homework and Final

So I've been doing excellent in attendance, quizzes, and everything related to the group project. Add that on top of the fact that we get to resubmit all our homeworks on the day of the final to be regraded for 80% of our missing points... well... my homework grade isn't as good as it could be. Adding on top of that, that I now have 25 points of extra credit... well... I can say that I've been tempted to be lazy and go into the final overconfident again. It can be seen as gaming the system, or as just knowing where to prioritize right. I'm getting an A regardless, and just as important, I knew I was learning the material.

Except I've been able to resist that this time.  I do think that I don't need that much review, but I'll make sure that I do review the material. And I have already fixed two of the three homeworks that will get me a decent amount of points back. Getting an A should be no problem. Anything less than that would be shocking.

Genetics Final

I am behind on updates. Been focusing on finals even though there's been a lot going on. Time to start correcting that.

Alright. Let's first talk Finals prep. I wanted to begin studying the Saturday before the final (scheduled for Friday), but then I received an email from my Psy Research teacher that our group project got selected as one of the Top 5 projects of the class, and would be presenting for extra credit that Monday. (More on that tomorrow.) So there went my weekend. I didn't want to let my group down, and well... I wanted to win.

So that left me Monday through Thursday to study, keeping in mind that my final paper for Psy Research was also due Friday. We had two full chapters to cover (11 and 12), and then five partial chapters to study for (in order of assumed importance - 16, 17, 13, 14, 10). I divided the chapters up to cover Monday through Wednesday, and to just review on Thursday.

It didn't turn out that way. I didn't study Monday, but I still did get studying in the rest of the three days. I'd read a section of a chapter, digest the information, study the figures we needed to learn, and then took a break. I'd write down all the info from memory, and redraw the diagrams til I could regurgitate it just fine, then moved on to the next section.

It was a nice system, and with frequent breaks, it didn't feel like it took too much time out of my day. It's nice not cramming material the night before. My study habits aren't where they should be yet, but they're certainly improving. I didn't feel pressure when it came to studying for Genetics and meeting up with my group to work on our presentation and paper, but if I went into pharmacy school now I don't think it'd be good enough. (Another thing that I did was to delete Plants vs Zombies from my computer, which was sucking up a couple hours of time each day.)

Then came the actual final. The way I calculated it, I needed to get 104 points out of 100 points + 5 extra credit, to get an A. That would be highly unlikely. I had a 21 point cushion to get that A- and not drop down to a B+. As it is right now, I feel I should have gotten an A in the class, but an A- will be acceptable. I won't be happy, but I'll accept it. Getting a B- would be dissatisfying, and a B would be somewhat devastating.

From an Admissions standpoint (at least the one that I have in my head), this is my first science class since I switched to pharmacy, and I only had a 6 unit semester, so I should have gotten an A. On the other hand, since this is my first science class since I switched majors, maybe there's some leeway there. When I'm done, they'll see my progression and recovery since the "bad days" as long as I really do get all A's and some A-'s with the rest of my classes, maybe it's not so bad. And this isn't my last science class at SFSU anymore, like I thought in the beginning of the semester, since I'll be able to take Cell Bio and General BioChem this summer. (Although it's my last first attempt science class... sheesh... I think things through way too much.)

So I went in, and took the final, and it was pretty easy. All the answers came to me pretty quickly. I didn't answer what I assume is 1 point of the extra credit, and 2 points of the regular questions, so that guarantees no A in the class (unless the professor "curves" the scores, which I will not rely on), but that was unlikely in the first place.

But... while I felt I finished with a good 10 minutes left, and was just glancing over all my answers, as soon as I walked out the door, I realized I messed up a simple part of the first question! It was a 20 point question. I tried calculating it in my head, and originally thought I'd for sure get 12-14 points wrong. Adding that to the questions I didn't answer, that left me with 4 points left of my cushion left!! But after thinking more about it, I think it's more like 6-8 points marked off, which is a little bit better.

Realizing a mistake right when you leave an exam is not a fun experience. It's been constantly popping up in my mind these past three days. I do not want a B+. I do want to see my grade now, but I'll have to wait until June 2nd. We'll see how it goes then.