My First Rotation!

Hey guys!

It's here! I am finally on my first rotation of pharmacy school!

For those of you who know me personally, you'll know how much I have been looking forward to the start of this rotation. That's because it is my first pediatric medicine rotation. I started on May 19th at a local children's hospital here in Atlanta. I love it! It really has been everything I hoped it would be.

For this post I thought I would give you a little "day in the life of a fourth year pharmacy student". Though all rotations are different, many hospital rotations have a similar structure and so I thought I'd tell you about my experiences.

5:00 AM:
     Rotations start early! Time to wake up and get moving. It's going to be a busy day!

6:00 AM:
     Time to hit the road. Atlanta is a bit known for it's traffic so I like to get on the road early. It means a little less sleep but I never get stuck in the car for too long.

7:00 AM:
     Arrive at the hospital and head for the pharmacy. This is the time to prep for rounds! Every day I pull medication lists for all of my patients, read any progress notes/labs/etc. from the day before and preform mediation reconciliations. This is also a great time to research anything I don't understand and make note of anything I think could be changed to improve care of my patients.

8:30 AM:
     Head to rounds. Rounds at this hospital are slower than most. While most people would that sounds like a bad thing it's actually really great. That's because this is a teaching hospital. I round daily with an attending, residents and medical students. We discuss each patient in full and enter the rooms to do physicals and talk to the patient. It gives me the opportunity to ask questions and answer some myself. It's also amazing because it gives me the opportunity to show medical students what I know about medicine and allow them to see what great resources pharmacists can be.

12:00 PM:
     Lunch! The cafeteria is amazing at my current site (the BEST southern food) but some days we walk down the road to a little market to eat. It's a great time to relax for a bit and enjoy being in Atlanta in the summer. They also have an Atlanta favorite: a King of Pops stand.

1:00 PM:
     Head back to the pharmacy for the afternoon. The next few hours can be a mixed bag depending on the day. This is a time dedicated to working in the pharmacy (this pharmacy has an outpatient part), counsel patients, do research or work on projects. This block some of my projects include topic presentations, journal clubs and a pharmacist education project.

4:00 PM:
     Time to head home and get ready for the next day,

I really love this rotation so far. They have been so kind and generous to me and it's made this rotation such an amazing learning experience. I really can't wait to go in everyday.

Though I don't want this rotation to be over, I also can't wait to see what my next rotation (Pediatric Research) will have in store for me.

Talk to y'all soon!

Katie