My second rotation is officially over and I wanted to stop in to tell everyone about it!
My second rotation this year was a huge treat for me. I know I've talk to you all in the past about how much PCOM has worked with me to help me get experience through rotations in areas I'm hoping to work in after graduation, but this rotation was really the perfect example. I love research and it is my goal to have a role in pediatric pharmacy research when I graduate. All research is fascinating to me (how cool is it to be the first person to find something that will change the course of medicine forever and really improve a patient's life?), but I especially love the opportunities that exist in pediatrics because most medications are never studied in those populations before they come to market. Because PCOM offered a research rotation through the school already, they were willing to help me set up a pediatric specific research rotation with a professor through a local pediatric hospital. In addition to how amazing that was, I was also able to split my time working between my research projects and being involved in the Solid Organ Transplant Department at the hospital.
During my rotation last month, I observed a medication being used in a way I wasn't familiar with and began to pull all the primary literature (original research reports) I could from PubMed (an online search engine that allows people to access primary literature). This block I discussed it further with my preceptor and we decided to do a Medication Use Evaluation (MUE) on the medication in question. An MUE is a review of all the prescriptions for a medication that have been dispensed in a hospital over a certain period of time. It can be focused on different things so different information may be studied, but generally researchers look at doses, indications, patient demographics (age, gender, disease states), and effects of the medication. It will take us longer than I will be on this rotation to finish (especially because all studies must be approved by a committee called the IRB) so I will keep working on it throughout the rest of the year. I hope to present my research at the ASHP Midyear meeting this year!
Well it looks like this post has gotten really long so I will have to regale you all with my tales from the Transplant Department another time.
Thanks for reading!
Katie
P.S. Last month I went to the GSHP Summer Conference with a bunch of our 3rd year students and we had a blast! The meeting was on Amelia Island, just inside Florida, and we were able to meet a lot of amazing Georgia pharmacists and sit in on some really great lectures.
Here's a photo of our group:
