The Match Results Are In!

Hey y'all!

After weeks of anxious waiting, I have a big announcement to make....





I matched for residency! 





Even better, I matched with my DREAM RESIDENCY!



For those of you who have followed along with me over the past few years through this blog, or even just read a few random posts, you know what a dream this has been for me.

For those of you who are just joining me, or for the who don't know much about residency here's a brief overview:

Residency is post-graduate education that (usually) happens in the time immediately after graduation from pharmacy school. It is typically designated into separate years called PGY1 (post-graduate year one) and PGY2 (post-graduate year two). Both years are obtained through an application process and interviews followed by a matching process called the ASHP Match.

Why do people choose to do residency?

Residency is not required for pharmacists, but is usually considered a critical part of training for specialized pharmacist work, especially for clinical pharmacists in the hospital environment. While residency is a paid job, residency typically pays about half of what a normal starting pharmacist would make. That can be a hard thought for graduating students with pharmacy school loans to pay off (or just wanting to finally make "the big bucks") but it's an amazing opportunity to become a more well-rounded and competent pharmacist.

So how did I get a residency?

Good question! The honest answer is lots and lots of hard work. Residency positions are increasingly more and more competitive. This year, ASHP had more applicants to residency positions than ever before. Pharmacy students should get involved in extracurriculars, research, publications, and volunteering as early as possible in their pharmacy school career! Ask questions, network, and take advantage of the time you have in school. Pharmacy school can be intimidating, especially when considering the "extras" that go into being competitive for residency. But trust me, when you finally get that email telling you that you matched, it will all be worth it!

So where am I now?

I almost (still!) can't believe it. Now that I've matched I have a lot of new steps to take to prepare. Assuring my non-school pharmacy intern hours have been accepted, studying for the NAPLEX (the national pharmacist license exam), and making sure I finish off my last rotation successfully have been my major priorities the last few weeks. In addition to license requirements, I'm also getting excited about finally living my dream of being a pediatric pharmacist!

And to take a moment to be a little personal, I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of the people who follow this blog who have helped me along this journey. The last four years of my life have genuinely been the best of my life. I can never begin to thank each of you for the little things that you have done for me, but I know that I am where I am because of you.


Thank you so much for going on this journey with me!

Katie

Residency Interviews

Good morning!

It's a wrap! I just finished the last of my residency interviews! This last month has been a crazy, exciting blur, and I am so thrilled to say that interviews went wonderfully.

Residency interviews are all different, but they always have one thing in common: the ability to learn more about the things you are most passionate about. Though I have accumulated a little bit of experience in pediatrics in Atlanta, going to visit different hospital systems really puts into perspective what different roles pharmacists can play. It also really reminded me of the reasons why I love pediatrics so much. In addition to attracting some of the most passionate, inspirational staff I've ever met, pharmacy is integrated into the pediatric care system like nowhere else. There was not a place I visited where pharmacy wasn't deeply involved in most if not all aspects of patient care. It's really thrilling that I might be able to finally be a part of that.

In addition to my fun on location at the hospitals, I also had a great time visiting a few cities I had never had the opportunity to visit before. In St.Pete, I hung out by the water with a fellow GA-PCOM student on rotation in Tampa. In Birmingham, I ate amazing pizza and Thai food with the hospitals amazing residents. And in Memphis, I explored the night life with three other pharmacy students vying for residencies.

The beautiful view in St. Petersburg

It's been an amazing ride, and now I just have to sit tight and wait for Match Day 2015!

See y'all then!

Katie

Residency Update

Hey there!

This is a post I've been excited to write for a very long time.

February is here and that means it's time to interview for residency programs! Yes, you heard me right, after years of hard work, and months preparing applications, I am taking the big next step toward residency.

As a lot of you know, a residency in pediatrics has been my dream for the past three years. I have been thrilled to receive interview requests from some of the best pediatrics hospitals in the southeast and beyond. That means the next few weeks are going to be a crazy adventure. I'll be traveling to interviews in St. Petersburg, Birmingham, Memphis, Washington D.C., and right here in Atlanta. While most people fly to interviews, I will be driving to each, so I've spent a lot of the last few weeks preparing my car, and my mind, for the long drives (good music playlists and snacks will definitely be key). And of course, I've been working hard practicing my interview skills!

I will update soon to tell you how my interviews have gone!

Katie

Psychiatic Pharmacy Rotation

Hey guys!

It's 2015! I graduate this year!

I am so amazed at how fast 2014 zipped by. It feels like just yesterday I was starting rotations, and now I am in the middle of my 6th rotation. Only 2.5 left to go!

This block I am on rotation with a GA-PCOM professor at a local psychiatric hospital. It has been a fascinating few weeks already. Every morning, we start off by attending daily table rounds where we discuss our patient's current care plans. It is a great place to have an impact as a pharmacist, because in addition to psych medications, our patients have a huge array of other conditions that must be considered and monitored. More recently, I even had a transplant patient that I was able to follow. It was really exciting since I completed a transplant rotation earlier this year. It allowed me to make some really great interventions that might have been missed if pharmacy wasn't involved. After rounds, we typically work on collecting accurate medication lists for newly admitted patients.

My favorite part of the day always involves the patient classes that pharmacy students are expected to teach. Each afternoon, I go with my two co-interns to one of the psych units to work for an hour with the patients. We play games and have discussions about psychiatric and medicine topics. I was pleasantly surprised by how interested the patient's were in these education sessions. I have received a lot of great patient input, and have been able to adjust the way I approach a lot of patient topics through these experiences. I've also been able to meet and get to know a lot of other healthcare students and it's been so much fun teaching them more about the medications they work with every day.

Though I am still planning to move forward in my career in pediatric pharmacy, I am so glad I've had the opportunity to work this rotation. I really love that this year of rotations has enabled me to experience so many different areas of pharmacy. That is truly one of my favorite things about pharmacy school. It's biggest chance you may get to test the waters and see what it is you truly fall in love with.

Jason, Quintin and I on rotation!

Katie

New Years 2015

Happy New Year!

I am officially finally done with all of my residency applications so I wanted to take a quick moment to update with some of my photos from the last few months of 2014.

Here are some of the photos from the school's 2014 Clinical Skills Competition. We had a great turnout this year. Kudos to everyone who worked so hard to set it up!

Our awesome teams and judges:

Nathan and I working on our case:

We won!

Here are some of the photos from the 2014 ASHP Midyear Conference:

All Midyear photos courtesy of fourth year Melissa Cheung.

And finally some photos of our fun in California!

Disneyland!

The beautiful Santa Monica Beach:

I can't wait until Midyear 2015 in New Orleans!

Katie

ASHP Midyear 2014

Hi guys!

It's that time of the year again... that's right, it's time for ASHP Midyear! This year was very special for me because Nathan and I were able to win the school's local Clinical Skills Competition so that meant we were able to go to Midyear to compete nationally.

This year's Midyear conference was held in sunny Anaheim, California. Before the conference started I had never been that far out west so I was really thrilled at the prospect. When it came time to board the flight I was a little nervous, but it ended up being a wonderful experience.

The first day of the conference for us was the day before it started for almost everyone else. That's because the competition is held the day before the first "official" day of the conference. We checked in at the main table and went immediately to the competition. The competition went great. Nathan and I really worked together as a team to cover all of our bases and I feel like we did a great job with our patient. We unfortunately didn't make it to the last round (only 10 teams in about 120 do) but I was still really proud of our care plan. I left the competition feeling like I had done my best and that meant a lot to me.

The next day the conference started in earnest. As a fourth year student, it was really important that I kept focused and made a point to take advantage of all of my time there to prepare me for residency applications. I attended all of the residency showcases and met with each of the programs I was interested in for residency. The residency showcases can be really stressful events, so I was really glad I had prepared and researched all of my programs at length before I stepped foot into the conference hall.

I also was able to finally present my research poster! As I mentioned to you all before, I have been working on a research project since I started my second rotation. It finally came together this fall and I was able to put together a poster I was really proud of.

Now that I'm home it's time to get really focused and get everything done for my residency applications. I will be working really hard for the rest of the year on my applications and I hope that by the time I talk to you all next I will be all finished!

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of 2014! I'll see you soon!

Katie

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey ya'll!

I just wanted to take a moment and wish you all a very wonderful Thankgiving. I hope it was as wonderful and full of friends and family as mine was!

See you all soon!

Katie

Rotation Four: Working with Little Ones

Hey there!

I just finished my fourth block of the year which means.... I am halfway done with my last year of pharmacy school! This is such a huge moment but I can't help but feel super nostalgic. I have had such an amazing last three and a half years and I'm not ready to leave quite yet!

This rotation was one I was really excited about. This block I went to work in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at my local hospital. For those of you who don't know was a NICU is, it is a high intensity care unit that is designed to treat infants who need special care after birth. This may be because of premature birth or because of a disease or birth defect. The NICU I was able to work with was a level 3 unit which means that they handled most patients there and only sent the most critical patients to a higher level program.

I had the best time during this rotation. Not only was I able to work with an amazing preceptor but I was able to see things I had never even heard of before. Since neonatology is such a specialized field, most programs don't delve into it in detail. In the hospital I was able to really focus on the unique pharmacokinetics and disease states the are special to this population. I was also able to use my literature evaluation skills to help develop care plans for patients where the best course of action was unknown.

Here is a (TINY!) diaper from one of my favorite little patients:

Katie

Block Three: A Trip "Out West"

Hey guys,

I just finished up block three! I cannot believe I am nearing the half way point of my year!

This block I volunteered to do a "traveling" rotation. Basically, I moved to a small town for 5 weeks for the course of rotation. Before it started I was a little nervous about how it would go, but it ended up being an amazing experience. I miss it already!

For my third rotation, I worked at a hospital in LaGrange, Georgia, close to the Alabama border. Because I was so close to Alabama, my co-intern was actually from Auburn University. We hit it off immediately and had a great time working together in the hospital.

This rotation was set up into "blocks" where we would go work in different areas of the hospital with different specialized pharmacists. My favorite block was in the Intensive Care Unit with Jeremy. The ICU at the hospital was very new and allowed for state of the art care for its patients. I was able to work with a huge variety of different disease states and it was great being able to consult with Jeremy about potential therapy improvements and then seeing them change in real time.

I also loved the times I was able to work with the hospital psychiatric patients. It was really eye opening seeing the things I studied so closely in school playing out in front of me and the pharmacist I worked with was an amazing teacher.

See ya'll next block!

Katie

Summer Camp!

Hey guys!

I just wanted to take a minute detour from our normal conversations to tell you about something REALLY amazing I was able to be a part of this last week. As you all know, I spent the last block working with the Solid Organ Transplant Department at a local hospital. Well this last week during our scheduled "Summer Break" (a one week break between rotations) I was able to attend that hospital's camp for its transplant patients.

I wanted to stop and talk to you all about it because it was such a moving experience and I believe anyone willing to get involved on one of these camps will have one of the best weeks of their lives.

When I first planned on participating in this camp I felt like it would be fun to help some kids learn and grow and it would be a great way to get more involved with field I wanted to to be a part of.

Instead, what I really learned is how much these camps will cause you to learn and grow. I walked out of the camp this week feeling like a new person. In three plus years of pharmacy education, there will be days when you feel exhausted and defeated and you can loose sight of the reasons why you are working so hard. It's moments like I had at camp that will truly bring you full circle. What you will realize is that you are working so hard because you want to make a difference for someone else. Being able to make a difference for them is what will make a difference for you too.

I wanted to close with a photo of one of my favorite moments. This is me and another camp medical volunteer doing a trust-type exercise on a ropes course about 40 feet up in the air. It was so exhilarating!

Katie

Block Two!

Hey ya'll!

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:

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

P3 Class Dinner

Hey everyone!

I wanted to share with you all some photos of my amazing friends, classmates and professors who have made such a difference in my life over the last three years.

Here are some of the pictures from our official class dinner as well as some from my last few days on campus:

I miss them all already!

Katie

The Big Wrap Up

Hi guys!

The last few weeks of classes went by in a flash and now we're here at the end. I can't believe it's really time to start the move towards rotations.

It is simultaneously one of the scariest and most exciting times of my life.

That being said, today I wanted to talk to you all about the final semester of our program and the testing we do before we start on rotations to assure we are ready to head out into the real world.

Spring semester of the third year of pharmacy is a busy one. We start with a series of end-of-program classes like Law & Ethics and Capstone. Classes like these are designed to help us round out our years of drug therapy and review everything one last time. It's also designed to be a chance for us to revisit topics we don't feel confident in the first time and practice our presentation skills (which we will be using constantly on rotations).

This year's Capstone class was a great success. It was a mix between review classes on major topics in pharmacy (cardiology, total parenteral nutrition etc.) and group case presentations. I was lucky to get a great group to work with during this class and they made the whole process so much fun.

After classes wrapped up we started the testing process we needed to complete to finish our third year of pharmacy. The major components of the test were the written portions (including a medication therapy exam and a math exam) and the live-practice portions (including medication compounding portions, patient counseling and timed case presentations). Before I started I was so scared! But when I look back, I had no reason to be. Really! The purpose of the capstone class is to prepare us for these exams and rotations. By the time the tests came along, with a little bit of studying I was definitely ready.

It's incredible to say that I am officially done with my last year of pharmacy classes! Now the next (and maybe the hardest) step will be saying goodbye to all of my amazing friends while we all head in different directions for the year.

Here's a photo of some of my amazing friends (literally) jumping for joy to be done with classes:

I'll post again soon with photos from our P3 class dinner!

Katie

Hello Again!

Hey guys!

I wanted to take a second to talk to you all about my hiatus from the blog. As anyone in our program knows, the end third year is an incredibly busy time. With daily projects, presentations and our high stakes exams coming up I decided to take some time to focus on my most important project: getting through school successfully.

Over the last few months I have really enjoyed all of the requests I have received to pick the blog back up full time. And of course I have had a lot of great experiences I want to share with you. Please stay tuned as I talk about some of the great things I have coming up.

Thanks for continuing to stop by!

Katie

Snow Day

Good morning!

Second semester of my last year of pharmacy classes is in full swing and I've been super busy. This week we have had some crazy snowy weather here in Atlanta so I'm taking advantage of the impromptu break to post. I've been wanting to give you guys a peek into the classes I'm currently taking so here are some of the ones I'm taking this semester:

Integrated Therapeutics IV: This is the final term of our Integrated Therapeutics series. For those of you who have never heard of Integrated Therapeutics, it is a sort of combination class where we first learn the pharmacology of a disease state (what drugs are used to treat it and how they work), then the medicinal chemistry of the agents, and finally drug therapeutics (how and when to use the medications). Right now in IT IV we are learning oncologic (cancer) therapy. It's really challenging as you can imagine but I've been surprised by how much I like it. One of our professors in the class is an oncology pharmacist who recently finished her residency in oncology in Chicago. She's a great teacher and has definitely made me more interested in the field.

Toxicology: This class is very similar to our IT classes but it focuses on the toxic capabilities of various agents. This semester we've covered topics like environmental toxins as well as drug toxicities that affect different organ systems. It has been really eye-opening to see how many things can easily become toxins. It's probably my hardest class this semester but it's really interesting.

Biologics and Biopharmaceutics: I think most people have read (or at least seen) recent articles online about topics like nanotechnology and gene therapy in the advancement of medicine. This class focuses on how those (and more!) recent technologies are being implemented in medicine. We also talk about recent advancements and the new technologies that are currently being developed.

As you can see there is a lot going on for us at the moment. Luckily for us we're getting a little bit of a break to catch up due to the weather.

I'm leaving you guys with a photo of my driveway at the moment to prove I am staying inside today (and blogging) for a reason.

Wish me luck getting out eventually!

Katie

Picture Update

Hey guys!

I finally got my pictures in order from ASHP Midyear and I wanted to share them with you. 

All dressed up and excited to finally be here!

Waiting for our keynote speaker...

 Colin Powell!

Everyone is all dressed up for the showcase.

 The Exhibit Hall

 Our little trip to the happiest place on earth!

And my favorite part... our group in front of the Hogwarts Express!

Katie  

Happy Holidays!

Hello!

I just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful holiday! This year I decided to stay home in Georgia so I'm having a great time just spending time with my family and friends and of course my little dog Goofy.

I think he's excited I've been spending so much time with him...

Hope your breaks are as good as mine!

Katie

ASHP Midyear

December is an exciting time for pharmacy and not just because we're all looking forward to the holidays. All month long there are exciting events that take place. This December I was lucky enough to get to visit Orlando to experience the ASHP (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists) Midyear Conference. It's held early every December in a different city and is the biggest conference of hospital pharmacists in the world. Pharmacists, residents and students come from all over to congregate, attend specialized classes and network.

As a student it's not only exciting to go and meet other students and pharmacists but it's also a great way to get a jump on residency planning. They have special programming for first, second and third year students on topics like interviewing, writing CVs and applying for residencies. Midyear is also where the Residency Showcase is held every year. The Residency Showcase is an important event where every hospital with an ASHP residency position sets up a booth for students to visit and ask questions, network and get information about the available positions. It's a great way to get your name out and meet the current residents and pharmacy representatives.

This year, since the conference was in Orlando, I piled in a car with a group of friends and we rented a nice condo for the week. It was so much fun! We attended the conference during the day and took advantage of the "mini-vacation" to go out and have some fun in the evenings. Since it's the holiday season we went to Mickey's Christmas Party at Disney one night and another we went to Universal Studios with other pharmacy students. It was a blast and I am so glad we all got to go.

Here is a teaser picture from the entrance to the convention. I will be posting more soon!

Katie

New Opportunities

One of my favorite things to talk about when it comes to the Pharmacy program here at GA-PCOM is always how many great opportunities we have for our students to get involved. I have always been an active member in my class and I have always been surprised at just how easy it is to get involved if you are willing to put in the time and effort. Because we are so new, and our school so close knit, there are always new windows of opportunities opening up for those who are looking.

This year I'm taking on a whole set of new challenges and openings at school. As I've mentioned before, earlier this year I was selected to chair the Clinical Skills Committee for ASHP (the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists) on our campus. It was a great chance to put on a fun event for our students that also gave them a great platform to practice the things we've all been working so hard to learn. It was also a chance for our two winning students to go represent our school on a national level at the ASHP Midyear meeting in Orlando and show off how much we've all learned.

In addition to chairing my committee I also had the opportunity to take on another position, that being the Student Government Association Representative for my class. The Student Government Association is just like SGAs at other schools in that we have representatives from all of our programs who all come together to help solve issues facing our students and school as a whole. What makes it fun is the diversity of our members. A lot of the people I've met have been students I've passed in the hall but never had the chance to interact with. It's also a great way to foster school spirit since we are all there because we love our school so much and want the make it the best it can be.

On that note I wanted to talk about something I get asked about a lot. Over the years, I've had a lot of people ask me why I chose to go to a school that was not a "guarantee". What they mean by that is why I chose to attend a school that was so new and still going through its accreditation phase. It all goes back to our people for me. We have such a wonderful group of individuals here. Faculty, staff and students are all committed to getting us to the "finish line" of graduating our first class. When I first visited the campus I was just as unsure about things as the people who asked me that question. What gave me the assurance to take this leap was definitely the people involved in this program. I've never met anyone I trust more with my future. They have put countless hours and effort into developing a state-of-the-art program that will enable its students to get the best preparation for their lives possible. We also have amazing students who work tirelessly to get the word out about our program and improve our community.

With that said, I am confident that the future of our program is bright. With the hard work of everyone involved, we will accomplish more than we yet know.

Katie