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

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to wish everyone Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you are all sitting down to a great dinner with the ones you love!

Katie

Clinical Skills Pictures

As promise here are the photos from our 2013 Clinical Skills Competition:

Our Winners!

We had such a great time and can't wait to see our winners Saba Hasan (left) and Allison Rhoerhs (right) compete at ASHP Midyear in December.

I can't wait to do it again next year!

Katie

Case Study Day

Good Morning!

Today is Wednesday and that means it's Case Study Day for us third years.

Let me start first by explaining what a case study is here at PCOM. Almost every week throughout both our second and third years we meet with our advisee groups (groups of students who share the same adviser) and are given a patient case to review. We then, as a group, form a care plan for that patient.

In second year, when the cases are first presented they are fairly simple. The patient may only have one or two things that need to be corrected. This all changes as the year progresses and by the time third year has begun the cases can be very complicated with many things to consider.

During a case study we are first tasked to identify the patient's problems. That involves reviewing labs, past medical conditions and current complaints. We then must come up with a plan to treat the patient. The plan will include medications (with doses and scheduling), monitoring (labs and adverse effects) and goals for the patient. It seems like a lot of work but its actually a lot of fun.

Here is my group focused and working hard:

And again, having a little bit of fun this time:

Katie

A Busy School Year

Hey guys,

Life as a third year has been crazy busy! Working two jobs on top of classes has been difficult for me this term but I'm feeling great because we have a lot of exciting things in store in the coming year. One of the most exciting things coming up has to be our rotations. In fourth year all students go on eight five-week rotations at various places. There are several required rotations like Community and Community Management, Ambulatory Care, and Clinical Pharmacy. We also get to do three elective rotations (!!!). I have been busy picking out my top choices all year. I love pediatrics and it's what I want to do after I graduate so that's what I've been focusing on. Next year we should have both Pediatrics and Neonatology rotations and I'm hoping I can do one of those. It would be a great learning experience and would really help me with my residency plans.

And, of course, there are also lots of other exciting rotations that I can't help but spend time considering even if it not in my direct line of interest.

Some of the coolest ones have to be Poison Control, Infectious Disease and Critical Care.

Speaking of pediatrics, I wanted to share with you some photos of an event I did in my undergrad with a local elementary school. I worked with Future Healthcare Professions of America and we set up a booth where we tried to show kids that going to the doctor or dentist isn't scary.

I loved working the event and we got a great response. I look forward to getting a chance to work with pediatric patients in the future!

Katie