BLOCK 1, 2014

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1

THE CLASS OF 2014 TABLOID

AN OPPORTUNITY TO "COUNT OUT" AN INTERESTING POINT YOU MAY LIKE TO SHARE WITH YOUR FELLOW FUTURE PHARMACISTS.

Madison Region!

Night @ the Terrace: Top Row: Nick Cox, Brittany Schleicher, Seung-ri Lee, Bryant Schobert, Thomy Singh, Kerry Allen, Ed Portillo, Bottom Row: Suthana Ying, Brian Konkol, Wangui (Kui) Nganga

Tips for a successful DPH-4 year from a recent graduate: Dr. Endries.
Congratulations! You have officially made it to the final year of the Doctor of Pharmacy program. There is much to be said for all the hard work that got you to this point, but lets be honest, how much information do you actually remember from the past three years (aside from taco salad Wednesdays and that power hour runs from 9PM-10PM)? Now that you are already well into your fourth year, its time to learn what it really takes to be a pharmacist. The following is a brief guide from a recent graduate that will help you to get the most out of your final year of being a baby pharmacist. No one likes being told what to do, but here is some valuable information that would have been helpful one year ago: What you should do:
Show up on time, professionally dressed, with a positive attitude, and well aware of what YOU are supposed to achieve over the next seven to 8 weeks

Editors-in-Chief: Ed Portillo and Brittany Schleicher

HELLO FELLOW FUTURE PHARMACISTS! Congratulations on successfully completing block one! We are now just FIVE rotations away from our doctorate degree. Our goal with this all new class newsletter, The TABloid, is to keep us connected during clerkships. By continuing to learn together, we will continue to further advance the profession as future practitioners. We hope that you enjoy reading our first issue, and hope that you will be interested in writing articles in the future!

What you should NOT do:

Show up late, dressed like a slob (or any other outfit that deserves a trip to human resources), and expect that your preceptor knows what you are required to do

CLASS OF 2014

The TABloid 5555 Count by 5's Avenue Pharmacity, Wisconsin, 12345

What you should do:

Find an organizational system that works for you and figure out when you will complete all requirements (note: most things will take longer than expected). Think about what is required to fully complete your tasks so that you are able to schedule any necessary appointments ahead of time Be honest about what you know and what you dont know

What you should NOT do:

Wait until the last minute and miss deadlines. It becomes much more difficult to remember when your type A friends from pharmacy school are not sitting next to you to remind you

Take advantage of your preceptors experience and expertise- when you have a question or want to know a good resource for more information just ask! Make a list of what you want to get out of every rotation

Guess- always look up anything that you are less than 100% confident on. Guessing will ruin any credibility that you have and is extremely dangerous. 8 weeks becomes an eternity when you have burned bridges with other healthcare providers because of something you thought you knew Wait until after graduation to realize that you should have done this

Keep your future in mind and always be professional - You will likely need some good preceptor references for job applications in the very near future! - Treat each rotation like a 7-8 week job interview - Inform your preceptor of any pre-planned absences (i.e. job interviews, etc.) Remember the pharmacy board exams! Over the course of the year review various topics that you are unfamiliar with (it is much easier in small chunks)
Most importantly: Have fun and appreciate each rotation for what it offers (both good and bad), you will never again have this type of opportunity and the flexibility it offers

Ruin your chances at a future position because you thought you would never be a pharmacist at this rotation site. (This can be a wide variety of things including: poor attitude, poor attendance, lack of professionalism, the aftermath of thirsty Thursday, etc.) Pharmacy is a very small profession!

Wait until the week before your NAPLEX/MPJE to review the material

Sit at your desk doing the same task over and over again because you didnt inform your preceptor that you wanted to see a CABG procedure, or shadow the respiratory therapist, or work in the heart failure clinic

Have a poor attitude, complete the bare minimum for graduation and complain about the practice site. (Preceptors are less likely to buy you lunch when you do this)

Hopefully this will help you have a fantastically successful fourth year! Good luck and be sure to postmark all materials by the Monday following the end of the block! -Mike

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!"-Audrey Hepburn

BLOCK 1, 2014

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1

BLOCK 1 BIRTHDAYS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

"Happy happy birthday, from our whole class to you. We wish it was our birthday, so we could celebrate too!" May: 28: Kristina Bennwitz, Kara Risseeuw June: 1: Kody Schmidt 6: Amanda Klos 7: Melissa Moore 8: Adrienne Luebke 17: Jafar Ahmed 26: Becca Lukanich 29: Emma Sturm July:
4: Jaimi Swenson 5: Dennis Reckelberg, Erin Keyes 6: Adam Post, Hanna Knurr 8: Rebecca Carnahan 10: Lisa Albrecht 12: Ed Portillo 14: Trevor Schmidt

Nick Cox with his large catch of the day!

BIG CATCH!
Bryan Konkol and I would occasionally fill our Block 1 evenings with a canoe trip to Lake Wingra to unwind after a long day of saving lives. Our primary goal was to relax, swap stories, and have a good time (it is in our class honor code, after all). We accomplished the primary goal every time without fail. This was fairly easy to do given that the sun was warm, the drinks were cold, and Bob Uecker was telling us exactly what has just happened. The secondary objective was to put some bass in the boat. We both fished with the same type of rubber worm, but hooked in a slightly different manner. The best story came out of warm Tuesday night in which the fields were too wet to play softball. Bryan casted up next to a fallen tree and hooked a nice bass, while I sat and watched him reel it in. Just as he fought his fish close to the boat, a 32 inch musky hammered my bait and took off. I was using light tackle for bass so I had little control over the fish. It was very strong, so it literally pulled us around in the canoe like we were a horse and cart. This whole ordeal must have appeared very humorous to fishermen that actually have an idea as to what they are doing. After quite some time, we got the fish in the boat, snapped a few pictures and put her right back where she came from :)

HEY EAU CLAIRE!

The Eau Claire region consists of Emily W, Jaimi and Emily Z. We meet on Wednesdays for seminar at Mayo Clinic Health System. We have been fortunate enough to have an equal number of non- UW students with us at these meetings: a student from Creighton, Minneapolis- Duluth, and Concordia University Wisconsin. We have not had a lot of opportunity for social events with different schedules, etc, but we do chat via facebook and at seminar. I think that we all agree, Eau Claire is a beautiful place to spend the summer!

-Nick-

CONGRATULATIONS TO LISA ALBRECHT ON HER ENGAGEMENT!!!!

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.-Albert Einstein

14

BLOCK 1, 2014

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1

The Thailand Experience!!!! Rebecca cuddling with a tiger!

Bored on Tuesday Nights? Come watch these guys play softball!!!

WHAT'S GOING ON IN LACROSSE! The five of us in La Crosse have had a good time during our first rotation! Most of us have spent some time volunteering at the St. Clare Health Mission pharmacy--it is a good way to network with pharmacists, techs, and health providers from the area while helping out grateful patients. We are getting together for an end of block dinner at Dublin Square in order to socialize, share information about our rotation sites and to look forward to next block. It's amazing how fast this first block has flown!

WHAT'S GOING ON IN MILWAUUKEE! During the early months this summer, a few classmates decided to pool their knowledge in trivia. Although we were unsuccessful in taking victory, we enjoyed catching up and seeing each other in nonpharmacy settings. We are looking forward to getting together again!

I have been practicing at Naresuan University Hospital and Buddhachinaraj Hospital in central Thailand. Naresuan is a 200 bed teaching hospital on the NU campus and the internal medicine ward runs similarly to the US, with medical students, interns, attendings, pharmacists and pharmacy students. Rounds and medical charts are a mixture of Thai and English, so a pharmacy resident translates for me. There are usually 2-5 patients per room and families do most of the care-taking while in the hospital, as opposed to nursing staff in the US. Only a couple of the rooms are airconditioned, so I nearly passed out the first day on rounds in my UW white coat with thick knee-length material and long sleeves. I quickly traded that in for a lightweight, short-sleeved jacket. On Thursdays, a monk comes to each ward in the hospital to accept donations and give blessings. So its not unusual to see medical staff remove their shoes, kneel, and bow their heads in the middle of the hallway while the monk prays over them. Buddhachinaraj Hospital is a much larger public hospital in the main city. It has about 1,000 beds and 50 pharmacists on staff. There, men and women are separated into separate wards and there are approximately 30 patients per room. Any extra patients have their beds arranged in the hallway outside the ward for a total of about 50 patients per ward. In both hospitals family members perform most of the daily cares for patients, as opposed to nursing staff in the US. Other interesting differences about pharmacy practice include: strong pain medications such as morphine, fentanyl and hydrocodone are not available in community pharmacies; its believed that if they are in that much pain, they should be in the hospital. Also, prescriptions are not necessary for the majority of medications sold at the community pharmacy. Pharmacists can diagnose and dispense antibiotics for illnesses such as strep throat and refill chronic disease medications like metformin without contacting the prescriber. Im very grateful to the medical staff and fellow pharmacy students at both hospitals for their kindness and hospitality.

Good Luck with Block 2!!!!!!