Shadow a Resident
On October 21, 2011 I had the wonderful opportunity of shadowing a PGY1 Resident undergoing her General Medicine rotations at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. It was a wonderful experience thanks in great part to Midwestern University’s ICHP Chapter.
I became interested in a pharmaceutical residency prior to beginning pharmacy school since I knew while living in a saturated community here in Illinois that I would be competing with many highly qualified graduates in a market with jobs catered to pharmacists who are specializing in various divisions of medicine including cardiology, infectious diseases, etc. It made me want to become a better candidate for the jobs in my area while having a greater handle in certain areas of medicine that are highly relevant today.
It also appealed to me since it steps away from the old pharmacy practice model and is aiming to become a more patient-centered care pharmacy practice model (more details on the new PPM in a future post). The pharmacist is taking a more active approach than their traditional roles as dispensers of medication and becoming counselors in drug therapy and disease state managers. I especially saw this model in action while shadowing the resident and saw firsthand the more active involvement of a pharmacist in treating the patient.
The role of a pharmacist is extremely team-oriented, working with different healthcare professionals including the treating physician, nursing team, social worker, occupational/physical therapists and others. I enjoyed the team approach especially since it applied so many things that I’ve already started to learn in my first year courses, especially Biochemistry and Physiology. At the hospital, the pharmacist is able to see lab results and make judgments on drug course therapies based off levels of different organ profiles and biochemical ranges. Additionally, by making connections between the lab results and the diagnosis given by the physician, the pharmacist can make appropriate dosage recommendations as well as provide better insight to what drug therapy can be used most effectively in treating the patient based off what is available in the formulary, cost appropriate and a convenient dosage form for the patient. It also gives the pharmacist the upper hand in catching medication errors and provides constant checks throughout a patient’s stay at the hospital.
In addition to the usual rounds of the day, I was able to sit in on PGY1 presentations which are done on a weekly basis. The residents present patients that they have had and their disease state and provide information on the drug therapy that was administered and further background information and research on the condition. The presentations were engaging and were not only catered to other pharmacy students and residents but also clinical pharmacists that work at the hospital. It was obvious that learning never stops after pharmacy school and further assures the need for constant updates on new research, requirements and laws that will affect that patients that are treated.
Overall, I had a wonderful experience and would HIGHLY recommend any student to go shadow a resident. I was able to meet students from other pharmacy schools in the area, learn more about what current PGY1 residents did to land their jobs at such a prestigious institution and reassured myself further that pharmacy is definitely the right career for me.
