Pharmacy School as a P2

Mom is the pharmacist of the house

2007-11-23T23:37:00.000-08:00

Coming home to LA for thanksgiving was awesome. Nothing beats a home cooked meal. Surprisingly the cool, brisk winter of San Francisco made its way to LA. I don't think it's ever been so cold. I started to feel a small tickle in my throat and I asked my mom if she had any airborne or a chinese medical herb I used to take as prevention for the cold. Instead, she gave me a a bottle of chinese medicine, Diclofenac and Chlorpheniramine. From my 1.5 years of pharm school, I remembered Chlorpheniramine is first generation antihistamine that causes drowsiness but I totally forgot what Diclofenac was used to treat. - Perhaps some anti-inflammatory like Ibuprofen? I was hesistant and told my mom that I would be okay without. She insisted that this was a miracle drug and had already filled a glass of water for me. What do I do? My mom is trying her best to look out after me and if I took a pill, the concentrations would be so low that I would not be at risk for any serious condition. I was hesistant. The tables still haven't turned- despite my 1.5 years in pharmacy school- nothing has changed. My mom still acts like the pharmacists at home.

UCSF Faculty are awesome!

2007-11-11T11:13:00.001-08:00

How I know this? Because I had lunch with one of them and cooked dinner for two of them today. To orient the first and second year students to the three pathways offered here at UCSF, lunch time talks with faculty members are offered once a year. This time around, I choice to have lunch with HP&M faculty member, Glenn Yokuyama. I, along with 5 other students, sat over lunch to talk about our career options, where we saw ourselves in 4 years, what kind of skill sets are offered from each pathway, and what research projects were open. He was super insightful and brutally honest, not swaying any of us to chose one pathway or another. At the end of lunch, he suggested that we make an appointment to meet with him one-on-one to answer any further questions we didn't get answered. It was so reassuring that the faculty member are here to support us in all our endeavors.

Later in the evening, the cabinet members of SNPhA would serve and cook dinner for the Associate Dean of Pharmacy, his wife and the Director of Clinical Pharmacy. The dinner was raffled off at the Spring Community Service Auction to fundraise money for the various community service events put on by each organization. Usually the money goes to supplies for screening or printing costs for pamphlets to be distributed free of charge. Just from conversation, the Associate Dean and Director of Clinical Pharmacy are very student orientated. They want to get to know us and insist that we call them by their first names. It's great because they are so supportive in our endeavors. I found out that Joe (our Director of Clinical Pharmacy) will be featured on Oprah!! How cool is that?!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

For many of us pharmacy students, we celebrated Halloween on Saturday- the Halloween Carnival and Health Fair then the Halloween Party at Suite 181. Now it's crunch time. Sucks, ain't it? It's Halloween and we had exam. It's Halloween and I'm here in the library studying for my Physio midterm on Monday. It's okay, I was never a huge trick or treater anyways.

A historic day

2007-10-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

Little did we know that today would be a historic day. Our most lovable physical chemistry professor would teach his last day of physical chemistry after 40 years. Our Pharmaceutical Chemistry professor was very fond of this professor and asked that we spend the first portion of our class standing in on his last class. Our associate dean and the head of the physical chemistry department said a few words before Dr. Shetlar lectured. Watching the entire P2 class stand in the aisles , I almost shed a tear because I realized what an impact he has made not only on my first year of pharmacy school but our entire class- he made physical chemistry enjoyable. We are all very fortunate to have Dr. Shetlar be part of our lives.

Flabbergasted

2007-10-12T01:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.ronpaulnews.net/2007/10/ron-paul-on-msnbc-live-with-dan-abrams.html

I think I like this guy.

My brain hurts

2007-10-09T01:44:00.000-07:00

The Physiology midterm is by far the hardest exam I have taken so far in pharmacy school--I came out and my brain hurt.

On another random note- I had a bag of instant Japanese noodles- you know, the ones that come with packets of spices, oil,and the occasional dehydrated 'vegetables'--and on the bag there was a very interesting tag line " Supin- Made from the best Japanese Technology".

Procrastinating

2007-10-05T00:27:00.000-07:00

After 3 whole hours of grinding 7 teabags of green tea, measuring out ingredient equivalents, melting butter, and frosting... I've completed my first batch of GreenTea Cupcakes for tomorrow's bake sale. Now my only problem is to resist the temptation of eating one before tomorrow morning.

Creative Juices of the pharmacy school

2007-09-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

Music videos, belly dancing, choir, spoken word, comedy, guitar, soprano, acting, rap, wit, fashion = creativity at this year's skit night. The entire Cole Hall filled up with enthusiastic P1s, P2s, P3s and some loyal P4s chanting their class pride. The energy was amazing and the talent was out of this word. Several faculty members, our associate dean, our Pharmacokinetics professor, our Physical Chemistry professor even gave their best shot at playing musical "paper" instruments. Several of the P3s and P2s did photo shoots for the infamous AMPhA (American Male Pharmacists Association) fraternity calendar. Wish I had pictures to post. The night ended with an awesome rendition of "Chicago".

I was at Jang & Associates today for my cavity fill-in and was asked to make a shoot for the commercials! Ya know the one with "here at Jang and Associates we take care of you Seven days a week". Not sure if they will use me in their commercial but it was my closest encounter to stardom. Well time to start studying.

The best BART ride of my life

2007-09-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

Usually I am listening to my iPod during the BART rides across the eastbay but yesterday night was different. The volume on my iPod is usually at half maximum volume so announcements and occasional conversations are still audible. Yesterday night I heard faint singing that didn't syncronize with the the sultry voice of Lauren Hill, I took off my earphones and heard a man's voice serenading the entire bart train! I kept my earphone off because he was actually very good, a strong baritone voice. I looked back but too many people stood in the way. He sang for nearly 20 minutes as the crowd of people dwindled down as we approached the oakland. A lady sat across the row from me tried to hold in her laugh and smile as she read the SF Chroncle. A man commented "It's friday night and he's starting out the night right". Everyone on the train was laughing and smiling. It was amazing...if only more people sung out freely on the bart.

One week of school as a P2: Tradeoffs

2007-09-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

One WORD: BUSY. In a good way. If you haven't heard, P2's rule the school simply because the P3's had their reign and are now occupied with Therapeutics (rumored to be the hardest class you've taken in you entire pharmacy career and perhaps the most useful). So the inaugurated P2's (that would include me) pick up the slack. Some people take small roles here and there while the ambitious ones take on two to three positions. It seems that in our class, we have a lot of the latter.

I've finally found the time to sit down and write for once. I can't remember the last time I wrote. At the beginning of summer, I made two goals for myself 1) to become a proficient writer and 2) to learn Chinese so I can start exploring Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM). So here I am, at the end of summer with some knowledge TCM philosophy ( I had to return the TCM book I borrowed from the library) and not much of an improvement in my writing. Though I did come out with a new found interest in clinical pharmacy. I guess there are always tradeoffs in life. The funny thing is that I started pharmacy school with a strong interest in community pharmacy. I hated hospitals because of all the tragic memories I had there growing up and told myself that I had no desire to pursue a residency (which is an additional year of clinical rotations after 4 years of pharmacy school). The intern position at Alta Bates Hospital opened my eyes to the possibilities a PharmD that the public doesn't see- the clinical side, which includes monitoring drug levels in critically ill patients, ensuring that diabetic patients are within their glucose range, checking for drug interactions, catching potential side effects of prolonged antibiotic use, writing TPN orders for patients who cannot take in food orally. I found myself thinking back to my Pharmockinetics class during first year and actually using some of the knowledge I gathered during my first year of pharmacy school.

The Critical Care pharmacist at Alta Bates really carved my presence there at the hospital. Normally pharmacy interns would be trained at Pharmacy techs and never work closely with the pharmacists, but the critical care pharmacist ensured that i gained as much experience and insight. I guess you can say I was fortunate to find an opportunity to learn so much. But the commute was atrocious- 45 minutes to the eastbay and 1 1/2 back to the city.

With such a busy schedule, I haven't found much time to sit down and study. But it's okay, I have about 2 more weeks until our first exam. =)

Finally a break

2007-05-23T23:01:00.000-07:00

These past two weeks have been super hectic- midterms, coordinating the integrative medicine forum, applying for summer intern jobs, and planning a trip to Southeast Asia that I've completely forgotten to blog. But no fear, I am back again (at least for now).

This past weekend was the Integrative Medicine Forum, which I would have to say was a semi-success. We were competing with so much-Pharmacy Information Day, a BBQ at Bob Day's house, the beautiful weather. But I am glad to say that we had over 85 attendees who took something away from the forum. I have a strong interest for Traditional Chinese Medicine, growing up with traditional and proud chinese parents, so I sat through most of the workshops offered by AIMC and ACTCM, both acupuncture and integrative medicine colleges in the eastbay and San Francisco, respectively. The enrollment was so high in these workshops that I invited back one of the speakers to hold a lunchtime talk in 2 weeks. Future health professionals really need to learn about other healing modalities that people use-especially here in SF.

Afterwards, Bob Day, UCSF's oldest and well-respected faculty members invited student leaders to his home for a bbq. Many of us were looking forward to the break in the middle of the weekend. His wife was warm and welcoming. Hamburgers and sausages were endless. The mini fruit tarts were divine and all of us could not leave his home without bringing a cookie as a parting gift. It is times like these that I think "wow, UCSF IS really a 2nd family".

For the past few days, the weather has been gorgeous! I can't complain. Today was also our aseptic techniques day where we learned how to prepare IV bags, properly withdraw liquid from different gauge needles and syringe sizes and also break ampullae. Finally, what we've been tested on calculation quizzes actually makes sense now. We should've had this lab before all those quizzes so that we could physically make sense of all those calculations.

Anyways, this weekend is memorial day and I am off to LA to work on my tan before finals!! woo-hoo!!!

Being away from home

2007-04-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

My parents visited me this past weekend and I was so happy. I did not realize how much I had missed them and how much I had missed home. Just having them around me made me feel so content.

I was born and raised in LA; went to grade school down the street, went to middle and high school not too far from home but went to Berkeley for my undergrad career and fell in love with San Francisco and the bay area. I haven't been home in 5 years because I learned how to be independent. I suppose it was the change of pace from the busy streets of LA that made me stay here for pharmacy school. But as I think about how important my family is to me, I wish I had stayed closer to home. Yes it would be ideal if LA was like San Francisco in terms of the weather, the art and music culture, the ease of transportation but LA will never be that way. I love San Francisco for what is has to offer but right now family is much more important. I thought I would stay here in San Francisco after I graduated but now I am leaning towards moving back down to LA.

End of Spring Break

2007-04-06T18:54:00.000-07:00

The week after spring break always tends to be a bit slower. It's the end of the work week and I feel like I've been in school for 3 weeks already. After much waiting, friday finally crept up.

You know, they say there are a lot of opportunities for PharmD's but graduates still tend to gravitate towards retail pharmacy immediately after graduation and it's not without rational-retail pharmacists make the most money. Clinical pharmacists make less and newly grads are paid among the lowest starting out in industry. But unlike retail pharmacy where a pharmacist's learning curve (and income) tends to plateau, pharmacists working in industry have more opportunities for growth. More opportunities for growth means more opportunities for leadership and advancement in areas where a pharmacist's education is valued-the organic chemistry, interactions, pKa and bioavailability calculations and the like. Today I visited Gilead Pharmaceuticals, a rapidly growing company due to it's pioneer of HIV and Hepatitis B drugs, and was amazed at the opportunities pharmacists had beyond retail. At Gilead, pharmacists are dipping their toes into drug information and even marketing, chairing and directing phase 3 and 4 drug trials, working in managed care facilities and affecting the lives of millions of individuals. At Gilead, degrees are not thrown around, but rather a person's experience and knowledge is the basis for advancement. No wonder why newly grads usually enter retail pharmacy, their degree is valued more. But the great thing is that if retail seems not be your match, industry will always be option-as long as you do not mind being paid a little less than your retail job.

Teaching Kindergartenders at Spring Valley

2007-03-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

Kindergartenders have the most curious minds. They also have a short attention span but love to raise their hand to volunteer answers. They do not hesitate and share everything from their favorite color to the last time they got sick. Somewhere along the line as we grow older, we lose the enthusiasm we had as a child. In my classes, the majority now hesitate to raise their hand whenever a question is asked.

This past week, I along with two of my classmates taught two germ and nutrition lessons at Ms.Boylan's and Ms. Andrade's kindergarten class. By far, the most challenging task is to simplify overwhelmingly complex science concepts into simple, plain grade level language. But this is great practice for a pharmacy student because oftentimes, we are required to translate complicated medical terms into simple layman's terms for a patient. Sometimes I find myself slipping but I learned not to underestimate these kindergartenders. One child told me a virus looked like a 'hexagon' and I found myself trying to recall how many sides a hexagon had. They also have an amazing memory being able to recall what they learned and did last week. I sometimes have trouble recalling what I did yesterday.

Kids are amazing and I find myself wishing I had never grown up. It's nice to be curious, carefree and accepting of people despite their racial differences.

Wow....where have i been?

2007-03-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how long it's been since the last time I've blogged. Where has the time gone? It's mid march and the winter quarter is already over! Finals flew bye in the last two weeks. I had a wedding, two funerals and a flurry of other things to take care of in between. The vibe during finals in the quarter system is way different from the semester system. In the semester system, finals are spread out throughout a 3 week period with days in between to take a breather and rest. But in the quarter system, it's just one final after the other. Indeed, a test of endurance! Have you ever looked back and thought to yourself, "wow, that's a whole lotta information I put into my head in a 24 hour period!" Well, I have and it's exactly how I feel right now. Finishing finals is a bitter sweet moment especially when your last final wasn't what you had expected.

Spring break begins tomorrow and I already have a list of things to do (non-academic related of course)

Tomorrow I will be teaching a germ lesson to a kindergarten class at Spring Valley elementary school. As part of the PharmTeach program, pharmacy students work with teachers from local elementary schools to initiate science lessons. I am super-excited because kindergarteners are so willing to volunteer answers but if you look at my class--more times than not, crickets can be heard whenever a professor asks questions. I guess as we get older, we fear ridicule and are not as enthused to ask questions as when we were 5 years old.

I am also planning the Integrative Medicine Elective for April and am super psyched about that! So far we have a great line of speakers from the holistic medicine community who have combined western techniques into their practice but there's still more work to go as far as publicity.

In about two and a half weeks, SNPHA along with it's counterpart, SNMA (in the med school), an organization that strives to deliver health to underserved communities will be hosting a health fair in south san francisco! We are having a DJ, getting one of those moon bouncers, a slide, tons of balloons to draw people in to the health information and free cholesterol and diabetes screening we will be offering.

That's about it--and will probably keep me busy for the entire spring break!

After so much studying..finally some applying!

2007-02-25T15:03:00.000-08:00

"Hi, can you help me find something? I have this cough that won't go away and a terrible congestion in my sinuses. I took Keflex and Flonase, which my doctor prescribed awhile back and my congestion has improved but this tickling in my throat just won't go away."

You'd think this was a typical case scenario presented in class for us to analyze, but it wasn't. In fact, this was the first customer who approached me this afternoon in the drug aisle at the local Walgreens. The OTC Herbal Project held their first project outside of healthfairs by going straight to the public--the drug aisles of typical drug stores to answer questions from ambulatory customers. As you can imagine, shelf space is so important in stores that every single drug you name is squeezed onto every inch of the shelf. The effect? An overwhelming feeling of choices for pain, constipation,congestion, even the common cold. It just drives the typical pharmacy student crazy, not to mention the public. So as student pharmacists, we walked out from behind the counter (which can be intimidating) and made our ways down the aisle. The customers were super excited,"when are you guys coming back?" one customer asked.

From my experience today, I learned that

*patients tend to diagnose and treat themselves with old drugs prescribed by doctors
*patients like to stick to something that has worked for them in the past
*patients are intimidated from approaching the counter
*patients may use many drugs that may treat the same symptoms and not realize it
*patients think that antibiotics cure everything
*patients prefer brands over generic and are very influenced by the media
*student pharmacists can do a lot by educating patients and patients appreciate it

Happy Valentine's Day!

2007-02-14T17:07:00.000-08:00

What a sweet surprise. The men of our 2010 class surprised all the girls with beautiful long stem red roses attached with hershey's wrapped in cellophane and heart shape cut tags with each of our 90 names!! *sighs* It sure feels awesome to be part of such a great class.

Anyways, the midterm marathon is over and I have to say that I am pleased and relieved that we can sit back and take a short breather. Though it was a hectic 2 weeks, I was really happy when I received my test scores. But I am still a bit iffy about how our classes were spread out these last two quarter. The first quarter curriculum was such a breeze (in retrospect) compared to this winter quarter. We only had 12 units of core classes (kinetics, biostatistics, clinical practice etc) during the first quarter whereas this winter quarter we are thrown with 18 core classes (no electives, just your good ol' p-chem, biochem, o-chem, clinical pharmacy). But I guess it all works out for first years to make their transition and become acquainted so that they are ready for their second quarter. Somehow I think moving a law and ethics to our first quarter would have been bearable and also given us first years the laws and regulations before we start working in the pharmacy. Nevertheless, this quarter was definitely bearable, but such a surprise after the first quarter curriculum. After all, when you're crunched for time like we were this quarter, you just become a more efficient student.

After classes ended, I made my way to Laguna Honda to visit my patient to drop off a small gift and candies for Valentine's Day. I am glad I did. Today, unlike my past several visits, my patient was sitting up in his chair. I almost didn't recognize him because I usually get his side view when I sit by his bed. On Monday I went in at noon and was disappointed that he was lying in bed. The nurse woke him up for me but he didn't want to get up nor talk to anyone, so I told him that I'd return on Wednesday. At first I was disappointed because I had gone out of my way on a rainy day to visit him and he refused to get up, but after today's visit I feel so much better.

He seemed so much more alert today. I even caught him smiling and laughing a few times. Enough to see all his perfectly align teeth. We also had an eye-sight contest, which he inevitably won because I am nearly blind. I took off my glasses and couldn't read the sign he had so easily read without any correction lens. He smiled and said that I was probably near sighted. I knew it too, but I'm sure it made him feel better. Today, unlike the other days, he didn't talk about dying or going down under. Instead, he told me about his time in LA. He told me about several landmarks that he remembered, Angel's Flight, Main Street, the huge supermarket down the street, the downtown Train Station and Post office, San Pedro Port, and I reassured him that they were still there. I am really amazed at his long term memory. We also talked about the politics and places he traveled.

One thing I was really impressed about was that eventhough the television was on, and his chair was facing toward the television, he made an effort to turn his body completely so that he was facing me when he spoke. His hearing also seems to be better when he's sitting upright. Anyhow I was really happy today about his progress. Additionally, his neighbor walked next to me and also engaged in our conversation. He had quite a few jokes to tell. My patient seemed disappointed that I had to leave but he thanked me for the gifts. I wish I could've stayed longer.

"Pharmacy school is a test of endurance"

2007-02-02T22:27:00.000-08:00

During p-chem lab, one of my classmates noted, " Pharmacy school is a test of endurance". With 4 midterms in a span of less than 2 weeks -on top of other extracurricular obligations- I agree. These 4 midterms were not just simple sujects, in fact kinetics, histology, organic chemistry were not breezy subjects as an undergrad either. And you'd think having seen, studied and to have done relatively well in these classes, that seeing the content again would be a review, but man, how much you can forget in a span of 3 years. To top it off clinical practice (drug dosages, patient assessments, adherence,etc) adds even more useful material to stuff in your brain. With all this wealth of knowledge, pharmacists better be getting out behind the pill counter and get straight to the front counter.

Lessons on pulmonary inhalers

2007-01-26T12:32:00.000-08:00

My younger brother had asthma since he was 5 years old. During his asthmatic attacks, he wheezes, grabs his chest frantically searching for air, his shoulders become tense, he is hunched over as he reaches for the nearest inhaler, takes one puff and immediately his shoulder loosens up and he is calm again. It amazes me what medicine can do.

Two days ago, we were trained on the proper use of pulmonary inhalers for asthma and other COPDs (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). After a three hour training session over a course of 2 days, our class of 123 was divided into small groups of 3-4 students and assigned various preceptors who would train and ultimately test our knowledge of the use of inhalers. Several of us dreaded that we had to return after a long day but at the end of the session, we were impressed at our knowledge of the use of various inhalers. I was fortunate that my preceptor was Dr. Ron Finley. He shared several personal stories during the course of his career and that made me realize how imperative it is for pharmacists to monitor and assess patients use of inhalers.

One story involved a patient swallowing a dime because he did not check the mouth piece of his inhaler. Usually debris becomes deposited and occludes the way for proper delivery of medicine to the lungs. consequently, patients complain their inhaler isn't effective so the doctor increases the dose, unnecessarily.

LESSON: Always check the mouthpiece of your inhaler for debris and dimes.

Another story involved an elderly lady who entered the hospital because of a respiratory attack. When asked to demonstrate her use of the inhaler she remarks that she's been using the inhaler for decades and knows how to use it correctly. Nevertheless, she reluctantly demonstrates her technique and sprays the inhaler 2 feet away and tries to capture the mist in the air.

LESSON: Periodically have patients demonstrate how they use their inhaler because improper use may compromise the effectiveness of their medicine.

Patient comes in and complains that the medicine leaves a bitter residue on the tongue. So this warns you that the patient may not be compliant and may not be taking their doses.

LESSON: Have the doctor prescribe a spacer which decreases the chances of side effects because less particles become stuck in the mouth and delivers medicine effectively to the lungs.

Ultimately, the goal of a pharmacists is to help patients breathe better.

Lobbying at Sacramento

2007-01-16T15:41:00.000-08:00

The alarm rang at 6am and I dragged my feet out of bed and into the bathroom. At 7am, I was scheduled to meet with a group of 4 medical students and drive to Sacramento to lobby for SB840, a Senator Bill for Universal Health Care created by Senator Sheila Huehl that was introduced last year, but veto'd by the governor. This year, the bill would be re-introduced. I didn't know very much about the politics behind the bill but I believe that everyone should be entitled to health care access.

We arrived at the steps of the Capitol Building and I was excited because never have I been to the capitol before. We took the elevators up to the 4th floor, room 4203 and was greeted by a group of students from AMSA, the American Medical Student Association who planned the entire event. I stepped into the room and was amazed to see so many students from so many schools. Professional and non-professional students came from places as far as UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Davis, Touro University, Berkeley Business, Law, and Public Health Students. All convened in this one room to support a bill that would affect the future of the quality of health care. I was really touched and moved by the energy in the air. The speakers did an overview of SB 840 compared to Arnold's Proposal and underlined that SB 840 would be a more comprehensive bill than the governor's. Additionally we were trained on key points to address during our meetings with the Assembly. All this was super exciting because we, as pharmacy students would have a voice in legislation. The Assembly were willing to sit down and listen to us!

Following the training session was the rally in the front steps of Capitol Hills. Channel 11 was there among other local television stations. The vast group of white coats supporting universal health care was enough to draw nearby pedestrians to the scene. With our flying signs, we rang in unison "HEALTHCARE for ALL!! WE WANT IT NOW!" It was indeed empowering. Even more exciting, Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, former California State Insurance Commisioner, spoke of his support for SB 840 with his most memorable line, " I don't just have several problems with the insurance companies I have a HUGE problem with them".

Several points he brought up:
- insurance companies have a tendency to insure those who are healthy, who don't really need insurance while those who need it are uninsured or can't afford it
-conversely if healthy people are insured, services that they need like contraception are excluded in the basic plan and would cost 3x more to include contraception in the plan
-we already have a form of universal health in california that enables patients to go to any doctor, any time and it's called MediCal
-single payer health care is not "socialized medicine". Socialized medicine is when the government owns all the rights to provide services, but a single payer means that private hospitals will still provide the services while the government pays for it

Indeed a great experience. I missed several hours of classes today but it was well worth it!
Pictures to come!

Reflections on Pledging a Fraternity, Round 2

2007-01-12T22:45:00.000-08:00

One of the best decisions I made as an undergrad at Cal was to pledge Alpha Phi Omega, a national co-ed community service fraternity. It was in this fraternity that I learned how the 3 cardinal principles of Leadership, Friendship and Service become not only pertinent but imperative in every aspect of my life. It was also in this fraternity where I finally felt the sense of family, a sense of brotherhood and compassion admist such a large campus where your only identity is the 8 digit student id assigned to you. It was also in this fraternity that I realized a sense of responsibility as an individual to "be the change you wish to see" in this world and also how a small handful of people working as a unit can truly make a difference.

Now I am in grad school and once again joining a fraternity--this time a professional one. Though the goals may be different, the brotherhood and sense of responsibility is everclear. I look forward to making more memories, to forging bonds and to find common goals to work together to accomplish even greater things. I am optimisitic. Though this quarter may be a bit hectic, I am eager and determined.

My first patient visit

2007-01-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

As part of our Clinical Pharmacy class during the winter quarter, a very important aspect of pharmacy, " the patient as a person" is integrated into our curriculum. Students are paired up with residents at at the Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center and are required to make at least 5 visits a quarter. Many patients were quite old, some demented, several had lost their sense of hearing while others were bed-ridden. Students met their assigned patients for the first time, including me.

My patient was a 90 year old merchant who traveled the world. He had lost his sense of hearing in his left ear. When I met him, he was about to take his afternoon nap but still enthusiastically engaged me in conversation. As a teenager he worked as a bus boy with famous entertainer, Frank Sinatra at the St.Regency Hotel in New York. At that time, neither knew what they had planned for the life ahead of them. All my patient wanted to do was travel the world while Frank wanted to sing. Lo' and behold--both of them had achieve their dreams. My patient became a merchant, traveled everywhere during the war, married in Hong Kong, moved to the states, had children and had a very fulfilling life.

Anyways, my patient did most of the talking while I sat there, smiled, and knodded. Surprisingly I think that's all he wanted me to do or anyone to do- was to just listen to him tell me about his life. He ended his story with the comment that he would never leave the hospital and the only point ahead of him was 'down'. Now I did not know how to respond to him besides reassure him that he has lived such a fulfilling life, and was able to see parts of the world that others could not even imagine. But how would you respond if your patient made such a comment? Are you optimistic? or unrealistic?

First day of winter quarter snooze

2007-01-03T16:34:00.000-08:00

I think I'm mentally still on vacation. Yep, I still am. Can you blame me? After the New Year, first class of winter quarter begins at 8am. I'm still a bit dazed. Rumor says that winter quarter of the first year is tough. Look at our schedule:

Anatomy-Histology
Advanced Organic Chemistry
Clinical Pharmacy
Human Metabolism (Biochemistry)
Physical Chemistry-Kinetics
Law & Ethics

That's a whopping 18 units of fun!! Then I have the P&T Competition due in late January/early February. I still haven't found the time to sit down and go through the 100 page Byetta dossier yet. A dossier is a pamphlet (okay, that's an understatement, it's more like a book) produced by drug manufacturers that summarize the clinical trial studies, economic models, budgets of a particular drug, in this case Byetta. The P & T committee basically uses this book to determine whether inclusion of this diabetic drug onto the formulary will be cost efficient for the hospital. That's where I come in, I, along with 3 other team members will role play the P& T Committee. Lots of fun, huh? I'm pretty excited. Anyways, gotta jam-Tahoe meeting in 10 minutes!

Homeless Clinic Volunteering, finals, and off to Anaheim!!!

2006-12-07T16:19:00.000-08:00

HOMELESS CLINIC
The friday before finals--while others scrambled to cram for the Patient Counseling Competition later that evening, I hopped onto the N-Judah bus and made my way to Civic Center's Homeless Clinic. The clinic offered free flu vaccines that day and needed our help in vaccine counseling (which we learned the 2nd week of school) and documenting the vaccinations given. A vast majority of San Francisco's homeless population live near the Tenderloin and Civic Center. You can tell by the dirty blankets and shopping carts scattered on the sidewalks. The clinic does an awesome job of documenting the health of these individuals which can be really tricky. That day, it was relatively slow but I met several interesting patients.

One lady in her late 30's, told me she wanted to go back to school to learn about computers as she stripped the 6 layers of clothing she had on. Apparently she wore her entire wardrobe. She was very sweet and asked how I was able to get into pharmacy school. She t0ld me coming to America was not what she had envisioned. She didn't realize finding a job with her limited english proficiency would be so difficult. You can tell from the way she spoke that she was very hardworking and very smart.

Another patient came in with back and arm pain because he fell off a ladder at work. Apparently his high risk job doesn't provide insurance so he comes to the clinic to get his checkups and medicine. Though my spanish was a bit rocky, I was impressed at how patient he was and very cheerful. I guess he was glad to be off work.

The nurse, also a UCSF graduate, administered the vaccines to the patient while I counseled them on the possible adverse reactions from the vaccine. When it was down time, the nurse let me fill the syringe with the vaccine so I was super excited and kinda nervous because she was watching my every step. And the cool thing is that she taught me better aseptic techniques which I didn't get a chance to learn during training sessions.

FINALS WEEK
Finals week wasn't so bad. I actually like the quarter system better compared to the semester system at Cal. The midterms cover less material and the finals, though they are one right after the other, cover aterial over a shorter span of time. Hooray! I realized the secret is to start studying early-like 2 weeks in advance because that way you'll be less stressed out and will absorb the material better. Near the 4th day of finals, it was more difficult to concentrate so I had to kill time before I could sit down in the evening to study for my Biostats final the next day. For half of my classes, a cheat sheet was allowed which made studying a whole lot easier. Though I never really use the cheat sheet during the actual test, I feel that it helps me to focus my studying.

ANAHEIM CONVENTION
Still recovering from finals, about 25 of us hopped into a car and made our way down south to the ASHP (American Health-System Pharmacists) Convention in Southern California. ASHP is a national organization with a history of preventing medication errors and represents working pharmacist in hospitals, long term care facilities, and home care.

Some students will say the best part is the exhibit hall where big name pharmaceuticals dispense freebies to get health professionals to learn more about their drug and consequently prescribe the drug more often. Elegant personalized fountain pens were among the hot items for grabs, along with a laptop mouse from Amgen, a leather encased portfolio from Genentech, a set of exercise bands from Levemir, an MP3 player, and a laundary bag with wheels. Some students grabbed extras for christmas presents. You'd be mesmerized by the enormity and scale of each pharmaceutical's booth, competiting with others to attract pharmacists and the like to their booth.

Some students will also say that the talks offering free catered dinner is the best part. These talks, sponsored by pharmaceuticals, lured in hungry spectators who sat listening to representatives describe the efficacy of the drug made by the very same pharmaceutical. Some dishes served were salmon, shrimp cocktail, asparagus. A table filled with delectable desserts lined the back wall for those with a sweet tooth.

Tapestry, Salsa Dancing, Lunch with Prof. Vogt

2006-11-15T23:21:00.000-08:00

So this past week has been pretty busy, especially with finals coming up. But nontheless exciting all the way.

Last Friday there was a beautiful array of cultural dances displayed at Tapestry, a celebratory multiculural affair held annually at UCSF. From festive Native American dancing to mellow African drumming, to spicy salsa dancing, swing dancing, an upbeat Indian/ Hip Hop performance, I was consistently amazed of the customs and traditions that students still held onto. Several of us pharmacy students were so inspired by the sheer talent and passion that we decided that we would participate in next year's event and perhaps display a few dance moves of our own.

So after we saw a group perform a great number salsa dancing, several of us decided we had to go salsa dancing. And wouldn't you believe, that one of the nation's top 3 salsa dance clubs was right in San Francisco! We made our way to Club Cocomoe Saturday night and had a great time. Free dance lessons are offered at 8pm and a live band performed at 10pm. The scene was a bit older that night but entertaining. You can tell several of them have been dancing for years if not decades.

Today, I had lunch with Professor Eleanor Vogt, one of the advisers of the Health Policy and Management Pathway. (On a sidenote: As a first year pharmacy student, you are exposed to the three major pathways offered at UCSF- 1) Pharmacy Care 2) Health Policy and Management and 3) Pharmaceutical Sciences in an introductory elective class. Past students, current professors and faculty members discuss their experiences with each pathway). Anyways, if you google her name, you will find out that she is a very VERY well respected leader and expert in drug safety in the Pharmacy world. So you can imagine how nervous I must have been to be graced by her presence. But she was such a sweetheart from the get-go, very down to earth and personable. She wanted to listen to everyone's story and directed me to several resources that would help me with my future pharmacy endeavors. She advised us (me along with several of my classmates) to be assertive and reach out to professors and learn about what they are involved in, in order to gauge where the future of pharmacy will be. She assured us that most professors would love to talk about their work but are so busy that they never have time to keep their doors open for "office hours". She said to not let this discourage us because a simple e-mail may open doors.

She shared with us her own research, particularly with the cost-effectiveness of pharmacy counseling in the reduction of costs for hospitals and the exciting new path that this may have for pharmacists. Very soon, the model that she has designed for her study will be distributed throughout various chainstores in the state of california and pharmacists will be spending more time counseling than just dispensing. Hooray for patient contact! You see, that's why I want to pursue HP&M ( Health Policy and Management)! She's been such an impetus for change and you can tell from her enthusiasm ( she didn't even finish her lunch!) that she genuinely cares about the profession. She even inspires me to change the world!! She even told us that she receives telephone calls from students in the middle of the night and counsels them. How crazy is that? This just goes to show you how phenomenal the faculty here at UCSF are and how supportive they are of your ideas. It's nothing like undergrad here, the professors know you by your name. *sighs* I really am having a great time. Now..errr...finals time!!

Clip from past xanga

2006-11-08T23:20:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

.....everything has finally simmered down. I have time to think now, time to sort out my thoughts and I realize how much I am enjoying pharmacy school. I don't remember the last time I actually WANTED to study or get involved in every social event, every health fair, every training session, every opportunity to improve myself as a future pharmacist.

This past Saturday several of us P1’s (slang for1st year student pharmacists) volunteered at one of the SnAPha Health Fairs in Oakland. (SnAPha reaches out to the underserved populations where access to health information tends to be difficult). It was at the health fair that I finally saw what it meant for pharmacists to become involved in Pubic Health. We counseled people on nutrition and the imperativeness of daily exercise and wise food choices. It was amazing to see people so receptive to our recommendations- at the same time surprised that pharmacists, instead of nurses or doctors, relayed this information to them. I felt that I had empowered these people to become more proactive in their own life. I finally saw that though pharmacists are working downstream, at the treatment of disease, they can also work upstream at the prevention of disease, to alleviate human suffering at both ends. It’s so refreshing to see how I am now actively involved in a theory that I believed in but seemed so unreachable during undergrad. You know something? I didn’t expect myself to enjoy pharmacy school this much. I love it!