I recently completed an APPE elective rotation with the APhA Student & New Practitioner Development Department and cannot speak more highly about the spectacular experience I had.

Do you remember in elementary school when we were all so excited to leave the classroom for the day and go on field trips? Whether a trip to the zoo, watching a play at a local theater, or visiting a museum, teachers simply could not contain our excitement when we were able to leave our classrooms to experience “the real world.” When did we lose this excitement?

In the fall, I had the opportunity to experience a nontraditional rotation at Truman Health Services in Albuquerque, NM. This rotation was different in the sense of the patient population being served as well as the services being provided. Within this rotation, I was able to serve an LGBTQ+ patient population by helping provide gender-affirming care as well as other types of services such as diabetes medication management and cardiovascular risk reduction.

One thing about being a student pharmacist is that you are constantly seeking opportunities. There are many ways you can discover and gain experience in different fields thanks to search engines and electronic applications. This was how I found mine.

As part of my recent APPE rotation, I got the chance to wear the Freestyle Libre 2 continuous glucose monitor to better understand our patient’s experiences. I asked for the opportunity after hearing patients talk about what they liked about it, how it fell off too soon, and how they commonly asked “does it hurt?” Since I was asked by patients so many times if it hurt, I wanted to be able to provide a more personal answer.