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Transitions Magazine

Transitions is published bi-monthly for members of the APhA New Practitioner Network. The online newsletter contains information focused on life inside and outside pharmacy practice, providing guidance on various areas of professional, personal, and practice development. Each issue includes in-depth articles on such topics as personal financial management, innovative practice sites, career profiles, career development tools, residency and postgraduate programs, and more.

An improved perspective
Jamila Negatu
/ Categories: Student Magazine

An improved perspective

The John Hopkins Health System Pharmacy Internship Program is more than just work. In addition to the many formally planned social activities, the interns frequently enjoyed weekend trips, such as a fun-filled day in the nation’s capital.

This past summer, we completed the Johns Hopkins Health System Pharmacy Internship Program in Baltimore, MD. Although our programs were unique in their areas of focus, we completed our internships with an improved perspective on the workings of a large academic medical center and our direction as students.

Olivia’s experiences

I served as the Ambulatory and Care Transitions Division intern. This was my first time employed in a hospital setting, and I found myself learning invaluable information regarding the health system, particularly from an administrative standpoint. A typical day encompassed everything from attending Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee meetings to drafting a warfarin bridging schedule for a patient in the anticoagulation clinic. By observing my preceptor and other pharmacists within the hospital, I began to understand the importance a pharmacist has in roles ranging from administrative to clinical, or a combination of the two. 
 
I worked on projects involving operations, clinical management, and quality improvement. In conjunction with another pharmacy intern, I partook in an initiative to quantify the time spent performing patient follow-up for missed anticoagulation clinic appointments, which will ultimately be used to support the need for a new pharmacist technician position. No matter the activity, whether compiling a list of medication access resources or performing a retrospective review of declined de-prescribing recommendations, the mentors at Johns Hopkins were there to offer their guidance and expertise. 

Charlie’s perspective

Building on the knowledge obtained in my infectious diseases therapeutics coursework, I spent the summer in the John G. Bartlett Specialty Practice, which provides services to patients with an array of infectious diseases. Under the guidance of my preceptor and other pharmacists, I strengthened my clinical knowledge pertaining to HIV/AIDS, engaged in scholarly activities such as a manuscript review, and worked on several different projects.
 
In collaboration with the other Bartlett intern, I worked on projects involving the implementation of new clinical services and advancement of pharmacy practice for patients with HIV. For my primary project, I worked on the development and implementation of the Refill Assist Program, a proactive therapy scheduling service designed to improve adherence rates among this patient population. I also had the opportunity to draft collaborative practice agreements for rapid antiretroviral therapy initiation and a pharmacist-managed PrEP clinic, in addition to being involved with several other rewarding projects. These many projects deepened my understanding of the role of pharmacists in expanding clinical practice and the importance of pharmacists as members of the interprofessional health care team. 
 
Having specialized duties allowed each intern to further explore their individual areas of interest. However, there was no shortage of shared experiences that provided all 22 members of the intern class the chance to develop as student pharmacists. The intern class was given the opportunity to hear from expert pharmacists in a variety of areas on a weekly basis. Topics ranged from curriculum vitae advice to question and answer sessions with the Johns Hopkins residency class. 

Lifelong friendships

As the summer progressed, we found the activities organized outside of the walls of Johns Hopkins just as valuable. Events that we participated in together, such as a Baltimore Orioles baseball game at Camden Yards and a trip to the nation’s capital, 
allowed the class to form lifelong friendships. 
 
As we complete the final year of our didactic PharmD curriculum, we now have a much better perspective on health-system pharmacy and an improved understanding of where our future paths in pharmacy may be. This internship was an experience we will never forget!

 

Charlie Summerlin is a third-year PharmD candidate at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and Olivia Walker is a third-year PharmD candidate at the Purdue University College of Pharmacy.

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