Rivalry Week – Sports at OSU

The week of Thanksgiving is a busy time around the College of Pharmacy, with professors finishing up topics to give us an uninterrupted break and students heading home for the holiday or hosting Friendsgivings in Columbus. But beyond the frenzy of the holiday, you’ll notice a lot of signs across campus with a certain letter crossed out and a lot more people wearing scarlet and grey than usual. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Rivalry Week – every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the Buckeyes play our arch rivals, the Michigan Wolverines. While OSU is definitely a big sports school, it reaches an exciting fever pitch during this week and campus is all caught up in the excitement. I am writing this post before the big game so I can’t say whether I’m celebrating or disappointed yet, but either way it will be an amazing game for sure!

While Rivalry Week is definitely the focal point of sports at OSU, there are tons of different opportunities to get involved in the sports culture while at OSU whether as a spectator or a participant. Parks Hall, where most PharmD courses are held, is right across the field from the Shoe, OSU’s massive football stadium. Many students get season tickets for football every year, and there are multiple seating groups of pharmacy students cheering on the Buckeyes at every game. Even though I’m not a big football fan, game days are very exciting and all of campus gets into the fun. (Just hope that you don’t have to drive anywhere during a home game!)

If you’re more of a competitor than a spectator, Intramural sports are a great way to stay active and take a break from studying. Some student organizations will make teams to compete in everything from the traditional sports like baseball to the more quirky ones like battleship (played in canoes in a pool where you try and sink your opponents boats while staying afloat) or the midwestern favorite, corn hole.

Beyond campus, Columbus has a lot of great local sports teams to check out as well. Whether you’re a hockey fan and wanna check out a Blue Jackets game or into soccer and get tickets to the Crew, there are plenty of opportunities for either. The Columbus Clippers, our minor league baseball team, even has Dime a Dog nights that a lot of students love to check out for cheap food and great company.

Even as someone who isn’t huge into sports, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the sports scene both on and off campus in Columbus and definitely encourage you to take part  if you come to OSU!

Preparing for APPE’s

Hi everyone!

I am writing to you all today to talk about preparing for your APPE year. APPE stands for Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience, and it is the final year of pharmacy school. APPE’s allow us experience nine one-month rotations in different settings to 1)  make sure that we are well-rounded, and prepared to sit for the NAPLEX and 2) help us determine which area of pharmacy we might want to pursue upon graduation. Whether that means a residency, fellowship or preparing to transition into a full-time position somewhere, your APPE’s are the best way to integrate all of the knowledge you’ve learned in your didactic curriculum into real-world experiences with real patients! Ohio State offers some really wonderful rotations, too!

One of the very first things I did to prepare for my applications was polishing up my CV.  Liz Trolli and the fantastic staff in Career Services are excellent resources for reviewing CV’s! Once the rotations were made available to us through Dr. Legg, I was able to see the application based rotations that were being offered. For those of you who do not know, Liz Trolli is the Program Manager for all of our Experiential education, and Dr. Legg is the Director of Experiential Education. Liz helps make sure that our IPPE’s are assigned to us in a way that works with our school schedule, and she also helps guide us with other important things that we need to have completed each year, like community health service hours and making sure that we submit proper documentation and forms for various things. Essentially, she ensures that we have everything completed before we can begin our APPE’s. Dr. Legg is the professor that is in charge of our entire APPE application process. She meets with every single student (often more than once) to discuss their interests to help ensure that they get rotations that will be of interest to them. She is also a great person to talk about rotations with, as she is very knowledgeable and knows a lot of the preceptors in the area, so she can give a lot of insight to different rotations.

I began working on my Letters of Intent for those applications I wanted to apply to so I could have those done fairly early. There are other rotations available that are not application based, and those get ranked in PharmAcademic. (All of this will be explained during the first few weeks of your P3 year, so don’t worry!)

As of right now, the ACPE requires that we complete two hospital rotations, two community rotations, and one ambulatory care rotation. The other four rotations are considered elective rotations, and you are able to tailor those to your individual interests!

To be honest, it’s a little stressful and overwhelming to think about these rotations, as they begin to mark the end of my pharmacy school career. To hopefully make this experience a little less stressful for you all, I have some pieces of advice:

  1. Keep  your CV up to date! This means updating your CV after every rotation and volunteer experience throughout pharmacy school. You will be thankful you did!
  2. Start a list of the various rotations you might be interested in. Do they require an application? When are they due? Keeping track of all of these things will help deadlines from creeping up on you!
  3. Decide if you want to travel out of town/out of state/out of the country for your APPE’s. There are many rotations located outside of Columbus and in various states. They are excellent opportunities, so it’s a good idea to look into all of them to see if they might be of interest to you!
  4. Double, triple check your application, LOI’s and CV! Have friends, family and faculty read over your materials before submission.
  5. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and apply for a unique rotation. For example, Ohio State has a great nuclear pharmacy rotation, which is something not a lot of students have exposure with. This is your chance to find out what you really like (if you don’t know already)!

I am excited that I am able to rank rotations and find really interesting electives. Pharmacy is such a cool profession in the sense that it is extremely multi-faceted: there are so many different practice settings that a pharmacist can immerse themselves in!

As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me!

Ashley

Commuting to Parks Hall

Hi everyone!

 

As an ambassador, a question that we often receive is about commuting to campus. For those students who commute, it can be a challenge to know how to get to campus or where to park on campus. For students living at University Village, a shuttle is accessible using their residence ID. The shuttle runs Monday-Friday 7am- 7pm during the daytime schedule, 7pm-10pm during the evening schedule—every 30 minutes, and Saturday-Sunday  10am-5pm.

 

For students that commuting from elsewhere, there are parking permits available. A popular selection is the Student C-Central Campus surface lot parking permit for graduate-level students. This is an annual permit, eligible from Aug 1- July 31st, currently priced at $363.96—with a monthly proration of $30.33. Most students with the C-lot pass park at the stadium, with off-peak access to other spaces. The stadium Is about a 8-10 minute walk to Parks Hall.

 

Another permit option is the CXC- Buckeye Lot Surface Parking permit. Similar to the Central Campus permit, the buckeye lot permit is an annual pass from Aug 1- July 31st currently priced at $128.28—with a monthly proration of $10.69. In addition, the buckeye lot also offers off-peak access to other spaces. The buckeye lot Is further, but campus buses are available from the lot to Parks Hall. There are more options available, but these are the most common among pharmacy students.

 

 

Best Coffee Shops near Campus

As the weather gets colder and final exams inch closer, coffee becomes a huge part of my day. I always need a quick dose of caffeine to get myself going in the morning. Lucky for us, Columbus is coffee central. There are several shops in town and they’re all great. Columbus even has it’s very own coffee trail! As an avid coffee lover, I have made my way through the trail, and I highly recommend trying it, its loads of fun. Below you will find 3 of my favorite stops along the trail — all close to campus, and easy to find! If you haven’t visited all 3 yet, I hope that I can convince you to do so soon.

1) Fox in the Snow Café (1031 N. 4th St)
Fox in the snow specializes in handcrafted coffee drinks and pastries. My personal favorite is the mocha, it always comes with some cool latte art and tastes amazing as well. During the fall their hot apple cider is the best in town. When it comes to the baked goods, it is hard to decide on just one pastry because they are all delicious. You simply can’t go wrong.

2) Stauf’s Coffee Roasters (Grandview or Grant Ave)
Stauf’s is an awesome shop, and there are several locations throughout Columbus. They serve a vast array of coffees, as well as some specialty drinks and teas. A big added bonus, is that they have wifi and tables for studying, so it’s the perfect place to when you need to hit the books.

3) Boston Stoker (771 Neil Ave)
Boston Stoker is the smallest of the 3, but they still serve some great coffee. I personally enjoy their cold brew. It’s one of the few places I am willing to drink black coffee, because it tastes that good here. This coffee house also has a few tables, and can be a place to study if you’re looking for somewhere new.

 

A Week in the life: A P2 Student

Hello everyone! One of the common questions we get as ambassadors is what our normal weeks look like as students at Ohio State. To give you and idea, of both how classes are and how we fit in everything else, I am going to walk you through what a typical week looks like for me! One thing to note – everyone’s schedule is different so this is just one possible schedule out of many.

Monday: 

-Lecture 8:30-11:30 – Monday started off with a lecture on the pathophysiology of Arrhythmias. While the material was pretty heavy, it helped that it was taught by a pharmacist who works in the Ross Heart Hospital and is a specialist in the field.
-Professional Hour 11:30-12:30 – All PharmD students have 11:30-12:30 off every day. This professional hour, I ran across the street to BistrOH to grab a quick bite with friends.
-Lecture 12:30-3:30 – We finished off Monday with a lecture on the pharmacology of anti-arrhythmic drugs and the medicinal chemistry behind how these drugs work. Throughout the lecture, we had a variety of patient cases to help us visualize how these things are applied in real life.
-Interprofessional education event 5:30-8:00 – A special event, this was a session with other health professional students focused on the opioid crisis. It was really interesting to hear the viewpoint of my future colleagues and really helped me to realize how much we will all need to work together to solve the crisis.

Tuesday:

-Work 7:00-12:30 – As mentioned in my last blog post, I work with the OSU Wexner Medical Center as an informatics intern.  Tuesday morning, I worked with some of our pharmacist specialists to standardize how we make patient progress notes. I was amazed at how diverse a range of specialists we have right across the street from the college and it was really interesting to hear from all of them how they work through their cases.
-Lab 12:30-3:30 – Lab is my favorite part of the week, class wise. Our second year lab is focussed on hospital pharmacy so this week we were compounding sterile IV bags of ceftriaxone. We also have a heavy focus on communication skills in lab so I practiced presenting therapy changes to a physician. It was great to be able to practice with one of our TAs acting as a physician and now I feel ready to do the real thing on one of my rotations.

Wednesday:

-Lecture 8:30-11:30 – More lecture! This time we learned about the therapeutics behind treating atrial arrhythmias.
-Professional Hour 11:30-12:30 – This professional hour, I went to a meeting of a brand new student organization. Bringing our grand total to 18, this new organization focuses on specialty pharmacy. They had a guest speaker who had a lot of insight into the field but most importantly – they had free food.
-Lecture 12:30-3:30 – To round out the day we talked about Venous Thromboembolism from another faculty member who also practices at the Wexner Medical Center. While we only had him for a few hours, we learned a ton about the topic and worked through some patient cases that made the material so much clearer.

Thursday:

-Work – 7:00-12:30
-Professional Hour 11:30-12:30 – This professional hour I mostly studied but also shamelessly used the excuse of supporting a good cause to get some tasty baked goods! During professional hours, student orgs sell everything from white coats to t-shirts to cupcakes. It’s a great opportunity to support some of our charities and satisfy your sweet tooth at the same time.
-Workshop 12:30-3:30 -Thursday workshop was focused on patient cases for Arrhythmias and Venous Thromboembolism. Using a team based learning approach, we talked about all the considerations that need to be made in treating these disease states. All the different specialists were there so we got to see how the team works together to prioritize and manage complex patients.

Friday:

-Workshop 8:30-11:30 – Friday workshop will focus on pharmacogenomics. I particularly am looking forward to this since it’s such a cutting edge field that even a lot of practicing pharmacists don’t know much about. The fact that we get exposure to it so early on is very exciting.
-The Circleville Pumpkin Show 2:30 -??-  Since the week can’t be all work and no play, me and some of my fellow Phi Delta Chi Brothers are going to blow off some steam at the famous Circleville Pumpkin Show! I’ve never been so I’m not entirely sure what is in store but I’ve heard they have pumpkin flavored versions of literally anything you can think of. I can’t wait to see what all I can find!

So there you have it, a week In the life of an OSU student. It’s pretty jam packed with a lot of exciting things that spice things up between lectures. I hope this gives you an idea of what it’s like here!

Finding Your Home in Columbus

Posted on behalf of Samra Nageye

Hello!

Moving to a new city or state can be hectic without even considering the struggles of apartment hunting. A culture shock is one thing almost all newcomers face as they try to navigate through the new place they’ll call home. Relocating is no small task whether you’re a businessman, a small family, or college student. There is a lot of uncertainties when moving to a new city, and one of the biggest challenges you may face will be searching for a new place to live. Whether you left your apartment search until the last moment, or you kind of established your living situation before your move, finding the apartment that’s the best fit for you is an inevitable challenge. Do you want to live near campus, or further away in a more eccentric and quiet neighborhood? As an Ohio State student, there are many living selections from you to choose from.

Colony Square
Just minutes from the Ohio State University campus, Colony Square apartments are a very affordable and convenient option for students and all people. Why is this a great option? Well, although these living quarters are off campus, it is conveniently located just a few minutes from the Ohio State University campus, downtown, theaters, and other amenities. Its proximity to campus puts it at great advantage. With Ohio’s unpredictable weather, if your car were to ever break down, you can still rely on routine public transport at your discard. I live there myself, and I can tell you, service and convenience of Colony Square is almost unbeatable.

University Village
This apartment complex is a housing option for Ohio State University students. Just a 3-minute drive from campus, you are surrounding by the Buckeye spirit of community and joy echoed in the halls of these apartments. You will not feel the sense of belonging anywhere else. University Village has been around since the 1950’s servicing students of Ohio State University, as well as neighboring schools. It is the ideal off-campus location that offers seven shuttle buses that transports students to and from campus. University Village offers studio floor plans as well as 1-3 bedroom apartments compact with a Resident Life Center and great community features such as outdoor pools and picnic areas.

You could always opt for the traditional apartment route. Columbus is a great city that offers affordable apartments and houses for rent. You are never too far from public transportation, great restaurants, and of course, the great sites that the wonderful city has to offer.

Ways to be active on campus

Hello Everyone! My name is Jamie and I’m a P2 and Diversity Ambassador for the College of Pharmacy. I’m from Sandusky Ohio, The Roller Coaster Capital of the World! I did my undergrad in psychology here at OSU and I’m currently and intern at Riverside Hospital. I really love walking around campus and exploring the food scene around Columbus.

Since it is early Fall Semester, I wanted to share some ways to be involved on campus outside of the College of Pharmacy. One of the best things about being a Buckeye is the endless opportunities we have to be active and involved within the campus community, Columbus, and beyond.

One of my favorite things to do is Buck-I Serve. Buck-I- serve is our alternative break trip here at OSU. Trips are offered during winter, spring and summer break. Trip destinations include New York, Florida, Georgia, Costa Rica and more. The purpose of these trips is to visit an underserved community and pay it forward during break. Depending on the destination, trip activities can include volunteering at soup kitchens, tutoring youth, cleaning aquatic preserves, and habitat for humanity. I have done buck-I serve multiple times and its always a lot of fun, it’s a way to meet new people and help those in need. The cool thing is, while these trips do cost money for undergrad, they don’t for professional students. As a Pharm D student you are eligible to apply as an Advisor, which makes the trip and travel expenses free. This is a leadership role, where you can use your leadership skills to help guide the trip and make sure everything runs smoothly. I highly recommend taking advantage of this opportunity as a professional student.

Another way to be involved is with OUAB grad/professional. OUAB (Ohio Union Activities Board) is a student org on campus that hosts free events for current students. Some of these events include free movie nights and therapy dogs during finals week. The grad/professional chapter specifically aims to enhance the personal growth of grad/prof students and help us reach our goals. They host events such as CV reviews, group fitness classes, leadership workshops, finance management courses, and much more. Attending these events is a way to meet other professional students on campus and a great way to take advantage of the resources they offer. There’s also leadership positions available, so you can play a part in planning these great events.

Lastly, other ways to be involved are the volunteer days held on campus. Two examples are Community Commitment and MLK Day. For these events you can apply online to be a site leader. The duties are to lead a small group of students to a volunteer site where you will simply volunteer for the day. I have been assigned to food banks, nursing homes, and community gardens for these events. It a fun way to give back to the community and meet new people. At the end of the day, as the leader you will lead your group in a reflection, just discussing what you learned and sharing any thoughts from the activity.

So now that you have some ideas, I really hope this encourages you to get active and involved here on campus. Whether it be pharmacy organizations or any of the ones listed above, its important to find what you’re passionate about and take advantage of the great resources we have available here at OSU. Go Bucks!

Medication Management Program

I remember when I first started pharmacy school and quickly realized that unlike some of my classmates, I knew very little about many of the common drugs used in community pharmacy. I wanted to get a job in pharmacy because I knew this would go a long way in helping me be a successful pharmacy student. Although getting a job in the first year of pharmacy isn’t the right move for everyone, it greatly helped me to put into practice the material I learned in the classroom.

My first Job in pharmacy was at the Medication Management Program  (MMP) here at The Ohio State University. I worked as a pharmacy intern. The Medication Management Program is a very unique first exposure to pharmacy. At this site, I was granted the opportunity to telephonically provide medication reconciliation services for patients.  As a first year student, it gave me a chance to better familiarize myself with commonly prescribed medications used in the geriatric population.

A typical work shift at MMP consisted of calling the patient, reviewing their medication list and updating the medication list with any changes either to the medications or to background information such as identifiers or the patient’s allergy profile.  After this medication reconciliation process, I was able to draft a letter with important pointers or reminders for the patient I spoke to. A pharmacist would then review my notes and approve a copy of the letter to be sent to the patient in addition to the electronic record kept on the patient’s profile.

I am so grateful that my first job was through the MMP as it gave me a great and flexibly paced way to learn the medications and their most common uses. Although I have now moved on to other opportunities, I will continue to sing the praises of the Medication Management Program at the Ohio State University. I am proud of the work the entire pharmacy team include the Technicians, Interns and Pharmacists do for our patient population.

As the field of pharmacy expands, I am certain in my evaluation that the MMP will also continue to grow and provide more opportunities for students.

Hospital Inpatient Internship

I would like to share a little about my hospital inpatient internship.

I began my internship with Riverside Methodist Hospital inpatient pharmacy the summer before starting pharmacy school.  I had previous work experience in a community pharmacy but thought hospital would be a better fit and wanted to gain more insight.  I spent the summer training in various positions such as unit dose dispensing, IV preparations, and medication reconciliation.  When autumn semester began, I started a regular schedule working 8 hour shifts on Saturday/Sunday every other weekend and one 4 hour shift on a weekday evening, which averages 8-12 hours per week. I gained experience working both first (6:30am-3:00pm) and second (2:30pm-11:00pm) shifts.  While this schedule continued throughout the year, I had more time in the summer to pick up extra work shifts, get trained in new positions and shadow pharmacists in different specialties.  Through this internship I have been able to learn the differences between community and inpatient hospital pharmacy workflow.  I have also explored pharmacists’ roles in formulary management, administration, responding to codes, clinical research, and multi-disciplinary teams.  This past summer I was involved in more clinical tasks such as evaluating patient cases and dosing medications like vancomycin and warfarin.  These clinical experiences complement my learning in the classroom as I have been able to directly apply skills to real patient cases.  My internship has also encouraged me to get involved with protocol development and clinical research.  I am currently collecting data for a project focused on anticoagulant reversal agents.  Over the past three years, I have learned a lot about pharmacy and myself, including the career I wish to pursue.  So my recommendations are to explore and keep an open mind about your career. 

 -TaLeitha

Professional Conference Attendance – APhA Annual Meeting

Hi Everyone!

I’m writing to you as I travel back from Nashville, TN! This past weekend, myself and around twenty other Ohio State students attended the American Pharmacists Association (APhA)’s Annual Meeting. We had so much fun! The weekend was a perfect blend of networking, professional development, and fun. It was my first time visiting Nashville and I loved it.

For context, APhA is a national organization dedicated to supporting the profession of pharmacy. We have a student chapter of this organization here at OSU’s College of Pharmacy. Under national leadership, our student chapter focuses on advocating for the profession of pharmacy in our home state of Ohio and on providing pharmacy care services to our community. An example of our advocacy work would be the letter writing campaigns that we host as a way to connect with our state legislative representatives on issues like provider status for pharmacists. An example of a patient care project would be our project “OTC Medication Safety.” For this, we’ll host kids from local schools and do activities with them that cover topics like how to safely take medication with the help of a trusted adult.

Every year, APhA hosts a national conference for pharmacists and pharmacy students. Here’s a link to their website if you’d like to take a look at the schedule and read more about the sessions we attended! I really enjoyed getting to meet other student pharmacists from schools across the nation at these sessions. http://aphameeting.pharmacist.com

Here’s a picture of our chapter President accepting an award we won! Go Bucks!

Outside of the conference itself, we had the opportunity to explore the city. One restaurant of note was this place called “The Pharmacy” – how fitting! This “burger parlor and beer garden” served up some delicious German-inspired burgers and milkshakes in a fun twist on the classic, old-timey soda fountain pharmacies. If you’re ever in East Nashville, I highly recommend stopping by!

If you have questions about the conference or if you want to hear more about the awesome places we visited in Nashville, feel free to send me an email at Williams.4020@osu.edu! Now it’s time to unpack and get ready for the rest of the semester!

-Victoria