Last Friday, March 15th was ASHP Match Day. For those of you not familiar with Match Day, it’s the day when P4 students find out if they’ve been matched with a residency and if so, where they’ll be spending the next and arguably most important year of their careers. Needless to say, the day is quite exciting and emotions run very high throughout the process.

While I have not gone through the Match process, as I am only a P2 student currently, I thought this would be an opportune time to talk about how Ohio State prepares you for a residency so that our students have the best chance of getting placed at their preferred sites.

Residency application is a very competitive process, with only 64% of applicants nation-wide getting placed into a program this year. At Ohio State, we are working on skills from day 1 that will prepare you to be a competitive candidate for residencies. During the transitions course at the beginning of your P1 year, you start building important professional skills such as how to properly create a CV, how to handle professional correspondences, and how to prepare for interviews. These skills are incredibly useful in any hiring process, but especially so in the residency process. Our Career Services staff work extensively with us throughout the entire PharmD program to hone these skills and make sure that when we get to that residency interview, we are ready to blow them away. I can personally say that when I started pharmacy school, I had an outdated and frankly awful resume. But working with Natalie Fox (one of our amazing Career Services specialists), I was able to not only get it ready for applying to internships during school, but set it up to build on during the rest of my time in school. Career Services also sends out a weekly email with internships hiring in the area. Since experience outside of the classroom is one of the best ways to set you apart, this is a great resource as well!

Beyond this, our experiential education staff works tirelessly to match us with great rotations during all four years of pharmacy school. These rotations not only help give you the skills to be ready for a residency, but they help you decide if a residency is even for you.

My closing comment is that while there is a ton of hype around residency, and our program does a phenomenal job preparing you for it, residency is not for everyone and while growing, is still done by a minority of students. And a lot of our great programs that help prepare out students for residency prepare our students to be great job candidates as well. So whichever path you decide to go down, rest assured Ohio State will prepare you for it.

Hi Everyone!

For us at the College, Spring Break has just begun, so I thought it would be appropriate to touch on some of the ways students spend their Spring Breaks!

Buck-I-Serv: Ohio State offers service trips through Buck-I-Serv each break. These trips focus on a range of things like children, education and poverty, to housing to disaster relief and more; and they take place in a range of places from Florida to Illinois to New York and even some that are out of the country. Additionally, you are able to apply to be a trip leader which is a fantastic leadership development opportunity. I personally have gone on a Habitat for Humanity trip to North Carolina and had an amazing time—I made new friends, was able to give back in a meaningful way and had a lot of fun in the process.

Buckeyes Without Borders: An interprofessional medical mission team that takes a Spring Break trip to Honduras every year. Their purpose is to foster global health awareness and teach OSU healthcare students the benefits of an interdisciplinary

healthcare team on a positive patient outcome through outreach and education in underserved communities abroad, where they identify and treat the medical needs of their populations. Students that go always report having a great time, making friends and developing clinical skills.

Rotations: Some students utilize their free week to complete IPPE rotations, do project work or even shadow! This can be a great time for future professional development.

Vacationing with classmates: Many students opt for a more traditional vacation on Spring Break—relaxing on a beach, hiking in Arizona, ski trips and more! This is a great time to take a break from classes, relax your mind and body and spend quality time with family and friends.

Work/Stay–cation: Finally, many students will choose to stay home for spring break and unwind with a stay-cation of sorts—maybe even pick up a few shifts at work over the break.

I hope this gives you a little insight into what Spring Break at the College looks like. In whatever way you choose to spend your break, make sure to enjoy yourself and relax!

Cassie

This is such an exciting part of the semester for our P3 class – our fourth year APPE schedules were just released to us! It is a surreal feeling that we are finishing up on our didactic curriculum for our PharmD career. APPE’s are a great way for students to tailor their fourth year, giving them an opportunity to have rotations in areas that they have an interest in. It is also a great way for them to branch out and become immersed in things that you they are not familiar with. There are so many specialties and paths to pursue after graduation, so these rotations (and their amazing preceptors) are great resources to help us decide what we want to do! I know that my interests have greatly changed since beginning pharmacy school!

I am really looking forward to my rotations, most notably my longitudinal academic rotation within the College of Pharmacy! I will be helping to develop integrated patient cases for the P2 students to work on during their workshops. I have an interest in teaching, and I am excited to gain experience in this setting! I am also looking forward to my pediatric ambulatory care rotation at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and my rotation in the SICU at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center! I found our critical care module to be very interesting and I am excited to apply the information we learned in class to patients in the hospital!

The profession of pharmacy is changing constantly, and pharmacists are playing more of an integral role in healthcare than ever before. Whether it’s nuclear pharmacy, managed care, hospital health systems, community/independent pharmacy, ambulatory care, academia, industry, etc., where do you see yourself practicing?

Coming in as P1, it may seem a bit overwhelming to find which organization (s) to join. This week’s post will highlight another student organization: Student National Pharmacists Association (SNPhA).

What is SNPhA?

SNPhA is the student affiliate of the National Pharmaceutical Association (NPhA), a pharmacy association that is dedicated to representing the views and ideas of minority pharmacists on critical issues affecting healthcare and pharmacy; as well as advancing the standards of pharmaceutical care among all practitioners.

SNPhA’s Mission

SNPhA is an educational service association of pharmacy students who are concerned about pharmacy, health care related issues, and the poor minority representation in pharmacy. The purpose of SNPhA is to plan, organize, coordinate, and execute programs geared toward the improvement of the health, educational, and social environment of the community.

SNPhA OSU Chapter:

SNPhA provides a unique opportunity for future pharmacists to make a lasting impact in the community. With 8 relevant health initiatives and a team of dedicated student pharmacists who all share a passion to serve and educate underrepresented communities, SNPhA continuously impacts the lives of over 100,000 patients on a national level each year. Becoming a part of the SNPhA family provides students with ample opportunities for networking, scholarships and collaboration with student pharmacists from all over the nation who share the same drive to make a difference in the lives of those who may not have adequate healthcare access otherwise. Membership includes biweekly general body meetings with some of the most dedicated and enthusiastic healthcare providers, discounted rates to regional and national meetings, leadership development, opportunities for scholarships and many more. Not only will you grow within this organization and find your passion to serve, but you will also find that in SNPhA, we are family.

Member Opportunities
– Community service involvement
– Leadership development
– Rotation at the SNPhA National Office
– Networking opportunities
– Advancement into the NPhA organization
– Career opportunities/guidance
– More than $130,000 in scholarships/awards
– SNPhA Scholarship
– Walmart-SNPhA Scholarship
– NPhA Foundation-Kroger Co. Scholarship
– Walgreens-SNPhA Scholarship
– Rite Aid-NPhA Scholarship
– Target-SNPhA Scholarship