When I first heard about this course, I was very excited
about the whole going to another country and working with the people and their
healthcare. I made a deal with my friend that if she went, I would go too since
I didn’t want to be the only one going that I knew already. I felt that this
course could help me put to use what I have been learning in school and to
actually help people with my knowledge. So we both signed up and then in the
fall the class started. It was very interesting learning about how the country
was formed and the different cultures all mixed together into one small amount
of land. The more we learned about the country, the more excited I got about
the trip actually happening. Part of me is nervous about the clinic work
though. I will finally be putting to use stuff that the school has taught me
and finally dealing directly with patients. I currently work in a hospital
pharmacy so I don’t get any patient contact and I only worked in a community
setting for a short time, so this experience will help me a lot and get me used
to explaining things in terms that people can understand.
I feel that the P3 year in pharmacy school is
very beneficial to anyone who is going on this trip. Pharmacy Skills lab 5 is
where you learn to triage, take blood pressures, do different exams (such as
cardiac and respiratory), and do blood glucose. I feel that the school should
make a short blood pressure/blood glucose/patient interaction course for anyone
going on mission trips through the school. It would be beneficial for the
students going that haven’t made it into the P3 year and may not have had
experiences doing blood pressure and other exams. Overall I think the school
does a decent job at teaching the students how to counsel and interact with
patients. It will be very interesting to actually use this knowledge in practice
and build my confidence. I feel the experience of this trip could determine the
career path that I take. Right now I’m unsure as to what direction I want to
go. I keep going back and forth between staff pharmacist, clinical pharmacist,
home infusion pharmacist, or managed care. Between this trip and rotations next
year, I feel I’ll have many experiences in many fields that I will be able to make
an educated decision on what I want to do with my career.
As far as expectations, I’m not
really sure what to expect. After hearing some stories from last year’s group,
I think it’s going to be filled with some very interesting people and
interesting cases. It will definitely be interesting to see how life is down
there, rather than just reading about it. Also, it will be nice to actually see
how healthcare is different in another country compared to the US. Overall I’m
very excited to meet the host families, work as a group to help people to the
best of our abilities, see the Mayan ruins, and just see the wonderful country
of Belize as a whole.
For anyone who doesn't go to pharmacy school reading this, P3 is the 5th year of Pharmacy school if you started without any previous degrees. It is considered the 3rd Professional year.
As you can see from the reflection essay, I'm really excited to go on this trip. We leave 1/4/13 and come back 1/18/13. It's getting so close and I'm really excited, I just need to get through final exams which happen next week and the week after, and then enjoy 2 weeks off. I'm super excited =D
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