Should I or Shouldn't I
There is a letter from the University of Minnesota sitting on my kitchen counter. They are looking for a few good people to mentor first year pharmacy students. Since I am a preceptor for pharmacy students doing their first rotations in community pharmacy, I got a letter.
I'm not quite sure what to do. It would involve ten hours a semester. The student could shadow me, tour my pharmacy, have discussions about pharmacy and pharmacy practice or several other things. This would be time outside the 40 some odd hours I already work and would be volunteer time.
There is no question of wanting to do it. I would like to do it, very much so. I wish such opportunities would have been available to me when I was a student. I'm grateful that the current method of educating pharmacists does involve time actually working with pharmacists in the field. It gives them a much better idea of what the actual practice of pharmacy is like. They will leave school much better prepared for life in the"real world" of pharmacy.
What I'm unsure of is if I really have anything to offer. I am acting as a preceptor for my first student right now. I have her data entering, calling prescribers sometimes and resolving the occasional insurance problem. Most of the time she spends standing next to me while I check prescriptions. While we are doing this we talk about the drugs, what kind of information a patient should know when taking a certain prescription and discussing drug interactions. We look at patients profiles and the kinds of medications they are on and what they are used for. I'm having a good time and am learning a bit from her.
Is she learning anything from me though? Am I providing her with a good educational experience? When I asked one experienced preceptor what she did with her student she told me that she has her student do data entry work. While this is a good thing for students to do, the student I have is also a pharmacy tech and has been one for about three years. She already knows how to data enter, read a prescription and can translate the abbreviations that most prescribers use. I had her shadow a pharmacist that comes to our store and meets with patients to go over their medications. After she was done with that I asked her about the experience.
Since she is also a registered intern I've been having her counsel patients on how to take their medicine. Since she has never done that before I ask her if she wants to. Most of the time she will, but sometimes she is unsure and asks to just watch me. That's OK, she'll have another retail rotation that is five weeks long and she will get more experience there.
Am I doing enough? I'm not sure. I feel like I should be doing more, but can't think of what that might be. If the goal of the introduction to community pharmacy rotations is to show students what a real pharmacist in a real pharmacy does, then I'm doing a good job. Retail pharmacy is not exciting. It's mostly the routine work of providing medications and information to our customers and doing our best to help them take care of their health.
Being a preceptor is different from mentoring I know. So I really shouldn't let my doubts about being a good preceptor keep me from mentoring if I really want to. After all as I've said before I won't know whether I'm good at it or not until I try it. I also believe that practicing pharmacists have an obligation to help teach the students and mentor new pharmacists.
I'll have to think about this some more.......
I'm not quite sure what to do. It would involve ten hours a semester. The student could shadow me, tour my pharmacy, have discussions about pharmacy and pharmacy practice or several other things. This would be time outside the 40 some odd hours I already work and would be volunteer time.
There is no question of wanting to do it. I would like to do it, very much so. I wish such opportunities would have been available to me when I was a student. I'm grateful that the current method of educating pharmacists does involve time actually working with pharmacists in the field. It gives them a much better idea of what the actual practice of pharmacy is like. They will leave school much better prepared for life in the"real world" of pharmacy.
What I'm unsure of is if I really have anything to offer. I am acting as a preceptor for my first student right now. I have her data entering, calling prescribers sometimes and resolving the occasional insurance problem. Most of the time she spends standing next to me while I check prescriptions. While we are doing this we talk about the drugs, what kind of information a patient should know when taking a certain prescription and discussing drug interactions. We look at patients profiles and the kinds of medications they are on and what they are used for. I'm having a good time and am learning a bit from her.
Is she learning anything from me though? Am I providing her with a good educational experience? When I asked one experienced preceptor what she did with her student she told me that she has her student do data entry work. While this is a good thing for students to do, the student I have is also a pharmacy tech and has been one for about three years. She already knows how to data enter, read a prescription and can translate the abbreviations that most prescribers use. I had her shadow a pharmacist that comes to our store and meets with patients to go over their medications. After she was done with that I asked her about the experience.
Since she is also a registered intern I've been having her counsel patients on how to take their medicine. Since she has never done that before I ask her if she wants to. Most of the time she will, but sometimes she is unsure and asks to just watch me. That's OK, she'll have another retail rotation that is five weeks long and she will get more experience there.
Am I doing enough? I'm not sure. I feel like I should be doing more, but can't think of what that might be. If the goal of the introduction to community pharmacy rotations is to show students what a real pharmacist in a real pharmacy does, then I'm doing a good job. Retail pharmacy is not exciting. It's mostly the routine work of providing medications and information to our customers and doing our best to help them take care of their health.
Being a preceptor is different from mentoring I know. So I really shouldn't let my doubts about being a good preceptor keep me from mentoring if I really want to. After all as I've said before I won't know whether I'm good at it or not until I try it. I also believe that practicing pharmacists have an obligation to help teach the students and mentor new pharmacists.
I'll have to think about this some more.......
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