Pharmacists

I learned some things there about specialty pharmacy and then was able to leverage that experience to working for a medical group specialty pharmacy. That might be helping them create work flows to optimize their oral oncology business to opening a brand new pharmacy and tips on how to hire an oncology pharmacists. We were able to refer her to someone who was in a role similar to something she was interested in and on the Feb call, she was happy to report she already had a new job. You’ve been able to use your skills and knowledge as a pharmacist to work for several different companies, organizations, etc.

I love my job and love that I still have time to do the things I love outside of work such as painting, working out, hiking, drinking wine, and spending time with my puppy. I didn’t end up doing a residency due to personal/health reasons around the time of graduation and took several months to myself to study for the NAPLEX / MPJE and dive into my art career. This level of interprofessional patient care in the ED definitely played a huge role in my landing my current position as an Emergency Department Pharmacist. When applying from my retail position to a hospital position, the hiring manager was actually a Lambda Kappa Sigma alumni as well and I think that is one of the things that caught her attention on my application.

In this interview, I chat with Dr. Karine Wong who is a full-time pharmacist, author, and business owner of Guiltless Treats. In the evening, I work on My Guiltless Treats and that includes administrative work such as invoicing, payroll, taxes, insurance, updates to the website, and social media engagement. For pharmacy students looking to pursue a residency or looking to pivot into being a clinical pharmacist , what advice do you have for them? Instead of waiting behind the counter in the retail pharmacy, go out in the aisles and help customers who are having trouble with selecting OTC meds.

My biggest advice for pharmacy students wanting to pursue a residency is to seek out opportunities that will make them well rounded and really more importantly find their why and passion for wanting to pursue one. If you are already a pharmacist looking to change career paths without a residency, I would encourage you to seek a per diem position at a hospital or clinic (anything that will allow you to grow into clinical position) and to pursue advancements in training. Our patient population during COVID may be different and we may have more things to tackle as a department, like all the new drugs coming to market and running as many COVID vaccine clinics as possible, but our roles as clinical pharmacists have largely remained the same…if anything our roles are now more important than ever. I promise you from my own experience…when you help correct orders or therapies that could have caused patient harm or help your nurses with administration issues or help draw up and direct therapy during a code or so many other things

We all know Pharmacy School is hard and that it required a lot of time, but it doesn’t require all of your time. All my undergrad friends were enjoying their senior year by going to concerts, senior year celebrations, football games, gala, the Bills games, etc My first year of pharmacy school I became a Victoria’s Secret PINK stylist and attended the events put on my PINK on campus. So, what I’m trying to say is to treat pharmacy school like college in a sense where you’re open to exploring, trying new things, taking advantage of what school has to offer, and not dedicating your whole pharmacy experience to just pharmacy school.

I recently completed a Medical Affairs fellowship at Sanofi Genzyme, and I have since stayed on in the same team as a Medical Science Liaison in Neurology. It is always wonderful finding like-minded individuals, who are passionate about digital health and innovation, and come from a pharmacy, or healthcare, background. Coming from a Medical Affairs fellowship, it was a very logical transition into the Medical Science Liaison, or MSL, position. As I began connecting with other pharmacists and healthcare professionals who also had an interest in digital health, I found that we all used LinkedIn as a medium to share stories and information.

My house in Zimbabwe for 6 weeks Outpatient Pharmacy with one of the pharmacy staff Zimbabwe wasn’t a popular choice at my school. What my rotation looked like: Living on campus at the University of Zimbabwe with 4 med students from HollandOne day triaging and doing rounds at a Psych ClinicVisiting several HIV youth support groups where I presented, chatted with young women, and learned about clinics/non-profits in ZimbabweSpent 4 days at a manufacturing plant seeing the whole process to make generic medication (SO COOL!)Spent one day at the UNICEF compound (ACTUAL DREAM COME TRUE)One week at 3 different retail pharmacies+ all the experiences outside of pharmacy like living abroad, learning about another culture, different languages, different lifestyle, etc Garbed up in PPE to see how drugs are manufactured! I’d never thought myself to be interested in academia but getting in front of 100+ eyes who I’d never met wasn’t as bad as I’d thought.

Located in the South Coast Plaza, this gem serves small plates from fresh pizzas, small plates, etc. Costa Mesa is just minutes away from Newport Beach and not too far from Laguna Beach, so if you’re looking for a day at the beach, you got it! I went to South Coast Plaza, the largest designer shopping mall in the US, and got some of that Christmas spirit. See you in, Costa Mesa Hidden gems, fine-dining, state of the art shopping, and the best beaches can all be found in this little city in Orange County.

I wanted to experience different hospital systems and network with other people in pharmacy, so I decided to take all of my core rotations (Internal Med, Ambulatory, Community, and Hospital) at different hospitals. For P3 students who are going to select their APPE rotations soon, what advice do you have about picking your rotations? I feel like a lot of times during rotations you are so busy, that you don’t have a lot of time for yourself. If my core rotations were virtual, I feel like I definitely would not have had the opportunity to learn as much as if I were in person.

I’m super excited to hear about residency, your first job, and your current role as CEO of Doc Station. DocStation is a software platform pharmacists use to get paid for patient care services. You’ll see DocStation pop up when you search for patient management software and billing tools. With the Pharmacy profession being in such a vulnerable position and enduring lots of change, where do you see Pharmacy in the next 10 years?