Blog 26: Senior Project Reflection

1. In my two hour presentation, I am most proud of being able to make time. It was something that I  was struggling with when rehearsing. However, once I started explaining my answers I realized that this was something I really knew about and was able to talk about it. Therefore, not only am I most proud of making time but being able to confidently know what I was speaking about. With regards to my senior project, I was most proud of the research that I have conducted. I was able to find research that was highly credible and incorporate this into my senior project.

2. Questions to consider

A. 2 Hour Presentation Self Assessment: AE

B. Overall Senior Project Self Assessment: AE

3. What worked for me the most in my senior projects were research checks and the EQ finalization. I felt that both these two aspects were important in helping my senior project what it is today. Research checks were always useful and it's something that I took advantage of. Without research checks, I don't think that I would've taken the time to really research. I was able to excel and improve my research skills and what I had found. What also worked for me was the finalization of my essential question. Without that step, I was not focused and it gave me that extra help to know what I want.

4. If I had a time machine, I would go back and do more mentorship hours. I was extremely busy and I felt that I didn't take full advantage of the opportunity given to me to work as much as I should have.

5. This senior project has been helpful to me in my future endeavors through allowing me to explore a possible career option and help me prepare for college. For example, through my I-Search paper, I realized that I needed to be able to write more eloquently in order to meet the standards college has. Another example is by being able to do extensive research on my topic. Because of this experience, I am able to conduct this research throughout my college education experience. I plan to take this experience as an eye opening one to a possible career option and in the end, just another experience to help me succeed.

2014 Interview #2!

1. Who did you interview and what house are they in?
Seriah Escobedo. North House.
2. What ideas do you have for your senior project? Why?
I'm not really sure the requirements for it. It's either your career or hobby.
      It can be anything you want it to be.
Well I've been playing basketball for a long time so I'll probably end up doing that. It's what I know best and what I would do the best in.
3. What do you plan to do for your summer 10 hour mentorship?
I was planning on helping a friend of a friend coach a basketball team.
4. What do you hope to see or expect to see in the 2013 presentations?
I'm hoping to see the way it goes, the format it's in and just how well the seniors do.
5. What questions do you have about senior project or senior year?
Is it easy to do all the senior work and Young Scholar and still have time for extra activities?
       Well I took two classes each quarter so it's pretty crazy. But I believe that if you can manage it and if you're good at time managing, then it's a piece of cake. The only thing about senior project is that you have to keep up with the deadlines. Once you fall behind, it takes a long time and a lot of work to get yourself caught up. I think you can do it, I have a lot going on so I think it's really manageable.

Mentorship

Literal: 
Mentorship Log

Contact:

Toni Villanueva 909 962 3685

Robert Ngo 626 533 7864

Interpretive:

The most important thing I have gained from this experience is being able to see what it is like to be a pharmacist. My first mentorship I was able to work and observe in a community pharmacist.. It wasn't what I had imagined. I have learned that there is so much more that goes into filling a prescription. I also took away that if I were to become a pharmacist in the future, a community pharmacist is something that I would like to do because of the relationships you are to build with each customer. With my second mentorship I was able to observe what it's like to be a clinical pharmacist. I sat with Robert Ngo observing him giving consultations. It was, to be honest, quite scary to see how much work that goes into each patient. Each minute with him enriched my senior project. All in all, the most important thing I gained from this experience is to see what a possible career option is like.

Applied:

I feel that what I have done helped me answer my essential question by being able to focus my essential question and giving me answers for my essential question. My first mentorship experience allowed me to focus my essential question on patient care. Since I was able to see how a pharmacist worked and a pharmacy ran, I was able to look at what happened and see what I wanted to focus on. My favorite part at mentoring at the community pharmacist was seeing how relationships were built with the patient and pharmacist. That is how my essential question was focused on patient care. My second mentorship experience allowed me support and justification for my second answer. Since I was there observing consultations, I saw different techniques my mentor had used to aim for adherence. These techniques included quizzing the patient and even repeating main points at the end of the consultation. It is something I will talk about and possibly use if I do become a clinical pharmacist. It was like they were giving a two hour presentation to every patient!

Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

1. What is your essential question? What is the best answer to your question and why?

EQ: How can a clinical pharmacist best provide quality patient consultations?

I defined "best provide quality" by being able to best benefit the patient leading them to the best health outcome. My best answer is aiming for the patient's adherence rather than compliance. By preparing for the consultation, a pharmacist will be able to be confident going to the patient. However, just by preparing for the consultation and being confident about the information you're giving them doesn't necessarily mean that'll be the best for the patient. Performing the process of medication reconciliation could not be as effective if the patient doesn't fully adhere to it, there's only so much a pharmacist can adjust and follow up with. Therefore, aiming for the patient's adherence rather than compliance is the best answer due to the fact that in order to have the patient have the best outcome, you have to have the patient fully understand to the medication.

2. What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

My mentorship really helped me figure out what I wanted to focus on. Through watching everyone at the pharmacy, I knew that I wanted to focus on the patient aspect of pharmacy. With that focus, I was able to figure out which specialty of pharmacy had that focus. Clinical pharmacy deals only with the patient. According to American College of Clinical Pharmacy, they define a clinical pharmacist as, "Pharmacists providing patient care that optimizes medication therapy and promotes health, wellness and disease prevention." With that definition and my essential question, I was able to drive my research into what a clinical pharmacist did. Based on what a clinical pharmacist does, what are the things that they do to really provide a quality consultation. I made this realization halfway through senior project. I was honestly completely lost. I had spent all my research checks at that point based on just pharmacy. Through the third interview with a clinical and retail pharmacist, Robert Ngo, he was able to guide me to my all answers. Based on his guidance, I was able to really delve into my research to support my answer. Through research I found numerous sources from the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Institute of Medicine that supported the fact that adherence is so imperative to a consultation.

3. What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

Finding my last answer was one of the problems I faced. I feel that I couldn't find an answer that I was able to find sufficient research for. I was able to resolve this problem by looking back on my research and realized that there was a lot of research with medication reconciliation. Once I found this research I talked to Robert Ngo and was able to then focus my research more on it. I was able to find an answer I was able to fully support.

Independent component had to be one of the biggest problems. I knew that doing more mentorship hours would not be possible due to my scheduling. Being part of Young Scholars was able to give me that opportunity to take a class for my independent component. However, as a Young Scholar, you can only take 100 or 200 level division classes. I had emailed a professor of nutrition to take his class. He had told me to check in with the head of the board of the Food and Nutrition Department. When I went to go speak to him, he was nowhere to be found and I only found his email. After emailing him, he advised me to take a 300 level class. I knew it was possible, I just had to overcome great lengths. Everything was a waiting game and a slim chance of luck. But after it all, I really got out of my comfort zone and just went to go talk to the board and I was able to take a nutrition class that only 3rd and 4th year students at Cal Poly get to take.

4. What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

The most significant sources I used was Robert Ngo and one major research piece.

Robert Ngo really introduced me to what clinical pharmacy is and what my answers should be. Without his help, I really wouldn't have as solid answers as I do now. Through his input, I was able to find more research to support my answers. Whenever I had questions about anything related to pharmacy, he was able to answer it and refer me to other sources.

The other source that really helped me refer to numerous sources was an article from the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, "Process Indicators of Quality Clinical Pharmacy Services During Transitions of Care," gave me support for all three answers and talked about certain job duties that can really make a difference.

5. What is your product and why?

One of my products is that I have grown more willing to go out of my comfort zone. Through my independent component I felt that I jumped through great lengths to make it happen and really get out of my comfort zone  My other product is participating in the science fair and improving my researching skills. In retrospect,  I feel that participating in science fair was one of the most rewarding experiences of the senior project. Now that I look back at my research binder and what I actually did for my science component, my researching skills slowly became more in depth. I was looking forward to research checks because of the articles I had found. My researching skills is something I will carry throughout my college career.

2014 Interview

1. Who did you interview and what house are they in?

I interviewed David Lara and I am in South House.

2. What ideas do you have for your senior project? Why?

I want to do something in business or ROTC  because it's something I hope to go into later on in life as a career option.

3. What do you plan to do for your summer 10 hour mentorship experience?

I hope to work with my friend's dad in his tax firm or doing just taxes and stuff. I guess, try to get my hands on accountant duties.

What aspects of business do you want to get into?

I think either accounting or taxing. Sort of like H&R block.

Why?

To make money.

4. What do you hope to see or expect to see in watching the 2013 2-Hour presentations?

 I would just see information. Just to see how artwork or baking can be put into a two hour presentation. I just want to see because I feel that the 2014 class is really lost so it's going to be nice to see examples of a 2 hour presentation of how to do it.

What are they lost on?

On mostly everything. They get the whole mentorship component but they're lost on the process such as the essential question and all that.

            But don't worry because it's a long process and at the end you'll see everything come together.

5. What questions do you have that I can answer about the senior year or senior project?

What grad night are you going to?

            Six Flags.

Where did you do your mentorship at?

            I did mine at a pharmacy since my senior topic is pharmacy. I got lucky. Sometimes it's hard to find mentorship especially with business or medical topics. It's difficult because you're a minor and you don't have a license to practice so be sure to start early.

Did you have a plan B?

            I had pharmacy and nursing because my dad's a nurse so I figured it would be easier.

How simple is your EQ? What is it?

            My EQ is okay. My EQ is, "How can a clinical pharmacist best provide quality patient consultations?" I wouldn't worry though because you just have to be on top of it and at the end everything will come together.

Connection with 3rd Answer.

I had a lot of trouble with my 3rd answer. It changed from relations of pharmacists to follow up to now medication reconciliation. It wasn't a realization until I finally researched what medication reconciliation is and how much of my research I already had on medication reconciliation.
What was even more better was that as I was writing about the answer in my I-Search. I realized how my science fair had such a huge support for this answer. Medication reconciliation reduces pharmacy malpractice! This makes me even more excited for the 2 HOUR!

BLOG 22: FINAL 3 COLUMN CHART

3 Column Chart (without section dividers)
3 Column Chart (With section dividers)

Impromptu Interview

This interview was spontaneous yet extremely helpful to clarify a final question I had about my senior topic. He also helped me with finalizing my things regarding my two hour.
Interviewee: Robert Ngo
What type of patients do clinical pharmacists see?
They usually see patients who have complicated disease states and drug regimens. There's this thing called narrow therapeutic window or range. It's where patients have this narrow window to get their drug regimen right. That's where the clinical pharmacist comes in. They need to widen up that window so that the patient will be able to benefit most from the drug regimen.

Ideas for my two hour
-Setup:
    Having white tablecloths for the lab tables. Posters everywhere. Pill bottles with everyone's name on it.
-Activities:
    Having a central theme of consulting a patient. The audience in my two hour will experience what a clinical pharmacist goes through with each patient.
    Poster making for my second activity with matching magazines
    Having case studies for my third activity

I am still deciding what to do for my sponge activity and the specifics for my third activity.

In Retrospect of Independent Component

Now that independent component is officially over, I've had some time to really think about how effective taking a nutrition class was to my senior project. I felt that the independent component was extremely helpful to my senior project. I was able to take a class that only 3rd year or 4th year students at Cal Poly get to take and get a B in it! My favorite part of the class were the assignments. They were extremely personal which are very rare in a college class. Here are my assignments, an explanation of them and why I liked them.

Assignment 1: Food Intake for 3 days

-For Assignment 1, I had to track my food intake for three days from the amount of water to the amount I exercise. This will be my foundation for the rest of the assignments. The reason I liked this assignment so much was for the fact that you don't realize what you eat until you have to write it down. It was, in a weird way, fun!
Assignment 2: Food Groups and Calories
Assignment 2: Nutrients Report
Assignment 2: Physical Activity Report
-For Assignment 2, I had to input my assignment 1 into choosemyplate.gov. Choosemyplate then creates reports that I had to turn in. The first report (Food Groups and Calories) showed what my target portion for each food group, the average eaten for each food group and my status. For example, 

I am supposed to eat 7 ounces of whole grains. I ate on average 6.5 ounces and my status was okay. This shows what I need to be eating and what I should be eating. The second report (Nutrients Report) showed what my target nutrients should be, average nutrients eaten and my status.  For example, my target calcium intake is 1300 mg. I ate 724 mg so my status is under. This shows what nutrients I am undereating and what I am overeating on. The third report (Physical Activity Report) shows how much I exercised and calculated if that was a healthy amount.
Assignment 3: DRI Report
Assignment 3: Energy Balance
Assignment 3: Intake vs. Goals
-For Assignment 3, I had to also input my assignment into a nutrition tool. This one we used was more academic. It was called Diet Analysis. For the first report (DRI Report) it stated the daily intake for certain fats, vitamins, minerals, etc. and determine if I was having the right intake. For the second report (Energy Balance), it showed how many kCal I consumed, burned, and the net Kcal. It also gave me a daily caloric summary. For the last report (Intake vs. Goals), it showed what my intake was as opposed to what I should be intaking.
Assignment 4: Recommendations and Guidelines
-In this assignment, I had to choose whether or not I met a certain guideline based on my food intake and explain with details why I didn't meet that guideline.
Assignment 5: Nutrition Self Study and Genetic Risks
-In this assignment, I had to fill out my family's history and what my risk of certain diseases are. I also had to discuss how I could reduce my risk for certain diseases based on what I learned in class.

Overall, I felt this independent component was extremely helpful to my senior project. Even though it is nutrition and not pharmacy, it helped me understand how the body is affected when you don't have certain requirements. As pharmacists, you can then prescribe a patient certain supplements when you know what they are missing. 

2nd Draft of 3 Column Logic Chart

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0TrsAi92Qd1T1ByWEpITHFPb0U/edit

Blog 21: Independent Component 2

Literal:

a) I, Gina Thi, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

b) Professor Wajeeha Mazhar with Nutrition by Sizer and Whitney helped me complete my independent component.

c) Spreadsheet of Hours

d) I finished up my upper division Nutrition course. 

Interpretive:

Every week I would go to my nutrition class for about 4 hours a week for lectures. I would spend about an extra hour taking the weekly quiz. As it reached towards the end of the quarter, I spent more time studying for the final in order to achieve at least a B in the class. I also completed multiple assignments where I tracked my intake and found out which crucial elements I was missing in my diet. Here were my favorite assignments. 

Assignment 1: Food Intake for 3 days

Assignment 5: Genetic Risk?

For my final, I spent a considerable amount of time studying. 

Outline for Final

Applied: 

This component helped me answer my essential question by understanding how the body works. As we got more further within the course, I learned about different vitamins and other things the body needs in order to function. For example, I learned that a protein deficiency can lead to Marasmus or Kwashiorkor. These diseases strike early in childhood. Marasmus can be defined as muscle wasting as growth ceases and nutrition absorption fall. Kwashiorkor is a reduced disease resistance and large intake of fluids due to loss of protein. I also learned that excess can lead to a greater risk of heart disease. Knowing and learning these crucial facts, as a clinical pharmacist I can take these into account. This independent component supports my first answer, preparing for the consultation. By learning these health issues, a clinical pharmacist can then adjust the drug regimen if it does conflict with the patient's body. 

Blog 20: Three Column Chart First Draft

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0TrsAi92Qd1WWtwX2xwQksxd3c/edit

At Science Fair!

Finally at science fair! It is extremely crowded. I am so nervous! 

Science Fair Prep!

After waiting for two hours in line, I finally made it into my booth for science fair!

Blog 19: Senior Project and ESLRs

1. The ESLR that I have excelled in most for my senior project would be Effective Learner.

2. To excel in this ESLR as a senior, you have to take responsibility for your own learning. I have excelled in this ESLR because of taking a college class that is extremely demanding of time and requires a lot of brain power. I took this college class not only to just fill out my independent component hours but to really educate myself about something that is a main aspect of my senior topic. By taking this class, I am also able to educate myself about lifestyle and diet choices that can affect my health. Therefore, I am taking responsibility of my own learning.  

3. Here is a link to a PDF that was a part of our latest assignment. We had to track our diet and input into this diet analysis program where it would analyze what vitamins or certain aspects of our diet we were missing compared to what we should be having. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0TrsAi92Qd1Y2FHaGoxclNMdW8/edit

Blog 18: 2 Hour Meeting Answer #3

1. How can a clinical pharmacist best provide quality patient consultations?

2. My third answer is the patient being the pharmacist through follow up care.

3. In about a week or a month, a follow up care is necessary to really ensure that the patient's understanding and health. Each follow up care is different and customized to the patient depending on their disease state and drug regimen. The whole point of the follow up care is to review the first consultation but having the patient being the clinical pharmacist. They can do this by explaining what the drug regimen is to you. This can prove further understanding of the drug regimen and to make sure the patient isn't missing anything.

4. The source that helped me was talking to Robert Ngo. He is a clinical pharmacist. From him, I then did further research on the importance of follow up care. One article that showed how important follow up care was an article called, "Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative Change Package." It talked about the goals of clinical pharmacy and what can be improved. Follow up care was under those categories.

5. I plan to do more research on follow up care so that I'll be able to talk more about how important follow up care can be to a patient and how it can contribute to having a quality patient consultation.

Blog 17: 4th Interview Questions

1. How can a clinical pharmacist best provide quality patient consultations?

2. How do you follow up with the patient?

3. What is the hardest part of patient consultations?

4. What's the difference between a regular pharmacist and a clinical pharmacist consultation?

5. What exactly do you talk to the patient about during the consultation?

6. What do you think is the most important thing a patient must understand?

7. How do you come up with the drug regimen for the patient?

8. What do you consider a quality consultation?

9. How often of the time does the patient really listen to you? Why do you think some patients adhere to the medication better than others?

10. What do you think are the reasons for a patient to not follow through with the drug regimen?

11. What conditions are your patients usually under? Is it multiple diseases or just a disease with many medication needs?

12. What things do you take into consideration when planning into the drug regimen?

13. How do you come up with the drug regimen?

14. What are the different duties that a clinical pharmacist does based on their location?

15. What are the steps you go through in the actual consultation?

16. What specific things do you explain to the patient in the consultation?

17. Why do you think it's important for a patient to have a quality consultation?

18. Are there any extra things as a clinical pharmacist can do to really make sure the patient understands?

19. In the consultation, what is the patient usually most confused about?

20. Are there usually any follow up problems with the drug regimen? How do you address those problems? 

Blog 16: 2-Hour Meeting Answer #2

1. My essential question is, "How can a clinical pharmacist best provide quality patient consultations?"

2. My second answer to my essential question is adherence rather than compliance. 

3. This means that the patient must be fully aware of the disease state and drug regimen. They not only have to be fully aware but be motivated and encouraged by the clinical pharmacist to follow through.  According to my third interview, who is both a clinical pharmacist and a retail pharmacist, most, if not all the patients he consults knows nothing about the disease state and drug regimen. By telling the patient of the disease state they are in, they will not only know why they have to take the drug regimen but what is happening to them.  As a clinical pharmacist, it is their job to let the patient know how serious their disease is and what could possibly happen if they don't comply with the drug regimen. According to ACCP, in a paper published called "Clinical Pharmacist Competencies,"  a clinical pharmacist needs to be able to educate patients so that they can improve the patient's outcomes.  Therefore, it's extremely important to have the patient understand the disease and drug regimen to optimize the patient's outcomes just from a quality consultation. 

4. My most important source that helped me prove this answer was my 3rd interview and a paper published by the ACCP.

5. I plan to continue my study of answer 2 by studying more about what a clinical pharmacist does and cases of clinical pharmacists actually consulting the patient. I also plan to talk to the person I interviewed for my 3rd interview and try to work out a time where I could possibly observe a consultation.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

1. I plan on continuing taking my nutrition class up at Cal Poly Pomona.

2. I will not only be attending lectures for 4 hours a week but have supplemental assignments, reading, and quizzes that will surpass my 30 hour requirement.

3. My independent component relates to my working EQ because as a clinical pharmacist you must take into consideration of the food as well as the lifestyle of the patient when planning for a drug regimen. By knowing the basic knowledge of how the body works and how nutrition affects it, I will be able to have more knowledge of what a clinical pharmacist does and how they can best give a quality patient consultation. 

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

Literal:

A: I, Gina Thi, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

B: Cal Poly Pomona Nutrition Class

C: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkTrsAi92Qd1dFRhdWJqcE1lVmVzQkJYS0czck53LXc&usp=sharing

D: I have taken about half of the nutrition class including lectures, quizzes, assignments and a presentation all about the nutrition and the human body.

Interpretive:

Every week I would spend 4 hours listening to lectures with another 2 hours or so for studying and reading what was covered in the lectures in the textbook. Please refer to the previous blog posts for pictures of my quiz scores.

Applied:

The component helped me understand my topic better by learning what the body is doing as well as medicinal uses for the body. For example, I have learned that supplements are not really good for you because it can give you more than your body needs. When you have more than your body needs, your body can react negatively. I have also learned about the different systems within the body such as the nervous system. This has made me understand my topic better by giving me an academic look at how the body works and how different lifestyles can affect the body. This can help me in the future by giving me more information about how to consult the patient based on their body and lifestyles. 

2nd Quiz of Independent Component

1st Quiz of Independent Component

Blog 13: Rough Draft of 30 Minute Presentation

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0TrsAi92Qd1U1FZR3Q4UjZaaE0/edit

Blog 12: Third Interview Questions

1. How can a clinical pharmacist provide quality patient consultations?
2. When a patient asks for a consultation, what are the steps that you go through to assess them?
3. What do you consider a quality patient consultation?
4. What are the extra steps you take that you think you do differently than any other pharmacist when it comes to giving a consultation?
5. What is the difference between a pharmacist talking to a patient rather than a doctor?
6. Do you have any tactics or strategies in talking to a patient to take a medication that they are weary about?
7. What is the hardest thing for a patient to understand?
8. What is the hardest thing about doing a consultation?
9. What is the most important thing must a pharmacist do/know to help the patient?
10. What is the difference between a regular pharmacist and a clinical pharmacist?
11. What resources do you use that keep you up to date on up and coming drugs and/or technologies?
12. Are you involved in any other outside communities/organizations that help your patients?