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 11: Mentorship 10 Hours Check

1. I am doing my mentorship at Merced Medical Pharmacy.

2. Toni Villanueva is my contact.

3. As of December 27th, 2012, I have done 36 hours and 15 minutes.

4. In the 36 hours, my duties have varied based on what needs to be done the days I come in. The main jobs that I have been doing are sorting prescription orders, putting pharmaceutical products back onto the shelf, stack medicine boxes, observe and help keep the pharmacy clean.  

More Trust in Mentorship

Now that I have been volunteering more and more with the pharmacy, they are trusting me more and more. My mentor has been giving me more important duties. One of the things that I have been working on for awhile are sorting prescription orders. These are extremely important so they can refer back to a prescription.

These are the prescription orders that I have been organizing. 

Halfway of Mentorship Pentagon

I have OFFICIALLY reached the halfway point of my mentorship hours with 31.5 hours!
Some positive statements about my mentorship so far:
-My mentor is extremely flexible with my schedule of when I want to volunteer.
-Everyone at the pharmacy is very friendly and willing to explain what they're doing.
-Even though they give me busy work a lot of the time, it's actually work that I enjoy doing.
-I am not just sitting there observing them most of the time.
-They always make sure that I'm not observing too long and helping out.
-I really get a view of EVERYTHING they are doing as a pharmacy.
How the mentorship has helped me answer my EQ:
-Given me a view of what a pharmacist does on a daily
-Shows me how much customer interaction and how much they really help the patient with whatever need they have by ordering them a taxi or finding the right cane tip
What worked regarding my mentorship:
-The amount of hands on experience I get to do rather than just sitting around and observing
-The real view I get to have with all aspects of the pharmacy from customer service to filling prescriptions
-Flexibility of schedule with my mentorship
What hasn't worked so far regarding my mentorship:
-Not being able to volunteer as much as I want to because of my busy schedule
-Not having a camera to take pictures of all the things I am doing
-Updating my blog independently
Finding value with my mentorship:
My mentorship so far has given me that view and hands on experience with a pharmacist that I would never get by just reading articles. I am truly appreciative of my mentorship because it gives me so many answers to my essential question just by being able to really see what a pharmacist does on a daily basis. It shows me how much they really do just to help a patient.
Because I am at my halfway point of my mentorship, I now have a view of what I can do better. Some of the things I will do differently for the rest of my mentorship is definitely pay more attention of my surroundings to take full advantage of this opportunity. Another thing I will do is go to my mentorship more often to keep the relationship between my mentors and me good so that they can be more trusting of me with duties. The most important thing I think I will do from now on is definitely ask more questions and try to take pictures of the things I am doing.

Above are a couple pictures of one of the things that I have done at my mentorship. These pictures show an inventory list that I took of diabetic products and durable medical equipment.

Summer Mentorship Component

Literal (Know)
-Log: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkTrsAi92Qd1dGZRUmpTMUxWRjRZbUtNd1VFVEI2b2c#gid=0
-Contact Name & Number: Brian Garner: (909) 624-1611
I worked with only one contact for this whole summer.

Literal (Need to Know) 
What questions were raised because of the 10 hours of experience? 
-What characteristics does it take to be an efficient pharmacist?
-What other skills do you need besides just medical knowledge to become a pharmacist?
-How often does a pharmacist check the accuracy of the prescription?
-What did it take to get you to the position of a pharmacist?
-How many different jobs are there in a pharmacy?
-Are there different kinds of pharmacists?
-What is the academic path to get to be a pharmacist?
-What's the difference between a pharmacy technician and pharmacist regarding in what their skills entail?
-What degree do you need to become a pharmacist?
-Can the pharmacist enter the prescription, fill prescriptions, and check them?
-What is the difference between a privately owned pharmacy and a bigger corporation pharmacy?

Interpretive
What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
I believe the most important thing I have gained from this experience is seeing firsthand what a pharmacist does. I have always had an idea as to what a pharmacist does but I have never realized what the extent of it is. I feel that this is the most important thing that I have gained and could have gained because if I do choose this as a future career it is important for me to know what I'll be doing.

Applied
How did what you did help you choose a topic? 
I feel that the experience helped me choose pharmacy as a topic because it showed me what pharmacy is really about and what pharmacists do. From what I have observed, they are more of an advice giver than anything. The consultations were my favorite part to observe because they seemed to know so much and know exactly know how to fix it. It made me realize how much more interested I am in what a pharmacist does and how I can get there.