Ep 341 - Virtual Academic APPE and Leadership Development - Rachel Whitesitt MPH UIowa

<p>Welcome to the pharmacy residency podcast on the pharmacy podcast network. I have Rachel Whitesitt on with me and she is a P4 at the University of Iowa in her fifth week of this academic rotation. And what we want to do is talk to her a bit about her journey, but also she's had the time to get two degrees as she's going through here. And, maybe some advice on virtual rotations and things like that. So Rachel, welcome to the pharmacy residency podcast.</p> <p>Thanks for having me, Tony. I've really enjoyed this academic rotation, even though it's virtual. It's very different and I'm pretty flexible and really learn on my feet.</p> <p>No I'm excited. Well, let's first talk about why pharmacy. Many people kind of start in pharmacy serendipitously. I went to the University of Maryland College Park and as part of the requirement to get into the premed club, I needed some kind of health profession something or other, and then I just volunteered at the pharmacy, but then I just never went back to premed. So that was my way of getting in. What was it that brought you into pharmacy school?</p> <p>Yeah so, I did start working at a pharmacy when I was in high school. My cousin worked at an independent community pharmacy in our town as a tech and she was like, “Hey, do you need a job?” And I was a high school student, so yeah, I needed a job. I saw what the pharmacists were doing and how they were helping these patients. But they also had all this scientific knowledge and background to it as well, but we're able to translate that into educating patients and meeting them where they're at there. So I chose pre-pharmacy as my major, not sure what I really wanted to do it, but I just chose it. And then as I started at Iowa and was able to meet other pharmacists and then meet with the people at the school, I realized, yeah, this is what I want to do. Being able to talk to patients and then I also really liked the science of how the drugs work in the body. I think it's really interesting. So yeah, I've just stuck with pharmacy.