Ep 342 Dual MPH Degree and The Pharmacist in Public Health - Rachel Whitesitt MPH U Iowa

<p>I wanted to talk a little bit about public health and getting that second degree. I think people misinterpret that second degree is just a number of classes that kind of overlap and just kind of an additional credential, but I've got Rachel Whitesitt on who was a P4 at the University of Iowa and she's actually using it as an expansion of whom she can help and to what level she can help them. So first, Rachel, welcome to the pharmacy residency podcast.</p> <p>Thank you, Tony. I'm really excited to talk a bit more about pharmacy's role in public health.</p> <p>Let's first start with what is pharmacy's role in public health? I know that we're a little bit hidden in what we do, whether it's adjudication or getting prior authorizations done. All the patient sees is that they're waiting, but what is it that made you decide to complete this PharmD/MPH program?</p> <p>I decided to do the MPH program for a couple of different reasons. I'm really interested in doing more than just patient care. I love direct patient care but getting to organize things where we can touch more patients. So whether that's community initiatives or different clinical initiatives, such as doing the flu shot clinics or working on different CPAs or trying to push policy, getting pharmacists to be more engaged in chronic care management. I thought doing the MPH would help me get a little bit more background in that and it also really opened my eyes up to a lot of different opportunities at the work of pharmacists in public health.</p> <p>Now I have a friend who did the Hopkins MPH. He spent an extra $80,000 on that. It just is a dagger to begin with that, but he also spent another two years on it. Did you have to go to any more school?</p> <p>I did not. At the University of Iowa its a dual degree, so some of the pharmacy classes count for MPH and then our MPH courses count for our pharmacy electives. So it wasn't any more years, I did have to take some summer classes, but I got it all done in the four years.</p> <p>Awesome. Well, tell me a littl