Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience

The fall semester of 2015, I served my first Introductory Pharmacy Practice (IPPE) at North Florida Veteran’s Affairs (VA). It was my first experience in a retail/clinical setting. I was able to work with several different pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. My preceptor was Pharmacist Donnie Johnson. As I got more acquainted with the pharmacy system used at the Veteran’s Affairs, I gained well-needed clarity and knowledge on my career pursuit.
The North Florida Veteran’s Affairs is one of the many divisions of Veteran’s Affairs throughout the nation that is dedicated to supplying healthcare services, social service and much more to Military people that have served our country. The History of the veteran’s Affairs goes a long way until around

In fact every day I went there was full of learning and applications I completely loved it. As hands, on learner it only took me a few tries to understand how to perform most of the functions in the pharmacy. The employees there were very accommodating as well as easy to get along with. I enjoyed working with them. There was a god environment for efficient work habits. To continue, my preceptor specifically worked in the diabetes clinic of the Veteran’s Affairs. The clients that participated in this specific clinic were chronic diabetics that needed serious medication and/or nutrition management. As a student in this pharmacy I sat in on the sessions while in the clinical area of the VA. While first half of my time was spent in the retail side of the pharmacy, filling prescriptions; making labels; and observing the pharmacist counsel patients. The other portion of my experience I sat in on the sessions observing as my preceptor counseled patients while in the clinical area of the VA. Throughout the rest of the time I spent at the VA I became more acquainted with their system while I learned more ways to complete tasks. For instance, filling prescriptions for blind patients or completing a mail order

Being involved in my Drug Information course actually helped me accomplish and understand the tasks I was assigned. My first assignment was to complete a detailed questionnaire of two specific drugs (atorvastatin and warfarin); I used Micromedex and Lexicomp to complete it. For my second assignment I utilized PubMed to find a research article about pharmacist making milestones in future medication prescribing. During the most exciting and nerve wracking part of my experience I had to try my best to remember my coursework in IPPE, Drug Information, and Pathophysiology. My task was to dissect a clinical research paper on the use of vitamin K supplement on patients using warfarin. I knew from pathophysiology that certain aspects of a person’s life might affect their disease state. For example, lack of exercise and high carb low protein diet with a family history of diabetes can lead to a high risk of diabetes. IPPE taught me was warfarin was and it is used for patients with blood clotting issues. Similarly, the drug information course gave me a good background in creating searches as well as finding primary sources on clinical studies that may have helped the client I was