At my job, I saw the pharmacists standing behind computers, wearing white coats, and thought "I could do that!"
I transferred into pharmacy school for my 3rd year.
Yep! Pharmacy school is 6 years & we graduate with a doctorate of pharmacy
You can either do all 6 years out of HS, or you can get a bachelor's & do the last 3-4 yrs
I quickly realized retail/community wasn't for me and wanted to do a residency for additional, optional training.
I thought I was going to be an ambulatory care pharmacist and work in the VA.
The MATCH ... had other plans
During my 1st general residency year I found ID and fell in love with it
[Narrator: she hated it in pharm school]
- Cardiology
- Transplant
- Oncology
- Emergency medicine
- Pediatrics
- Geriatrics
And obviously, the best one, INFECTIOUS DISEASES!
I rounded with ID physicians, precepted pharmacy students & residents, mentored staff.
Get this: I even got (still get) to lecture to Harvard med students!
Additionally the antimicrobial stewardship program was created. All broad/new antibiotics need approval from the ASP prior to being used.
Studies have shown how valuable ASPs are. And how integral pharmacists are to those programs.
Patients come in for follow up to inpatient infections, for tuberculosis, for latent TB, for other mycobacterial infections, for HIV, for hepatitis C, and other infection care.
What's OPAT?
Glad you asked.
Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy.
Patients need IV antibiotics for weeks but DON'T HAVE TO STAY IN THE HOSPITAL TO FINISH THERAPY! 🙌
OPAT is so hot right now.
Lots of communication with my physicians/NP about our patients (email, page, text, call). Lots of counseling with patients over the phone. Lots of documentation in the computer systems.
National organizations: @SIDPharm @ASHPOfficial @ACCP @IDSAInfo @SHEA_Epi
All of these have been very vocal & prominent during COVID. SIDP created a series of youtube videos critiquing the data on potential COVID drugs
(did you know pharmacists are the drug experts? We will scrutinize clinical trials & endpoints & statistics to a whole 'nother level)
I was able to contribute to the zinc video.
Whether it be affordable drugs, mis-information, vaccination, provider-status, ability to provide PrEP, access to safe injection supplies ...
Through many of our state & national organizations we try to shape legislature
Many ID pharmacists are faculty at colleges. Many of us do research & publish papers. We get invited to lecture at national meetings (many times to diverse audiences of pharmacists, physicians, nurses, microbiologists, etc etc).
One of the best ways to learn antibiotics is via "Antibiotics Simplified" written by 2 ID Pharmacists @JGPharmD and @ConanMacDougall
If you've read this far, you're pretty awesome. ♥️
Counting pills.
While an extremely important function of pharmacists, many, many of us don't do that in our daily jobs.