PCOM Perspectives: Student Pharmacists Experience Family Medicine Rotation

This episode features fourth year Doctor of Pharmacy students Ruth Pierre (PharmD ’22) and Mahlet Wole (PharmD ’22). They both completed one-month rotations at PCOM’s Office of Family Medicine in Philadelphia working alongside healthcare providers and medical student colleagues. They practiced patient-facing skills, including counseling patients about their medications. They also reviewed patient prescription lists, and worked with attending physicians to ensure that patient prescription plans accurately reflected the needs of the patients. While in Philadelphia, they lived at the Meta Christy House, our new, on-campus housing. Ruth and Mahlet provided us with recommendations on how they would make this interprofessional experience even better and how pharmacy students can better prepare for this experience. They also explained how they will take this intense experience with them following graduation in May. I opined on the role I see pharmacists playing in the primary care setting of the future and added my thoughts on how the pharmacy curriculum can provide more opportunities for students to work in an interprofessional setting.