Pharmacy Skewls? Idiots!

First time posting…

At least you were in a pharmacy for your IPE’s. My first year of actual pharmacy school (i.e. third year over all), I spent a semester playing Solitaire on the computer in a nursing home, then a semester in one of the biggest ghettos of the city tutoring the dumbest 13 year old I’ve ever met in algebra and Spanish. THEN I had to write a 60-some page portfolio on how my experience related to pharmacy.

Worthless doesn’t even BEGIN to describe my experience.

I think it’s a litte quick to judgement regarding their new IPE standards. StLCoP has to have us go through these new standards (or “jump through the hoops”) or else we are no longer accredited and my degree would be crap. Do I like having to do IPE’s during the summer? No. Do I think it necessary to bust the school’s balls for this? No. It’s APCE, not them who are thrusting this upon us.

They had an informational hour where the director of Experiential program outlined the what’s and why’s of this new set of hours and how they are incorporating it into our curriculum.

But, I do hope that the school does make it worthwhile and not just us sitting around and getting in the way at the sites. My two IPE-3 sites were at St. John’s hospital and Schnuck’s pharmacy where I just worked on the tedious, pointless assignments dished out by the program.

Yeah, my drunken post doesn’t differentiate enough. I understand the school has no choice in the matter other than saying yes…of course they could disagree with it and explain their reasons for not agreeing - but that would mean growing a spine…unlikely.

I do hold the schools personally responsible for ensuring that the experience doesn’t suck, is related to pharmacy (unlike Tom’s Horror Story above), and is educational. If the school can’t manage to do that for whatever reason — perhaps ACPE would like to take a shot at it?

My school is required to do the same. Luckily I am past the cutoff point and won’t have to do them.

My IPE to date has been as worthless as yours was. However, as someone with only retail experience, I did find the hospital portion to be useful - for about 1 hour. The rest of it was a waste. I won’t even talk about retail IPE. Still have clinical IPE to go.

What’s with this APCE mandate?
Who runs it? Who makes these decisions?
They need a good dose of reality.
When I graduated long ago they didn’t
require typing. I didn’t take the course and
have regretted it many times. Especially when I recall all the completely worthless crap I was required to take.
Let’s investigate APCE and get them on the road to reality.

My province requires all HIGH SCHOOL students to complete a bunch of community volunteer hours in order to get their diploma. I said exactly the same thing,”Then it’s not voluntary, is it????”

I currently go to STLCOP and I can verify that the IPE rotations are a complete waste of time. They still make us do community service rotations as well, which consisted for me going to a retirement center and watching tv for 2 hours. I’ve done a coumadin clinic at a VA and half the patients never showed up so I played on the computer all day. I did a hospital rotation where I went around and filled their pixis machines. I’ve done a independent pharmacy where the owner did nothing but complain about chain stores and their free antibiotics and four dollar generics. So just letting you know the IPE rotations haven’t changed. I”m just glad i’m done with IPE rotations and can’t wait for my APE days.

The pharmacy schools bitched to high heaven about this nonsense - it made no difference. Standing up and saying “this is fucking stupid” (which, trust me, the experiential ed departments in at least most schools in the country did, and for months) only gets you somewhere if you are dealing with rational people, which on this issue, means someone other than ACPE.

I’m chair of a curriculum committee at another school, and it made our lives a living hell to shoehorn this in, and god only knows if we’ll be able to find enough preceptors. Qualified preceptors at sites that won’t bored the students silly is another matter entirely, but I doubt that ACPE really cares about that.

I think it would maybe be useful to stick some students into a freaking busy pharmacy, then see if they still want to continue their education and get the paper. Then, they may get a real dose of what retail pharmacy is…not the mambe pambe bullshit they teach from up on their ivory towers. Put these kids in the trenches, and let the true angry pharmacists rise like a phoenix from the flames of our idiot patients! My rant, sorry.

And another thing. State Boards require a years
experience as an intern. Used to be that you got
that year after graduating and before taking State Board exam. At least we got paid something and now you have to pay the School
tuition to do the same. Greed knows no bounds.