08/2/2021

The summer before the second year of pharmacy school

Summer was definitely a nice break from classes and studying, but I did opt to work 40 hours per week for my job as an intern pharmacist at Kaiser Permanente. You can request days off or use your vacation hours at work to travel, but this will depend on the employer.

Some students who opted to take their IPPE during the summer will have 10 straight days in a row where they go to their IPPE site.

Needless to say, summer flew by and August was coming up. This meant classes were just around the corner once again.

What classes do you take as a second-year pharmacy student and how hard are they?

Again, please keep in mind, this curriculum is from USC’s School of Pharmacy in 2017. Classes and curriculums will vary between schools!

Second year classes consist of completely new material. None of the material this year is a review (as opposed to some classes in the first year of pharmacy school).

Here is the complete course list that we took and brief descriptions of each course:

Fall Semester 2017:

1. Pharmacy Literature Analysis and Drug Information - This course proved to be very valuable. It basically teaches you about the different drug resources that pharmacists can use to look stuff up. Drug compendia such as Micromedex or Lexicomp, for example. It also teaches you how to analyze primary articles (like the ones on Google Scholar) by looking at things such as study designs, methods, etc. As a pharmacist, you’ll be constantly looking stuff up, so pay attention to this course!

2. Introduction to Therapeutics - Another seemingly random course USC added in order to stuff in random knowledge. Things like learning about the pharmacist’s patient care process, how to motivational interview, and a couple lectures on medicinal chemistry (drug structures, amino acids structures).

3. Therapeutics: Pharmacokinetics - If you’re looking to go into inpatient pharmacy, this course is for you. Pharmacokinetics is essential what your body does to a drug (your body absorbs, distributes, metabolizes, and then excretes a drug). You also learn about dosing 2 very important antibiotics/classes (Vancomycin and Aminoglycosides). This requires a surprising amount of math calculations and equations. This course is the first “therapeutics” course, and I’d say this is when pharmacy school starts to get a bit more difficult.

4. Pharmacy Law - Exactly what it sounds like. You’ll learn about the various laws governing pharmacy. These range from what NEEDS to be on a prescription for controlled substances, to staffing ratios and drug compounding laws. Another very important course. It’s so important there’s a portion of your board exam that will be dedicated to pharmacy law.

5. Principles and Leadership in Community Health 1 - Another bogus class that people in leadership positions in organizations have to take. It’s extra units and a free “A”. All I remember about this course is giving 1 presentation on what your club does and how it impacts the general public.

6. Pharmacy Practice and Professionalism 3 - Ah, another class that wasn’t too helpful. We reflected on cultural responsiveness and how to deal with burnout and stress.

7. Case Conference 2 - This breakout session focused on how to write a SOAP note (subjective, objective, assessment, and plan).

Spring Semester 2018:

1. Therapeutics: Endocrine System - A study of the most common endocrine disorders (diabetes, thyroid disorders, hormonal disorders, etc.) as well as drug treatments.

2. Therapeutics: General Medicine and Inflammatory Disorders - Covers a wide array of disease states including kidney/liver disease, lung diseases (Asthma, COPD, etc.), stomach issues (GERD, PUD), autoimmune diseases, and transplants. Also obviously covers all drug treatments for these disease states.

3. Therapeutics: Central Nervous System - Deals with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, sleep, addiction, seizures, etc. Also obviously covers all drug treatments for these disease states.

4. Principles and Leadership in Community Health 2 - As stated above in Fall semester, this class wasn’t too helpful.

5. Pharmacy Practice and Professionalism 4 - Talked about emotional intelligence and community service…

6. Case Conference 3 - I didn’t have any notes on this case conference, but it’s similar to the break out sessions previously discussed.

In terms of difficulty, therapeutics classes are the hardest classes in pharmacy school. Therapeutics classes are also the most important. These will form your fundamentals as a pharmacist. These courses are not too hard to understand conceptually, but what makes them so difficult is the sheer amount of memorization that needs to be done.

How are rotations during the second year of pharmacy school?

First, second, and third year rotations at USC are called IPPE (Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience). Basically, you are required to do 2 outpatient, 2 inpatient, and 1 elective IPPE spread out across years one through three in pharmacy school. An outpatient IPPE would be like working at CVS and an inpatient IPPE would be inside of a hospital. To be honest, I don’t quite remember what choices you have for your elective IPPE, but I believe you can choose pharmacy management, pharma, or managed care. You go to IPPE once a week for 10 weeks. Each day is an 8-hour shift. They’re on a preset day where there’s no class in session and your whole cohort goes on IPPE’s.

I wasn’t as nervous about my second year IPPE’s as I was for my first year IPPE’s. Same with first year, your preceptors still won’t expect too much out of you, because you’re just starting to learn your therapeutics courses.

My second outpatient IPPE was at Costco pharmacy. This time, I was responsible for filling medications, consulting patients, and administering immunizations. For my elective IPPE, I chose to do outpatient pharmacy management with Kaiser Permanente. Very valuable experience! I got a behind the scenes look at how a pharmacy is run.

How do your extracurricular activities evolve from first year to second year in pharmacy school?

If you missed my blog on the first year of pharmacy school, click here! In the first year blog, I discuss what kinds of extracurricular activities you can join in school. This is important, because the activities you choose to join as a P1 will often carry over into your P2 year. Leadership positions in P1 year are still supervised by fellow upperclassmen. If you get a leadership position in P2 year, these positions are often “director” positions. This means you’re basically in charge of your “club”. You have the freedom to steer your club in whichever direction you’d like, with only a faculty mentor to report to. “Director” positions are usually elected positions, so you will usually hold a presentation and the person with the most votes will get that directorship (at least this was how it was done at USC). Obviously, if you held a leadership position during your first year, that would put you ahead of someone who didn’t have any positions their first year.

1. Professional Organizations - As discussed in my previous blog, I was a “level 1 representative” for Operation Diabetes my first year. I didn’t really enjoy this position as much as I thought I would, so I did not apply for the director position of Operation Diabetes as a P2. Instead, I found another club I was interested called Generation Rx, and became the director of that club instead. Generation Rx focused on medication misuse and abuse, and it really resonated with me because I enjoyed working with underserved populations such as the homeless, Boys and Girls clubs, and middle/high schools struggling with drug abuse.

2. Fraternities - If you didn’t join a fraternity your first year, you can also join your second year! But if you joined your first year, you now get a chance to view the “pledging process” from a different perspective. I still believe fraternities are a great way to expand your network and maintain a social life. You no longer have to attend pledging events, and you can show up to as many or as little social events as you want.

My second year of pharmacy school was by far the hardest one…

And this was because it was truly a balancing act. Classes were beginning to get harder due to the therapeutics courses. Being the director for a club meant I had to research and host several events by myself, as well as network with off-campus organizations such as grade schools, homeless shelters, and even hospitals. Working for Kaiser Permanente as an outpatient pharmacist intern automatically took away 25+ hours from my schedule per week.

You have to be able to manage your time effectively. This is when I realized pharmacy school is really what you make of it. If you want to push yourself, take leadership positions and work at a demanding job. If you want to cruise through school, don’t join any organizations and don’t work at a job that requires you to be there 20+ hours a week.

In the end, it’s really all up to you, and how you want your pharmacy school experience to be.

Concluding my second year as a pharmacy school student

As P2 year was wrapping up, I was so ready for summer (or working 40 hours/week throughout summer - but anything was better than that balancing act of a P2 year).

If you’ve made it this far into the article, thank you, and I hope you’ve learned a bit about what life is like for a P2!

If you have any specific questions, please don’t hesitate to message/email me here!

Click the arrow on the bottom right of this page to check out my life as a P3! 😁