Life Off-Label

One of the things I got involved with at school is the Student Ambassador program. Throughout the year, I have opportunities to go with fellow pharmacy students to various schools and speak to some prospective students about pharmacy, my school, the application process, etc. A main reason I’m doing it is because I don’t really like public speaking, and this is a good way to force myself to get over it. I also credit the awesome ambassadors at my interview with being a major reason for wanting to come here instead of a different school I was accepted to, and I’d like to pass that on to the future students.

Today I had my first “gig” at a nearby college. Seven of us stood in front of a classroom of about 30-40 people to answer questions. Though usually these things happen at pre-pharmacy club meetings, I’m pretty sure this was just a group of people interested in healthcare in general. Judging by the amount of people buried in mid-afternoon naps or their cell phones, I take it most were looking into things other than pharmacy. The real gem came after our recruiting director spoke a bit about the application process, and she asked them, “What do you think pharmacists do?”

After a few moments of awkward silence, someone finally peeped, “Count pills.”

*sigh*

Working in a pharmacy and being here at school has made me forget how much most people don’t know about this profession at all. So, one-by-one we shared our stories of why we decided to choose pharmacy. We explained that pharmacist’s do much more than count pills (I mean really, we have techs for that now), and have become an accessible healthcare professional where people can seek advice about their medicine without having to see a doctor. We also talked about the hospital end of things where you have specialists that round with doctors and actually have a say in the patient’s therapy. I could tell some people were surprised, and after that the questions didn’t stop coming.

I don’t know if we inspired someone to apply to pharmacy school today, but if nothing else, at least many people are coming away with a better perception of pharmacy than they had before. And that’s when I realized my biggest incentive for not only being an ambassador, but for getting involved in general. I don’t want to be the pharmacist that makes people think we just count pills. I want to be the pharmacist that makes someone go, “Wow, my dream someday is to do that!”

Plus… if I really liked counting that much, I’d be The Count when I grow up.