PrePharmacy Society Fifth General Body Meeting

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• Pre-Pharmacy Society Fifth General Body Meeting
• November 24, 2008
• umdprepharm_at_gmail.com

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Agenda

• Welcome! Dont forget to sign in!
• Prior Authorization
• Upcoming Last Meeting of Semester
• Active Membership
• T-shirt Distribution
• Personal Statement Workshop

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Prior Authorization

• Prior authorization (PA) means that you need to
  obtain approval from your health plan to receive
  a medication before your prescription is covered
  under your benefit.
• Reasons you may be required to get PA include
• Medication prescribed
• Age of the patient
• Illness the medication is treating / Frequency of
  use
• Mostly, it ensures that the right drug is being
  used for the condition, based on a combination of
  safety, cost and effectiveness in certain
  conditions.

Information pulled from drugtopics.modernmedicine
.com
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The Process

• Call the insurance company
• Call the doctor to call the insurance company
• Wait for the doctor to call the insurance company
• Meanwhile, the patient calls you every hour to
  check on the progress.
• Doctor/Insurance Company may or may not call you
  back
• Meanwhile, the patient is still calling you every
  hour

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The Issue

• According to a consensus of pharmacists,
  securing prior authorization (PA)
• Time-consuming / frustrating for professionals
• Irritateseven endangerspatients
• Cancer Patient Example
• According to a consensus of doctors, securing
  prior authorization (PA)
• Safety in long-term use (prevent adverse
  reaction)
• Certain drugs have a high risk of misuse or of
  being prescribed inappropriately
• Lower-cost brand or generic alternative

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Necessity or a Nuisance?

• WHAT DO YOU THINK??

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Last Meeting

• Dec 8 Interview Essay/Interview Workshop
• Next Semester
• Resumé Workshop
• Pharmacy Tech Information Session
• Guest Speaker Rite Aid Pharmacists
• UMB Student Panel QA
• UMB Faculty Panel

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T-Shirts Are Here!

• Come meet Lena, Tina, and Brandon after the
  meeting
• Not too late to order! 12 Smalls, 3 Mediums, 2
  Larges Left! First Come First Serve! Only 10!

Designed by Tina Nguyen
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Remember

• Make sure you are on the Pre-Pharmacy Society
  list-serve
• Email umdprepharm_at_gmail.com to be added
• Join Pre-Pharmacy Societys Facebook group to
  receive updates about meetings/events
• Visit our website http//studentorg.umd.edu/prepha
  rm
• All past presentations have been posted and
  todays presentation will be posted either
  tonight or tomorrow
• All newsletters will now be posted on our website
  too

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• http//studentorg.umd.edu/prepharm/meetingppts.htm
  

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Active Membership Requirement

• 3 Meetings and 3 hours of community service per
  semester
• Attending more meetings and events are HIGHLY
  encouraged!

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Remember

• December 12, 2008 will be the last day to
  register for the January 24, 2009 PCAT
• Remember to register before 859 pm!
• Register early to get your preferred testing
  location!

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Personal Statement Workshop

• Step-By-Step Tips
• What is the Question?
• How should you answer it?
• Topic Ideas
• Things to Avoid
• What they look for
• Tips
• Examples

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Step-By-Step Tips to Write a Good Personal
Statement

• Plan and organize
• Figure out the general theme
• Structure
• Begin writing
• Revise and rewrite

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What is the Question?

• PharmCAS
• Your Personal Essay should address why you
  selected pharmacy as a career and how the Doctor
  of Pharmacy degree relates to your immediate and
  long-term professional goals. Describe how your
  personal, educational, and professional
  background will help you achieve your goals.

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What is the Question?

• PharmCAS
• Your Personal Essay should address why you
  selected pharmacy as a career and how the Doctor
  of Pharmacy degree relates to your immediate and
  long-term professional goals. Describe how your
  personal, educational, and professional
  background will help you achieve your goals.

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What is the Question?

• PharmCAS
• Your Personal Essay should address why you
  selected pharmacy as a career and how the Doctor
  of Pharmacy degree relates to your immediate and
  long-term professional goals. Describe how your
  personal, educational, and professional
  background will help you achieve your goals.

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What is the Question?

• PharmCAS
• Your Personal Essay should address why you
  selected pharmacy as a career and how the Doctor
  of Pharmacy degree relates to your immediate and
  long-term professional goals. Describe how your
  personal, educational, and professional
  background will help you achieve your goals.

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How should you answer it?/Topic Ideas

• The Chronological Method
• Talk about your accomplishments
• List your skills and personality traits
• Note major influences
• Goals What are your goals and why?
• Any other motivations A type of lifestyle that
  you want.

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How should you answer it?

• Determine your purpose in writing the statement
• Persuade the admissions committee that you are an
  applicant who should be chosen.
• Determine the content
• Analyze the question completely
• Answer ALL of the question
• Admissions Committee knows nothing about you
  unless you tell them.

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How should you write it?

• Direct
• Simply answer the question
• E.g. I want to be a Pharmacist because
• E.g. My long term goal with the Doctor of
  Pharmacy Degree is
• Indirect
• Tell a story

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How should you write it?

• Introduction
• Attention Getter
• Detailed Supporting Paragraphs
• Answer the questions
• Conclusion

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Other Things to Keep in Mind

• 4500 characters (NOT words!)
• Around 1.5 page single-spaced
• Tips
• Write your essay in Word first

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What to Avoid?

• Assuming the reader is familiar with the rest of
  your application.
• Do not begin too many sentences with I
• Cliches
• Going off topic
• More than one topic per paragraph
• Contractions
• Grammatical and spelling errors
• Negativity of any sort

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What to Avoid?

• Obvious exaggerations.
• Parentheses
• Repeating phrases
• Slang
• Wishy-washy phrases

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What do they look for?

• Motivation
• Originality
• Clear intellectual ability, analytical, and
  critical thinking skills
• Evidence that you will make a good pharmacy
  student
• Evidence that you will make a good pharmacist

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What do they look for?

• Treating Patients
• Compassion/Empathy/Sensitivity
• Integrity
• Communication Skills
• Solving Problems
• Creativity
• Initiative
• Independence
• Curiosity
• Critical Thinking Skills

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What do they look for?

• Extras
• Sincerity
• Maturity
• Passion/Dedication

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Tips

• Be positive!
• Be humble!
• Be enthusiastic!
• Start with an attention getter
• Show your personality
• Do not write what you think they want to hear.
• Ask people to look at your essay!
• Answer ALL of the question!

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Tips from Deanna

• PLEASE PLEASE read the prompt carefully.
• Worry about word count and formatting LAST.
• Ask yourself
• Have you answered the prompt?
• Did you answer in every paragraph, WHY you want
  to become a pharmacist, or answer what your
  short/long term goals are?
• Did you remove all paragraphs and/or sentences
  that talk about your characteristics, your skills
  that makes you a good pharmacist? (yes, they are
  good to have, but that doesn't help answer your
  prompt!!)
• Did you remove all the paragraphs and/or
  sentences about your weaknesses, your
  semester/class that were especially poor? (they
  are important too, but not for this prompt!)

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Good Example of Attention Getter
Slip. Peck. A second later I had a four
millimeter wide hole on the corner of my mouth.
At the age of three, I had my first traumatic
experience I was bit by a chicken.  I wont go
into the embarrassing details of how it happened
but what resulted was an endless number of visits
to the hospital.  I received round after round of
antibiotics and was injected with who knows what.
Being the dramatic pre-kindergartener I was, I
thought I was on the verge of death and was
precociously skeptical of the bitter candies the
nurses were feeding me.  How were these small
pills going to help me get better, I wondered,
but since no one really cared about the questions
a little girl had asked, over time I forgot about
the inquiries myself. Little did I know, this
curiosity would be my first step into the world
of pharmacy.
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Good Example of Attention Getter (Dental)
Shake vigorously and pour over ice. Bring to a
boil and add two pinches of salt. Is Windows not
starting up? Not a problem, just reformat.
Bartending, cooking and computer maintenance are
activities that are not usually seen as being
related to one another. Despite their
differences, these are hobbies that I thoroughly
enjoy. Over time, I began to notice that these
activities accentuated certain skills that I
possessed, especially manual dexterity. Though I
had little career direction upon entering
college, deeper consideration while volunteering
in India, followed by an internship as a dental
student, enabled me to find my own social
conscience and the passion and confidence to
pursue a career in dentistry
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Resources

• http//www.english.umd.edu/index.php?optioncom_co
  ntenttaskblogcategoryid146Itemid455
• http//www.amsa.org/premed/premedguide/pstatement.
  cfm

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• Questions?