The TNP Student series helps pharmacy students prepare for their future in our ever-changing pharmacy profession.
Our second guest is Bryan Herrera of UCSF School of Pharmacy. As a P1, Bryan is ahead of his years in terms of his approach to choosing a pharmacy career path.
Name: Bryan Herrera
Position: Pharmacy Student at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF)
Interview Summary
Matt: [00:00:00] Matt Paterini here with The Nontraditional Pharmacist, part of The Pharmacy Podcast Network. Excited for episode 2 today of The Nontraditional Pharmacist Student Series with Bryan Herrera, a student at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Great program, new curriculum they have over at that school. So we’ll talk all about that. We’ll talk about some of Bryan’s experiences so far, where he sees the future going, and make sure that we touch on some of those things that all pharmacy students really need to be thinking about as they enter the field of pharmacy. So Bryan welcome to The Nontraditional Pharmacist. Thank you so much for your time today. We’re excited to have you on the show.
Bryan: [00:00:47] Thank you. I’m really excited to be here, but I’m glad I have some time to be here.
Matt: [00:00:52] It’s tough in pharmacy school I know to carve out some time, even for some of these extracurricular activities. So we do appreciate the time.
Bryan: [00:01:01] I am totally glad to do it. It can be a little difficult sometimes but I love what you guys are doing and I’m glad to be part of it.
Matt: [00:01:13] Well thanks for that Bryan, let’s start off with the first question. Why did you go to pharmacy school in the first place? A lot of career options, no doubt going through school. Why did you choose pharmacy as a career path.
Bryan: [00:01:25] In high school, I went on a sort of artistic approach to what I wanted to do in my career. And I was really into the music program and wanting to be a musician. But I had a change of heart. I think during my first year of undergrad and from there I did a lot of soul searching and seeing what other interests lie and I fell with science and I graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a chemistry degree. And I think that really helped me figure out that I really do like science and inquiry. And I also found a love for pharmacy through some of the applications that we would use in class. And then from there, I started getting more involved in the student organizations there and I started realizing how much pharmacy is changing and I was really attracted to how you can kind of make your own path, and pharmacists are having more and more of an impact in patient care, directly or indirectly and I was really attracted to that.
Matt: [00:02:54] That’s fantastic. It’s so great to hear that you recognize how much pharmacy is changing, especially while you’re still within the within the formal program because as you look at different career options available and different paths to take, it’s best to you know, you have to decide on everything immediately, but it’s best to kind of survey the landscape and kind of get all of the information that you need to make an informed decision upfront so that you can get on the right path early on. Has the experience so far beyond what you’ve expected or has it been crazy different than you were thinking pharmacy school was going to be like?
Bryan: [00:03:36] I think a little bit of both. I was a little bit of a culture shift from undergrad to grad school. I want to say that you are really never prepared for what is expected in pharmacy school. And I think, in many respects, because of the new curriculum, there were things that they came very much out of the blue and we had tjo adjust and be agile and try to work around the obstacles so that we can eventually get to what we wanted to do in class and how we wanted to perform.
Matt: [00:04:21] What’s the new curriculum been like? Maybe give a little bit of background on where the curriculum was and what’s the philosophy behind the new curriculum.
Bryan: [00:04:31] Sure. So the old curriculum at UCSF was a pathway curriculum for your program that students would basically do two and a half years of lectures or didactic work. And then they would choose to go in a health policy and pharmacoeconomic pathway, a pharmaceutical care pathway, or pharmaceutical science pathway. And then when they went off on rotations they would focus their interests and maybe even a project in those pathways. And so now what the pharmacy school at UCSF has done is made our curriculum a three year long program, and then they are taking away a lot of the pathway work and putting in a lot of opportunities to see different fields of pharmacy throughout the entire curriculum. The reason why they chose to do that was because they noticed that pharmacy was changing so fast and a lot of these fields tend to overlap with one another and they want to go through a new phase of preparing students that are capable enough of being on their toes and thinking critically, using scientific inquiry to problem solve in the new kind of landscape of healthcare.
Matt: [00:06:06] Very interesting, the philosophy behind that and how they’re keeping in mind the fact that pharmacy is changing so much and things need to be in place or processes need to be in place to address that early on to prepare students for that changing landscape. What are your primary interest in the field of pharmacy?
Bryan: [00:06:26] So I came into pharmacy school with a really big interest in patient care, direct patient care. And even through the last couple of quarters that we were here, I was introduced to so many things in healthcare. Patient care is very much still in my radar, but I’ve been interested in a lot of data informatics kind of word or maybe even pharmacovigilance, which is more in line with post-marketing surveillance. I’m still keeping my mind open, but I really do like the setting of ambulatory care still.
Matt: [00:07:13] So isn’t that crazy how much it can change? You think one thing going in, you learn some new things, then the path kind of changes. And hey you know, you’re early in the program it could still change yet and the field of pharmacy could still change. Do you see any, even with the new curriculum, do you see any shortcomings of formal pharmacy education? In other words what are some things that you think aren’t necessarily addressed at all in formal pharmacy training, that YOU think are necessary for a successful career after graduation?
Bryan: [00:07:50] I would say something that we haven’t seen as students before, even now in the curriculum is interacting with pharmacists, and being able to establish a relationship and having those communication skills with with other professionals. I think that’s something that in general it’s really hard to put into a program, and it takes a lot of personal ambition and determination to develop those skills and be able to go out and network. I think a lot of alumni that I’ve spoken to really emphasize the skills of being able to network and to kind of relay what kinds of things you’re interested in.
Matt: [00:08:51] Networking is so important. And almost every interview or feature that we have on The Nontraditional Pharmacist, in some way is focused around networking. It ultimately comes back to making those key and critical connections in areas of pharmacy from the experts that have either created successful careers or helped other people achieve successful careers. So you know within the formal pharmacy training, do you see that there is everything provided to you to help you decide on those career paths? Or do you think there can be improvements on the information that’s given or the connections that are provided to help you decide on those career paths? What do you think?
Bryan: [00:09:38] Based off of my experience in my program, I think they’ve been doing a pretty good job of surveying what’s out there and introducing students to different settings. We have an experienced faculty member, someone who has been at UCSF for quite a while now, who brings in a pharmacist from settings that you wouldn’t really think about from the beginning to talk to us about what they do for their jobs and we’ve heard from people from industry and bioinformatics all the way to critical care and transplant pharmacists.
Matt: [00:10:26] That’s fantastic. That’s exactly the type of exposure that needs to be provided to students, and really honestly pharmacists too that are looking for maybe a career change, and a lot of times it’s just not out there. A lot of what we try to do with The Nontraditional Pharmacist is providing that exposure to all of the unique and different roles within the field of pharmacy so that people can make the best educated decision that’s best for them, while making those key and critical connections. So that’s good to hear that you’re getting exposed to some of that now, that’s going to only set you up for success in the future. What are your career plans? Tagging onto that, what are your career plans after graduation?
Bryan: [00:11:07] So what my current plan right now is to prepare for residency, so I can do residency after graduation. Our program tends to be pretty resident kind of focused and seeking out different postgraduate education opportuities, I think that’s a really big push now. So for me, I want to go into residency where I can get more mentorship on working in a clinic, in an ambulatory clinic, or working in general with patients. And then hopefully as things continue and as the pharmacy field changes, I can kind of find my way through. But my main goal right now, as a future pharmacist would be to work in primary care, which is something that isn’t really too well known at the moment. And maybe I can elaborate more on what that means. There is a faculty member at UCSF who works in an ambulatory care setting and she has an advanced pharmacist license, which allows a little bit broader scope of practice, in the State of California at least. And what she does is work with patients who are chronically ill and manages long-term disease therapy. And so that’s been very exciting and I really want to learn more about that.
Matt: [00:12:52] Incredibly nontraditional role in pharmacy, hey maybe when you graduate and you’re working in primary care in pharmacy, we’ll have you back on the show as a as a primary care pharmacist for The Nontraditional Pharmacist Part 2, Dr. Bryan Herrera. I like the sound of that.
Bryan: [00:13:08] I would love to do that. Yeah that would be great.
Matt: [00:13:11] How do you see your career plans that you’ve kind of outlined, let’s let’s shift a little bit to your personal life. How do you see that particular career path fulfilling your professional life as well as your personal life?.
Bryan: [00:13:28] I think Kalyn might have touched on this on the past video. Work-life balance is a very big consideration that pharmacists and newly graduated professionals should consider. And so for me, being able to work in a clinic and have personal interaction with patients is very personal to me at least. So I think being able to do that and also have some time outside of of work to be with family or be with friends and doing extracurricular activities that are outside of work. I feel like that job would be very flexible in that way. Some of my colleagues are very interested in more inpatient settings and a lot of the things that they say are, “oh I really love the way pharmacists are interacting in this setting.” But I don’t know if I could do the crazy hours or something like along the lines of if a nightshift would be something that I would want in my life during that time.
Matt: [00:14:46] That’s great you’re thinking about all those different things because it’s one thing to consider the role, the pharmacy-specific work. It’s very very important. But having the ability to evaluate your options and that chosen career path in the larger picture of your entire life is really the most important thing. And one of the things that we try to make all pharmacists and pharmacy students aware of is those work-life balance considerations, the personal effect that that particular career may have on you. So it’s good that you’re thinking about all those things. We would encourage all pharmacy students to think about, and be truly honest with yourself, what is really important to you as an individual and what do you really want from a career both personally and professionally? What advice would you give to other people, other students maybe looking to consider pharmacy school?
Bryan: [00:15:47] I would say my biggest advice would be take some time for yourself to reflect and recharge. I think it’s really easy to just get really focused on studying and trying to meet deadlines, and it’s hard sometimes to remember why you went to pharmacy school, and what you want to do afterwards. Burn out is something that happens pretty commonly. And so in order to prevent and hopefully avoid doing so, I’m going out getting out of the classroom and enjoying some time outside of studying is key to doing well in pharmacy school.
Matt: [00:16:38] Very good advice. You have to be well-rounded, balance, it’s all about maintaining a balance. We like to complete our episodes with your thoughts on where the future of the pharmacy profession as a whole is headed. We talked about some informatics, we talked about primary care pharmacy, very very interesting things, as we know the field is changing. Where do you think the growth areas are in pharmacy or what’s the future of the pharmacy profession going to look like moving forward?
Bryan: [00:17:14] So I really think that the field of pharmacy in general is going to be very exciting. It’s going to have a lot of growth in areas that pharmacists traditionally don’t have. In the case of informatics for example, a lot of people are trying to synthesize a lot of the data that we have available to us in the health care arena. And so informatics is something, especially along the lines of patient outcomes and medication adherence, that a pharmacist would be very key to establishing what kinds of patterns are out there and how we could better improve. When it comes to patient settings, I think because of the new specialties that are are being created, and a lot of pharmacists are gaining more accreditation through that, there will be more opportunities for professionals to be making more decisions and broadening the scope of practice.
Matt: [00:18:31] Great insight and thanks for your time today Bryan. Really appreciate all of the comments, your thoughts on the future of the pharmacy profession, sharing your experiences with us on pharmacy school. Future Dr. Bryan Herrera here everyone. Thanks for joining us again Bryan. Be sure to share this interview with your social network. And let’s all together help pharmacists and pharmacy students think about everything that needs to be addressed to have a successful and fulfilling life and career in pharmacy. Bryan thanks again. We’ll talk with everyone soon. This is Matt Paterini with The Nontraditional Pharmacist, take care.
Bryan: [00:19:11] Thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here and I can’t wait to see where pharmacy goes from here.
Matt: [00:19:21] Thanks Bryan. Thanks everyone for tuning in. Until next time. This is Matt Paterini with The Nontraditional Pharmacist.