Introducing Quynh Nguyen

Hello everyone!  My name is Quynh Nguyen and I definitely have a hard act to follow with both Dan and Meghan as my predecessors.  Let me just start off by introducing myself.  I am Vietnamese-American born in San Francisco and moved to the state of 10,000 lakes when I was about 14.  I graduated from Burnsville High School and began my higher education at the University of Minnesota in 2001.  This is where I spent 9 years of my life with pharmacy school following my bachelors in 2006.  I am happy to say that I will be graduating in about 1 month!!!  How excitingly terrifying!  Post graduation, I will be continuing my journey as a resident for Dominick’s pharmacy in the great city of Chicago! 

Now on to this rotation…

So far, I have to say my experience has been unexpected.  I envisioned a hectic, crazy atmosphere much like that of a metropolitan newsroom.  Don’t ask why.  I guess it may have something to do with the thought of working on the political side of pharmacy.  I was expecting to see people all riled up and frazzled while spitting words of politics I don’t comprehend.  The latter is somewhat true.  This is quite the learning curve for me.  Growing up in a non-political family and lack of interest myself in any and all things political, it is hard for me to understand how it all really works.  And that is why I appreciate this rotation so much.  It is nice to see the legwork behind a lot of legislation that affects pharmacy.   Side note: It is REALLY important to get involved and to contact your representatives and let yourselves be heard!  I have a greater appreciation for the people, such as Julie Johnson and all at MPhA that represent the voice of pharmacy.  They work really hard to create an entity that represents this profession that I love.   And to be fair, I started my rotation after the busy work surrounding Legislative Day, so perhaps it was a little more hectic in this office.  I however, had the pleasure to greet a very calm and collected Julie Johnson.  She appeared unexpectedly composed and relaxed.  Although after spending a week with her, with all the million things that pop up, she still maintains this composure. 

So far, my biggest contribution has been working on a survey for pharmacists in the state of Minnesota.  This survey is to reach thousands of pharmacists and we hope to get a good response rate.  The purpose is to understand more about both our members and non-members and how we can improve ourselves as an organization to increase and sustain membership.  So if any pharmacists are reading this please take a few minutes out of your day to take the survey that I have worked really hard on.  We really appreciate your input and you have the opportunity to win $100!  So follow this link if you’re interested:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/mphasurvey

That is all for now folks!  There will be more to come…