Welcome Resident Grube!

Hello readers – My name is Laura Grube and I am a fourth-year pharmacy student at the University of Minnesota.  I’m here with the Minnesota Pharmacists Association for my first five-week rotation.  I grew up in Plymouth, MN and am the first in my family to enter a health care field.  I completed my undergraduate studies at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, MN with a four-month stint at Bunkyo Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan.  I earned a BA in Biology with a minor in Asian Studies.  After completing my Pharm.D., I am interested in community management or pharmacy benefits management.  I plan to complete a part-time MBA program locally within the next few years.

I have completed two weeks with MPhA so far, and it has been a unique experience.  Because the legislature is not in session, I have been spending a lot of time getting to know the inner workings of MPhA.  This knowledge is invaluable, because prior to this I did not have a firm grasp on what MPhA really does or what they have to offer.

I have already experienced a variety of things and learned that many pharmacists value MPhA.  Julie Johnson, Mark Nickell (a fellow rotation student) and I visited Blomberg Pharmacy, Setzer Pharmacy, and the Medicine Chest over the course of an afternoon.  Seeing these independent pharmacies was eye-opening, as we discussed the benefits and challenges of owning your own pharmacy.  Owners feel a sense of pride in their work and their relationships with customers, but also have to deal with difficult business issues like decreasing reimbursement rates.

I have also participated in a few meetings regarding the Minnesota Pharmacists Foundation’s AWARxE.  I learned about the background of the program, the current initiatives within the program, and plans to expand the program and gain much more visibility.  AWARxE brings to light the important and somewhat shocking fact that misuse and abuse of prescription drugs is now a much greater problem than use of illicit drugs.  I think many people, pharmacist or otherwise, aren’t fully aware of this growing problem.  Hopefully, AWARxE will succeed in its mission to inform and educate both health professionals and the public.

Also this week, I was able to sit in on a meeting between some members of MPhA and the Iowa Pharmacists Association.  The sharing of information and ideas between the groups was inspiring.  It’s exciting to see first-hand what these professionals are working on in an effort to change pharmacy and health care for the better.  I’m really looking forward to reflecting on that meeting more and contributing my viewpoint as a student nearing graduation.

Overall these first two weeks have offered a variety of experiences.  I’m thankful that I was assigned this rotation, because it gives me some opportunities that I wouldn’t have throughout the rest of the pharmacy curriculum.  Thanks for reading and I’ll update you with more next week!