S R Pharmacy

 2. I’m a hospital pharmacist, and my specialty is intensive care medicine. I provide pharmacy services to patients within the intensive care units of the hospital as a member of a patient care team that includes physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, dietitians, social workers, case workers, and others. Being part of a team like this takes me back to my football days. This is mainly because I see similarities in how a patient care team functions like a sports team—everyone has a unique job to do. But, instead of trying to win a game, our goal is to work together to make a patient better. My specific duties on the team include ensuring that the medications prescribed to patients are the correct ones, and confirming that they’re being given in the correct doses at the proper times. When the patient care team is making care plans for patients, it’s also my responsibility to make medication recommendations.

  1. Before—and even immediately after—graduating from high school, I didn’t consider pharmacy as a possible career option. At that time, I knew I really enjoyed my math and science classes, but what I really wanted to be was a football player. So, I accepted a partial athletic scholarship to Mankato State University in Minnesota to play college football. After my first year there, my dad suggested that I develop a career plan that wasn’t focused on football. That’s when I spoke to my college advisor, who was connected with some pharmacy students at the  University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. I was lucky enough to speak to those students, and they helped me finalize my decision to pursue pharmacy school. Once the decision was made, I applied to the University of Iowa (UI) College of Pharmacy. My acceptance letter arrived on the night of the spring football game at Mankato. That was when I knew had to make a choice; I chose to attend pharmacy school over playing football....