Career day!!! My Experience With An Elementary School

I'm sure we all remember career day in elementary school.  People's parents came in and talked to us about what they did and a lot of it was boring until like a firefighter came in and then everyone was so excited! Well It's not quite like that anymore

My school began working with a teacher at an elementary school in the area.  A bunch of us went to a third grade class to tell them about pharmacy and medication.  First, this is a two story elementary school which I have never seen in real life.  The teacher sent 5 students (third graders) down to greet us with a sign that said Pharmacy school. They escorted us up to their classroom.

Once inside the classroom we were told how the students had been taught to shake hands and look people in the eye when talking to them.  I found this facanating.  These kids are definitely on the track to success so early.  We then had a powerpoint presentation to show them.  We each took turn asking them questions like do you know what a pharmacist is? Who should you take medicine from? How can you be safe with medicine? What are some pharmacies you know? These kids knew SO much! It was seriously mind blowing!

The kids asked us some amazing questions such as how do you become a pharmacist? Why are some drugs called drugs and others called medicine? And my favorite, What made you want to be a Pharmacist?

We then took some time and had the children make cards for geriatric patients at Gwinette Medical Center.  They had such a good time and made some really cute cards! It was a lot of fun! I even got to teach a few how to draw flowers.  I had an amazing time and I am so grateful that there are teachers out there exposing kids to other paths other than fire fighter, police officer, and teacher.

Here are some pictures for you!

Pharmaceutics Labs Over The Last 2 Weeks - Powders, Gels, and Eye Lubricants

 POWDERS

In lab this week we made three different powders, individually wrapped headache powders, an effervescent powder, and a calamine dusting powder

Headache powder

My ingredients for the powder

 

Me Mixing and breaking down the particles to a fine smooth consistency 

The measured out dose of the mixture

The next few pictures are of me packaging this powder

Effervescent Powder

The ingredients needed

Me mixing and breaking down the particles.  This powder must be passed through a #40 sieve.

The powder on the sieve

The powder after being sieved

Testing the powder after it is finished.  In theory the patient would add the powder to water and drink it. 

Dusting Powder

This powder contains calamine and is meant to be dusted on the skin to relieve itching and calm the skin.

The ingredients needed

Mixing and breaking down the powders to a uniform consistency via geometric dilution

The finished product in a dusting container

Gels and Eye lubricant

 Ingredients needed

Sifting the methylcellulose

weighing the sifted methylcellulose

The Weighed methylcellulose

Kevin stirring the Gel

Me stirring the Gel

Pictures of our gel

Pouring the gel in the RX bottle

Since this is the last REAL lab day I wanted to take some pictures of all of my work

The creams and a suppository open

Me and my babies.  I am so sad to see them go!

 

 

Getting ready to throw all of my hard work away

Apparently this is what my work is worth! Non-hazardous TRASH!

All in all I had a great time in lab this semester.  I made a lot of things, learned a lot of things, and laughed with friends.  I had some rough times but I adore getting hands on and making something.  I really found this lab enjoyable

Stay healthy Lovelies!

How Pharmaceutics Lab and Emulsions Almost Made Me Cry

This last week in Pharmaceutics lab we made emulsions.  Everything started out fine. I gathered the ingredients mixed them in the appropriate manner and began mixing it immediately.

 My emulsion looked superior from the start. All of the others were lumpy and had clumps and mine was smooth and beautiful.

after Stirring and stirring and stirring mine looked the same. All of the other people's started to look better and mine still looked the same. At this point I am starting to get frustrated.  Soon everyone's is finished except mine, which still looks the same.  My friend Kevin offers to stir mine for a while to see if he can get it. Nope. So I add a bit of water and continue stirring. Soon everyone is finished with their second one and mine still looks the same. At this point I am about to cry I am so frustrated. I am covered in oil, my desk is a mess, and everyone is finishing up and I am still stuck on my first one. So I pour some more water in because what the heck it is probably ruined anyway, and lo and behold, it works an my emulsion is finished.

I then start on my second one. The second one came on perfectly and there was no issue. The first and second emulsions were the same, just different methods, the wet and dry gum methods.

 I was so frustrated this was the only picture of my emulsions finished I remembered to take

Then there was a third emulsion which you took lime water and olive oil and put them in a bottle and shook them up. That was super easy

Here are my finished emulsions

I have zero idea why my emulsion put me in such a bad mood.  It must be all of the stress I am under.  Well the semester is almost over which means SUMMER BREAK!!!  which for me means working but it will still be nice to give my brain a tiny break!

Stay healthy Lovelies!

Nerding Out

Last night I played a game of DnD for the first time ever. and it is official, I am a nerd. I totally loved it! It was a TON of fun.  Thanks to my friend Laurel for introducing me. I have created one of my 2 needed characters and I love her! I wrote the back story and all that Jazz today. In addition, I bought some pretty girly Dice so I can play.  I am excited!! Looks like my Tuesdays are full now! :D

Also, I totally made a 96 on my last Physiology and Pathophysiology test. This leaves me with an A in the class and I am so happy about that.  Now I just need to pull my grade up in Biopharmaceutics, and Pharmacy Administration, and I MAY be able to get all A's! The pressure is on! Now that I know this is a possibility I know I will obsess over it.  Thank science for anti-anxiety medication! I might not make it through otherwise.

I currently have approximately an 83% for biopharmaceutics, (not taking into account any weighting) if I make a 95 or higher on the next 2 tests I could make an A. We have only had 1 test in pharmacy administration, so I can't currently make the same hypothesis.  I really hope I can pull this off. I need a good grade!