If you’re a student pursuing a career in pharmacy, you’ve probably heard that pharmacy shadowing is one of the best ways to find out whether the career actually fits you. That can be true, but it’s sometimes hard to know where to start, especially if nobody in your immediate circle works in healthcare.

Here’s how to find pharmacy shadowing opportunities, and how a MEDLIFE Service Learning Trip can show you a side of pharmacy you won’t see behind a retail counter.

Why Pharmacy Shadowing Is Beneficial For Students

Classes and lectures are great for teaching you the fundamentals of chemistry and biology. They don’t show you a pharmacist catching a dangerous drug interaction, talking a worried parent through a child’s antibiotic, or calling a prescriber about a dose that looks off. Shadowing does. A few hours beside a pharmacist will tell you more about the pace, the responsibility and the amount of patient contact than any textbook can. It also helps you decide before you commit years to studying the craft.

How To Find a Pharmacist To Shadow At Home

• Ask your pre-health advisor or teachers for contacts.
• Reach out to your family’s pharmacist, or to independent pharmacies, which often have more flexibility than large chains.
• Contact a local hospital’s pharmacy department and ask about its student observation policies.

Keep your email short: who you are, why you’re interested in pharmacy, and a request for a few hours of their time. Be flexible about scheduling. Hospitals may ask for paperwork, a background check or proof of vaccinations, so start early.

Seeing Pharmacy In a Different Setting On a MEDLIFE SLT

On a MEDLIFE Service Learning Trip, students spend several days assisting in mobile clinics in medically underserved communities in countries like Peru, Ecuador and Costa Rica. Each clinic has a pharmacy station run by local pharmacists, where patients receive the free medications prescribed during their visit.

At the pharmacy station, you’ll watch how local pharmacists work and help where they ask you to, such as organizing medications or guiding patients through the line. You won’t dispense or counsel patients yourself, and the trip isn’t a substitute for pharmacy shadowing at home, but it can provide a perspective on health access challenges within a country that isn’t your own. Witnessing the challenges people in these communities face will encourage a sense of empathy and consciousness within your future work as a pharmacist.

You’ll witness what the pharmacy practice looks like when resources are limited. Pharmacists explain dosing clearly to patients who may live far from the nearest refill, adjust to what’s in stock, and coordinate with doctors on the spot. You’ll also see that the pharmacy is one piece of a bigger system. MEDLIFE’s local staff follow up with patients who need ongoing care after the clinic ends, and students work alongside community members on projects like building staircases that make it easier to reach health services.

How To Make The Most Of Any Pharmacy Shadowing Experience

• Dress professionally and arrive on time.
• Save most of your questions for slower moments or the end of the day.
• Don’t handle medications or patient information unless you’re asked to, and keep everything you see confidential.
• Write notes and reflections the same day about what you saw and how it felt.

Questions worth asking yourself include: What surprised me the most today? How did the pharmacist handle a disagreement? What is something I learned today that I would not have otherwise known?

Start With Curiosity

Shadowing locally shows you what a typical pharmacist’s day to day looks like. A mobile clinic in Latin America or Africa shows you what happens when access to medication isn’t guaranteed.

Both these experiences together can give you a fuller picture of the profession and the different types of patients being served.

To learn how you can shadow a pharmacist on a MEDLIFE service learning trip in Latin America or Africa, fill out the form below or download our brochure today!