Friday, January 23, 2015

Bidding farewell

Today my rotation at mdBriefCase draws to its end. Although I will leave mdBriefCase behind, there are three key lessons I will take with me as I continue down the road of my pharmacy career:

1. Learning to write CE within a month is a crucible experience.

My journey from novice CE author to published CE author over a 5-week period was a steep one. In the beginning, I scoffed at the hardships of medical writing my pharmacy mentor warned me about… But then my drafts came back painted red, their content was ruthlessly sheared, and the drawing board became my dear friend. Even my final product was faulted. But being confronted with that criticism was a constructive learning experience. It was humbling and challenging, and ultimately, it has made me a better writer.

2. CE development is a production that puts Cats to shame.

Sitting behind the scenes of mdBriefCase has enhanced my appreciation of the collaboration required to provide successful CE. Many independent minds and skill sets come together to produce a single work of CE, from a simple newsletter to a full-fledged online program. In fact, the teamwork at mdBriefCase involves the kind of cooperation and communication that healthcare professionals aspire to achieve. As a future pharmacist, I hope to foster this interprofessionalism in practice in order to provide better patient care.

3. Every pharmacy should be equipped with an abundant supply of coffee.

Did you know that coffee transforms unintelligible babbling into coherent sentences? Oh alright, this is just a silly learning lesson, but it would no less help improve my counseling skills in the morning.
To conclude, I would like to say goodbye to mdBriefCase. I am enormously grateful to have been so openly welcomed into their team and I would like to thank them all for such a phenomenal rotation.

All the best,
Kristen