Class of 2012 Embarks on School Trip

Visit to Florida included stop at West Palm Beach Veterans Affairs Medical Center and meetings with practicing pharmacists

By Deborah Wang
February 7, 2011

While fellow students were enjoying a relaxing winter break from the rigorous pharmacy curriculum, the Class of 2012 took the traditional class trip, this time to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, Florida. From Jan. 13 to 16, members of the class visited the West Palm Beach Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center and met with Stuart Haines, PharmD, a professor in the School’s Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science who practices at the VA.

The trip, organized by the Class of 2012’s Executive Board, is designed to raise awareness of pharmacy practice opportunities, build kinship, and encourage camaraderie among the class.

The West Palm Beach VA is the second newly built VA facility in the United States. Students on the trip were given tours by Hiroko Forbes, PharmD, and Donna Beehrle-Hobbs, PharmD, and were briefed on the roles and responsibilities of pharmacists practicing at the VA by Nick Beckey, PharmD, chief of pharmacy, and John Vora, PharmD, associate chief for education and research, and clinical pharmacist specialists in acute and primary care. Haines introduced the students to the VA’s unique electronic medical record system, and explained that the use of electronic medical records opens lines of communication among the team of health care workers providing care to a patient and encourages accuracy and efficiency. Current VA pharmacy residents Stephanie Reynolds, PharmD, and Elizabeth DiMaggio, PharmD, gave students insight into the residency application process. VA inpatient staff pharmacist Robert Rauchwerger, RPh, said “no matter where you choose to work, just remember that you are making important decisions in people’s lives and that fact alone should guide the way you practice.”

The students also enjoyed extracuriccular activities such as dining on authentic Cuban food, and taking a boat tour of the Fort Lauderdale waterways. The class trip was made by possible through fundrasiers organized by the Class of 2012 Executive Board, student members, and the Student Government Association.