Author: Yu Ying Mei

School: St. John’s University

Area of Study: Pharmacy

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Part 1

What inspired you to embark on a career within your chosen healthcare field?

Does price always determine quality? In my grandmother’s case, not necessarily. Three years ago, my grandmother was diagnosed with lupus, a chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when the immune system attacks healthy cells and tissues. Upon hearing the news, my parents and relatives were devastated. Unlike the United States, there were no health care programs for the elderly or low-income individuals in the small Chinese city my grandmother lived in. My family and I were suffering both emotionally and financially for my grandmother’s wellbeing. The price and amount of medicine my grandmother had to take was very troublesome. I could not imagine how much medicine my grandmother had to take because in China, you take a lot of pills even for a common cold. I can still recall how severely my parents fought day and night about who should take care of my grandmother and her medical bills. My eldest aunt ended up staying with my grandmother to take care of her twenty-four hours seven days a week. Arguments erupted immediately between my dad and his sisters because my eldest aunt felt that it was unfair that she had to take care of my grandmother.

In China, the healthcare system is very different from that of America. I feel grateful that I live in New York because people with low-income can benefit from the Medicaid program. Also, when pharmacists bill the insurance company, the medication cost will be revealed to the patient and he/she can choose to take the medication or not depending on the price. Patients can also choose to go to other pharmacies where the medication can be dispensed in a cheaper price depending on the type of pharmacy. In China, especially in my grandmother’s poor city, this was not the case. My family was not well educated and we didn’t have the knowledge about generic medications. The brand medications my grandmother had to take were financially burdening for the whole family.

Sometimes brand medications doesn’t work as well as generic medications depending on the patient and how it gets absorbed in the body. I personally have experienced it myself. I have taken a brand medication that caused me to feel very self-conscious about myself because I was experiencing a lot of side effects. After I told my doctor about my difficulties, she prescribed me the generic medication, which made me feel both physically and mentally well again. This taught me the lesson that price doesn’t always determine quality in the health care world. The most important aspect as a professional in the health care field is to save lives and help patients get well.

Prior to coming to the United States, I spent more time with my grandmother than my parents because she looked after me while my parents went to work. She was very sweet and selfless because she always thought about others first before herself. If she was hungry and all she had was a piece of bread, she would give that piece of bread to others. Perhaps miracles do happen to kindhearted people because coincidently, my uncle knew the vice president of the hospital my grandmother stayed at. Being an expert in the field, the doctor introduced my grandmother to another type of medicine that treats the same disease but cost only one tenth of the original medication price. It’s due to my grandmother’s illness that contributed to my desire to pursue a career in the health-related field. This miracle taught me that price doesn’t always determine quality in medicine because there are alternate generic brands.

When I was young, I actually really disliked medicine because I didn’t like the bitter taste of pills. My grandmother would stuff the pill in a small crumb of bun so I would enjoy swallowing food without having to taste the medicine. Now, opening a bottle of pills is always a reminiscence of my grandmother to me because there’s this smell to medication that brings back memories. In the case of drugs, many drugs that require prescriptions in China are available for sale in most Chinese pharmacies. Unlike America, seventy percent of the drugs sold to consumers are from hospitals. People in China tend to trust hospitals more and it’s more convenient to pick up medication. Others may choose to take herbal medicine instead due to traditional beliefs. Yet overall human life is very precious. I strive to become a pharmacist that can bring liveliness and hope to people by relieving their fear and loneliness. My ultimate ambition is to provide patients with the most affordable medication in the least dosage to reduce the number of side effects.

Part 2

Where will your ACLS or PALS certification take you? Write about where you are in your career goals now and where you see yourself in five, ten and fifteen years.

A career in medicine can help me commit to a career for lifetime learning. All professions in the health care field strive to save lives. ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support) can help me save patients in critical conditions. The heart is a vital organ that keeps people alive. If a patient’s heart stops due to a cardiac arrest, the patient can be endangered of dying. ACLS can teach me about life-saving tools of electrocardiograms, intubation, and intravenous medications. For example, if a patient is having difficulty breathing and her blood pressure is declining nonstop, one would have to know how to act or the patient can be dead. With ACLS training, I will have the knowledge and ability to save a patient with heart problems. In more critical situations, a doctor must know to cooperate with nurses to perform intubation emergency procedure to clear phlegm, so that the patient can breathe better. The doctor then should prescribe medicine to help maintain the patient’s heart condition. In my particular example, a doctor then would prescribe dobutamine, a drug use to increase heart contractility and treats heart failure. A pharmacist would work with nurses to help carry out the medicine immediately to the patient. That’s why heart disease is very frightening. Time is crucial and if one misses the golden time to save a patient, the patient can die in front of one’s eyes. That’s why ACLS is mandatory in emergency rooms, cardiac unit, and medical areas.

In medical dramas and movies, my heart would race nonstop and my breathing would start to grow heavy when a patient experiences ventricular tachycardia, a condition where the heart beats at a fast rhythm that can lead to sudden death. I can imagine how anxious doctors must feel when performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with a defibrillator. Never had I wanted anything more than electrocardiograms to come back to normal. In these cases of a matter of life or death, it’s crucial for nurses and doctors to work together as a team. Failure to cooperate can kill the patient if they don’t save the heart in time. Although I’m not working to become a physician or nurse, as a future pharmacist, I feel that I should at least be certified in CPR so I can save lives even outside of hospital settings. In addition, if I do work at a hospital as a pharmacist, I would have to work with doctors and nurses providing them the medication they need in a timely fashion because time is key when working with the heart.

Currently, I work at a pharmacy as the cashier. Not only am I in charge of helping patients ring out their OTC (Over the Counter) medicine purchases, I’m also in charge of dispensing medicine and taking refill orders from patients. I noticed that many patients take blood pressure medicine. This is another example showing how pharmacists and physicians work together to treat patient’s heart. I believe it’s vital that pharmacists should be certified in CPR because they’re working with many patients that have heart problems. It’s unpredictable when a patient can experience a heart attack and it can scar other patient’s heart if they witness such an incident where no one in the pharmacy can help the patient.

As a student now, I am very proud to be a member of a Vincentian-Catholic University because they reinforce to me that one of my main goals is to strive for a lifetime of learning and service to others. It’s those small sacrifices that make a difference and lead to a purposeful life for people. Once I receive my doctorate degree in pharmacy in about five years, I’ll be able to impact patients to understand their diagnosis and be interested in their health. As a pharmacist, I’ll own patients my expertise and time because patients trust me to help treat them. I should treat them as my family and help them get well. Thus, in my leisure time, I want to seek additional classes in disease management and ACLS to become more knowledgeable. I also hope to develop friendships with other health care specialists and commit to this career of lifelong learning. ACLS lessons will be easy because I can access it anytime and anywhere saving me commuting time with flexible learning hours. I strive to become a pharmacist that can bring liveliness and hope to people by relieving their fear and loneliness. This is where humanity shines.

In ten years, I see myself opening up my own pharmacy in either Philadelphia or Boston. I wouldn’t open a pharmacy in New York because I see a pharmacy in almost every corner. Last weekend, I took a trip to New York’s Chinatown and there was a pharmacy around almost every corner. I feel that I have the duty to help out those who are uneducated in areas where there is a large Asian population with little pharmacies. I want to make use of my bilingual ability to help out those in need just like my grandmother to provide patients with medication that they can afford. Yet don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to limit myself to Asian patients because every patient is equal and as a health care professional, I have the duty to help every patient. However, due to my bilingual ability of speaking three Chinese dialects along with English, I have the capability of helping Asian patients by directly speaking to them about their health problems without any language barriers.

In fifteen years, I see myself training pharmacy technicians at my pharmacy to provide patients with the best care in a timely fashion. I am currently trying to look for a pharmacy technician job and I know how hard it is to be offered an opportunity for a job. Most areas that are opened are either too far or the work place environment is very poor with low paid. I hope to set up a personal training program where I train technicians by providing them the most common medications and effects and teaching them about the importance of patient care. Shadowing a senior technician is also very important because hands on experience are crucial too. It would be best if I can set up an online training program for my technicians because just like ACLS/PALS online training programs, it saves students time and they can access it anytime easily.

Although I am currently only a second year pharmacy student at St. John’s University, I feel that as long as I try hard with confidence, I’ll be able to graduate successfully as a pharmacist. I knew being a pharmacy major was difficult, but as my dad told me, “If you work hard now for a few years, your future will be bright.” One of the reasons why I think my education is special because not only am I able to pursue a valuable education, I am also encouraged to do service bringing out the selfless side of me. Doing service at nursing homes had taught me that although visiting a sick elderly may mean just visiting a patient to people, it means the world to the elderly when he/she can speak and have visitors accompany him/her. I hope my goals can positively impact lives just like how the vice president aided my grandmother. In America, if a medication is too expensive for a patient to afford, I will call the physician to ask him/her to prescribe the patient the generic medication.