Rotations are a subject that many students looking to become pharmacists may not be able to fully grasp until they’re actually in pharmacy school. I knew coming in that my first summer I would have to work in a retail pharmacy for a month, after my second year would be the hospital rotation, and I definitely didn’t worry too much about figuring out the P4 year of rotations because that was far enough off. Now that I’ve been through the process of the lottery and picking my rotation I have a better appreciation for the system. Here at Campbell, the lottery system is used to keep everything as fair as possible. By lottery system they literally mean that you walk up to the front of the room and pick a chip out of a bag. That chip has a number on it, and that number is the number you will get to choose your site for your rotation. Of course everyone hopes to get within the top 10 so they can have the first choice of sites. I, however, pulled number 97 (totally my luck ha). As the day of the lottery grew closer Dr. Brown and Mrs. White, who run the scheduling for the rotations, updated the spreadsheet that had the possible sites and what months they were available. Monday, January 28th, was the day we got to pick our rotation sites for our community rotation. I just wanted to give a few words of wisdom so to speak for all the incoming P1’s going into the lottery. So here it is.
For the community rotation there are many, many sites to choose from. So, if you end up #97 like I did don’t immediately get discouraged (you’re not allowed to switch numbers so no matter what, the number you pick is the number you will be when picking your site).
BEST ADVICE: Go in with at least 10 different sites that you would be okay with for your rotation. By the time it was finally my choice my top three choices were already gone and quite a few of the others that were some of my lower choices were gone as well. However, since I came prepared with like 12 different sites from the spreadsheet I was still able to make a good decision on where I wanted to be.
If you want to do an out-of-system rotation (meaning not one that would be on the spreadsheet of sites that the school provides) figure this out as early as possible. There are specific rules that have to be followed for out-of-system site choices. For example, if I decided to go back home to New Jersey, I would have had to find a location, preceptor, have them fill out a form, and make sure that I had all of the requirements that New Jersey has to allow me to work in a pharmacy in New Jersey.
Don’t be afraid to ask. I immediately went to my peer leader and fellow student ambassador Christy Westbrook and talked to her about what to expect. She is a P2 student here and had already gone through the process. Her insight for me helped me out a lot.
In general, I may have been number 97, but because I talked to people who had been through it and came prepared I ended up leaving with a rotation site that I was definitely okay with!
Hope your experience is just as good as mine!
Jessica Humenik
P1 Student