Jul 17, 2018
Geily Ward is a 3rd year Pharmacy student at Nova Southeastern University-Palm Beach campus and hosts the Pharmacy Future Leaders Podcast. She began her pharmacy path in Miami where she worked as a pharmacy technician. After beginning pharmacy school she began working as a pharmacy technician then intern for Lawnwood Regional Medical Center. As part of NSU she has been actively involved with NCPA student chapter, as well as APhA.
Sponsor: Memorizing Pharmacology Mnemonics
https://www.amazon.com/Memorizing-Pharmacology-Mnemonics-Flashcards-Pharmacist/dp/B07DLFYC39/
Full transcript:
welcome to the pharmacy leaders podcast
with your host Tony Guerra the pharmacy
leaders podcast is a member of the
pharmacy podcast network with interviews
and advice on building your professional
network brand and a purposeful second
income from students residents and
innovative professionals hey welcome to
the pharmacy leaders podcast today we
have Hayley Ward a 3rd year pharmacy
student at Nova Southeastern University
Palm Beach campus
she began her pharmacy path in Miami
where she worked as a pharmacy
technician after beginning pharmacy
school she began working as a pharmacy
tech then in turn 4
Longwood Regional Medical Center as part
of Nova Southeastern University she's
actively involved with NCPA as well as
APHA welcome to the pharmacy leaders
podcast thank you for having me Hayley
we always want to start with a little
background
everyone's leadership road is a little
bit different can you tell us a little
bit about where you started and how you
got where you are today but maybe start
with late in high school kind of how
pharmacy came into your life so high
school was a little different for me
than for most I decided I didn't want to
do the whole four-year track so I spoke
to my counselors and asked them how can
I get out of here as fast as I can
that's correct I was already taking a
lot of AP classes I was taking 4 out of
8 AP classes and they told me well if
you want to get out of here you have to
do night school so I did all of my
senior year at night school and I
graduated a junior um yeah I went to
Miami Dade College for my undergrad and
I started working at a funeral home when
I was 16 which is might sound weird to a
lot of people and after doing four years
there you know I kind of saw my life and
I looked around I was like am I going to
be a funeral director if not that I need
to look for other opportunities and I
bought a book on Amazon and I took my
pharmacy technician exam so I got
certified
I studied the book and I got certified
and after I got that my mom kind of
forced me to go into every pharmacy
around town and apply and I had an
opening at Universal Arts pharmacy in
Hialeah Florida
and I got my technician hours there so I
was fully certified and worked for them
until I got accepted into Nova
Southeastern University
so pretty much they've been they were my
basis of everything that I knew about
pharmacy I got to learn a lot by working
as a technician and and I moved into
marketing and a lot of different other
aspects of the field so I got to see a
lot they let me do a lot of hands-on
work which I appreciated a lot and then
once I started Nova I asked for a
transfer and I moved to West Palm Beach
to the smaller campus and pretty much
that's where I am now okay well me pop
bus bed one though so my dad's Peruvian
and he he came with me as I went to
pharmacy school and I mean that quite
literally like he was there with me for
orientation
he waited seven hours for the PCAT and
then afterwards he's like well how'd you
do I was like well dad I don't they
don't give you the scores right away but
can you tell me a little bit about it
sounds like your family was very
integral in helping you start your
career even if it was pre-pharmacy you
can you talk a little bit about how that
how a family was important to you before
you even got to school
absolutely well I'm CUBAN and in our
culture you live with your parents your
parents live with their parents and that
cycle pretty much continued so yeah I
mean my family's the core to everything
and like I said my mom pushed me into
job interviews and I can say that's kind
of a millennial thing where a lot of
people think that you know our parents
hand-feed us but I'd say that just
support during my peak at I was
terrified when I walked out of there I
thought I hadn't with more AP classes
you thought you failed the peak ed yeah
but you know just having the the moral
support at home and and somebody that my
mom didn't accept no as an answer you
know if you were getting a B you were
doing bad which I appreciate now and I
see it with my daughter I feel like I'm
gonna be the same way good it's good I
mean I moved here from Cuba I was
actually born in Cuba I moved here when
I was five years old so I consider
myself American because this is all that
I know but it was hard
to learn any language and you know we
had no family here so we had to start
from zero which was very interesting in
the school sense my mom had to help us
with our homework by using a dictionary
so it was it was an interesting path but
you know she's always been there she's
always been our backbone my sisters in
medical school so you know it's
definitely helped she's been a
helicopter mom from the beginning and I
think every second of it oh that's
fantastic well yeah my my dad he came he
was the first he was the oldest brother
he brought all of his brothers and
sisters here from Peru and he worked
very hard to put us in neighborhood they
couldn't afford any kind of like window
drapes so they had curtains not curtains
but they had sheets on the windows for
two or three years and then I think
their mortgage was like three hundred a
month back in the early 70s but they
were absolutely terrified and they they
just got us into the best neighborhood
the best schools and they they just got
us around you know they say over and
over again that your zip code matters so
much but I feel like it's that your
family is in that zip code with you
helping you along well tied a little bit
about this family that you've developed
at Nova Southeastern sounds like you've
gone into one of the smaller satellite
campuses where you get a completely
different feel it's almost like I know
you're at a private but I feel like the
privates you you get a really the
attention that you would really love to
have can you tell me a little bit about
the smaller campus yeah I also really
love it like I said I got accepted into
the into the for a lot of Dale campus
and I was kind of terrified because I
came from miami-dade College which
wasn't too big to start with and once I
got my transfer I walked into the palm
beach canvas and well first of all I
fell in love because it's a brand new
building oh yeah yeah as classes started
it was so nice because it's such a small
class size we interact with the Palm
Beach I mean with the Davie campus
because we have the broadcasted lectures
but we do have facilitators who are
in-house and the interaction that we get
from them and the studies review
sessions and just if we have any
question we run up right upstairs and
have somebody there to answer and
actually sit down and explain
versus you know a class of 200 that you
know the professor the facilitators know
our names
you know they know who we are we
interact on a daily basis so I feel like
personally for me that has been the best
part of it you know being able to to run
upstairs and any doubt anything that
maybe I missed in lecture and I didn't
understand and we do have the ability to
email our professors but that you know
face-to-face contact is is what I like
the most
since we're such a small group they have
that time to to dedicate to us now
usually when when you're thinking about
smaller campus you think fewer
opportunities but tell me a little bit
about this fair that's got kids Ellison
and put together or that Nova
Southeastern to put together because it
sounds like you're one of the campuses
in this country that actually has the
most opportunities based on what I'm
hearing about this job fair and the
connections that you're making down in
southern Florida yeah absolutely
Nova has their mission statement for us
within which is a running joke it's you
know it's one NSU there's no difference
between the Palm Beach campus the Davie
campus or the Puerto Rico campus we're
all you know we're all there to help
each other and that really comes out
when they plan events dr. Carlson
definitely went above and beyond for
this future summit at first the Palm
Beach campus um a lot of people hadn't
signed up because we didn't know how we
were gonna get down there but he
coordinated and had a shuttle pick us up
from the campus and drop us back off
which made the travel of an hour and a
half a lot more feasible for you know
for many of the students so I mean this
event was incredible we sat down at
first and it was a big auditorium there
was a panel of pharmacists who talked to
us about their pathway and how they got
to where they were and after that we
were able to interact with so many
pharmacy companies I honestly don't even
know the number but it was different
booths and CBS was there Walbridge was
there I mean every company you can think
of and that's actually how I met Todd
and the pharmacy podcast which was
incredible for me but I just feel like
we're not neglected you know you hear
small campus like you said and you think
lack of opportunities but even within
our own campus our organizations plant
so many events so that we're not left
so that we have the same opportunities
as you know a school that has a class of
300 or 400 students so in that sense we
definitely have a lot of help okay well
let's talk about your the digital space
Tod URI and and I met him by I was
interviewed with Aaron J Albert she just
talked wanted to talk to somebody who
had gone out of retail or gotten out of
retail I hate to say getting out of
retail cuz I wanted to go to something
different it wasn't like I I escaped
some prison or you know I was looking
out the drive-through window and going
when will it be my turn it really wasn't
like that at all I enjoyed my retail
experience it just it was time to do
something different and he had me start
the pharmacy Future Leaders and I
connected with a lot of people and then
I said you know I want to go and create
this podcast so that I can interview
three to four people a week and he's
like that's a lot so you know he'd let
me kind of go do this thing and then he
wanted somebody that could reach out to
other people so tell me when you met him
how did that come about how did you end
up becoming part of the pharmacy future
leaders and the hosts of it so like I
said I was at the future summit event
and I walked by the table and I saw a
podcast and I mean I'm CUBAN so anyone
that knows the Kuban knows that we love
to talk so I walked by the table and I
kind of glanced back and I walked back
to him and I said what like what do you
do its are you a farmer are you just
here recording or what do you do and he
told me about the podcast and he told me
how you know it's dedicated to the field
of pharmacy and I was like well where do
I sign up so I started asking him
questions and he was like are you
interested and I said well yeah you know
what are the details for and he just
told me that he was planning the
relaunch of the pharmacy future leaders
and kind of just did an interview there
on the spot where he asked me about the
event and the day after I shot him an
email early in the morning I was I was
going to make sure he hadn't changed his
mind you know
- Ramiro and I said you know I'm still
interested and then we did a mock
recording and then after that it just we
just kind of kept rolling with it and
I'm Here I am
on rid of me yet well tell me a little
bit about how you involved your
classmates cuz that's the the first
group you reached out to and then how
they responded and and how you kind of
chose the first topics and and because I
didn't I was like oh my gosh I should
have thought of those topics and I
didn't and you were talking about some
of the introductory experiences and I
completely forgot how you really don't
know what's coming up exactly well um so
Joanne she had been on the summit as
well she's a p4 and I actually didn't
know her until Todd introduced both of
us so she had actually reached out as
well and we kind of just hit it off from
there and Jamie and Lewis they're
actually in my campus so I spoke to them
and I said well guys were about to go
into rotations Jamie and I are in the
same class so we were going to hospital
rotations and Lewis was going to his
first Community IPP rotation so I said
to them I you know what's more scary and
interesting for a student to listen
about then too than to hear about the
IPP rotations you know they're gonna
face this and they don't know what to
expect so that's kind of where that came
from and then Joanne you know she's the
word of wisdom she's already been
through it all and about to graduate so
it was definitely important to hear her
points of views when it came to the
matter sure and then from there though I
was really impressed that you started
reaching out to other campuses other
leaders across other campuses can you
tell me a little bit about some of the
other people that you've interviewed
some of the episodes that you've done
that maybe people can go to the pharmacy
future leaders and listen to you
interviewing those other leaders like
from Colorado and so on yeah absolutely
so I interviewed Lee and he's from the
University of Colorado and he did his
rap which was absolutely interesting and
if anybody hasn't heard his rap
definitely gone and listened to it and
it was just interesting to see what
other schools were doing the first thing
that I did was set up the Instagram for
the pharmacy Future Leaders because I
did want to that outreach you know
there's really no other way besides
social media to get across unless you're
going to conventions or networking like
that through the school so I was able to
link up with them through through
Instagram and so Lee Whitney and
and Kevin's a different story because I
kind of stalked him before on YouTube
he's a youtube personality so I kind of
saw him from there um yeah it was just
interesting for me to see you know
Florida such a melting pot of different
people so I didn't know what other
schools do and it was interesting for me
to have that interaction with them
I learned I've learned so much already
from the few interviews that I've done
and yeah it's just it that was my point
to you know to go out and find people
who were doing things outside of the box
and and trying to to make the professor
progress okay well to listen to you and
to all your energy and all the things
that you would do you would think that
these are only your responsibilities but
you're also a parent and so I have my
almost seven year old here in the room
with me she's sick so I had to keep her
at home while my wife goes to work and
the other two go to their you know
daycare can you tell me a little bit
about being a parent in pharmacy school
I found that the parents when I went to
pharmacy school actually got much better
grades than those that maybe didn't have
responsibilities and I that just it's
counterintuitive but in some ways maybe
it makes sense but can you tell me a
little bit about what it's like to be a
parent yeah absolutely
you know in the beginning I was
terrified because you know the pharmacy
is such a tough curriculum and I didn't
know how I was really gonna do it and I
do have a lot of support at home so
that's the main thing if you have a
strong base at home then you can do
anything and another thing that I did
immediately is you know I got a group I
have a friend Amy she's also a mom were
the two moms in the class so we kind of
grouped up together and since day one
people would look at us like we were
crazy since after the first lecture we
began to study the first lecture and
everybody was like we don't even know
when our first exam is but pretty much
in my mind just failure isn't an option
you know I have a four year old and a
family to answer to so it's not you know
I can't just go home and kick my feet up
I have to get home and cook and do other
things so just the idea that I have
somebody that's looking up to me and
it's just setting that goal for myself
where
I began this and I'm gonna finish it and
I'm gonna do the best that I can every
step of the way it's pretty much the
model that I have to wake up with every
day because it does get hard it gets
hard when you know you have exams
back-to-back and have to show up to
school and put on a smile at home so
that you're not the Grinch yeah you know
it's tough at times but it's just
staying focused same focused and taking
one step at a time that's the best
advice that I can give anyone who has
kids in pharmacy school you know I I
heard the trouble tree where you come
home and you put your troubles on the
trouble tree before you walk in because
you don't want to go in and see your
kids and and your your family and just
be like well I just had a really bad day
and I want to tell you all about it and
I want to take it out on you and in some
way you have to kind of just say okay
that happened I'm gonna compartmentalize
that part of my life
have you heard about the pharmacist
mom's group I didn't know if pharmacy
students maybe should be in that group
as well because that group is I think oh
my gosh it was it's in the thousands
really yeah and it's uh I can't remember
the name of the person exactly Suzy
Solomon was the name of the person who
started it and it blew up so I might
check out pharmacists mom's group just
say hey I'm a pharmacy student but I'm
going to be a pharmacist mom and maybe
you know I can get something because my
understanding is that that group does a
really good job of networking in in you
know talking about jobs and if somebody
you know has to move and and just all
kinds of things but just a tremendous
resource I've heard for for moms and
maybe I should start the pharmacist
dad's group because we have we have no
parachute we have no net you know right
now well well so I've heard a lot about
you know the podcast I've heard a lot
about you
what do you see in the future for
yourself and maybe some of your
classmates we hear good things we hear
bad things about pharmacy but it sounds
like there could be one pharmacy job in
the country and you would be the one
that is going to get it so tell me a
little bit about what you see for the
future um well definitely I since I
started pharmacy I've always heard you
know we have too many pharmacy schools
we have too many pharmacists there's not
going to be any jobs I don't believe it
because the profession can only go
forward I I don't see pharmacy going
backwards because I mean look at all the
people in legislative days and fighting
for the profession and provider status
and it's just we're so eager and we care
about our patients and I think that's
the main thing
jobs are gonna be there I have no doubt
about that patients need our care and
the further we go with providing great
patient care you know we're securing
jobs for ourselves and machines don't
really scare me because that patient
interaction and that will we provide as
humans that's never gonna go away
and for myself I I plan to to do the
hospital route hopefully I get a job
when I graduate we will see with
pharmacy future leaders I would love to
stay on the podcast I love to talk I
love to meet new people
I would love to network and help other
students who maybe come from different
countries or or who don't have anyone to
ask questions to I'd love to be that
beacon for them and I don't know maybe I
might end up doing talks and God knows I
I don't set my limits for myself because
the sky is the limit
honestly with knowledge and good
attitude I feel like you can get
anywhere and that's what I'm putting my
eggs into yeah you could
I think Michelle Obama could have
probably paid off your student loans
with a single speech so well I have
asked you a ton of questions is there
anything that you want to say before we
sign off that that you really feel
passionate about or in terms of Nova
Southeastern and dr. ku gelsin any
shoutouts to classmates anything any
final thoughts yeah absolutely
um absolutely a shout out to Nova
Southeastern class of 2020 we're all in
this together and we've definitely
helped each other in everything and I
want to say to students listening you
know don't be afraid ask for help go to
your nearest pharmacist ask them
knowledge is is something that you can
never get enough of and I've noticed
this and I continue to notice the more
that I speak to people the more I learn
I get I get every little piece of
information
from every single person I have a
conversation with and for pharmacy
future leaders I really hope that we can
pass the torch on once I'm done to
another school who's you know passion
for the for the profession is as big as
- and I just want to see the profession
grow and I I don't know I'm just super
excited to where we're headed and
excited to graduate and bring a lot of
great things to the professional as well
awesome well thanks so much for being on
the pharmacy leaders podcast thank you
so much for having me support for this
episode comes from g'night pharmacology
350 brand and generic name drugs with
classifications a leading resource for
students in the United States United
Kingdom and Australia print ebook and
audiobook available on audible iTunes
and amazon.com thank you for listening
to the pharmacy leaders podcast with
your host Tony Guerra be sure to share
the show with the hash tag hash pharmacy
leaders
