Apr 25, 2018
Interprofessionalism has become a buzzword in our profession.
Pharmacists are an invaluable part of the healthcare team and our
scope of practice is constantly expanding. Yet with so much
rhetoric and push for interprofessionalism, how often do you
actually
hear directly from other professions? In this episode, we
invite Paarth Dodia, a medical student from the William Carey
College of Osteopathic Medicine, to share his perspective of what
leadership and interprofessional currently looks like on the
medical side of affairs. He then talks about a new venture he is
working on, The Healthcare Scholar Magazine, his student run
solution to interprofessional isolation. You will not want to miss
out on this unique podcast from a vantage point that pharmacists
and student pharmacists rarely get see the full scope of!
https://www.facebook.com/TheHealthCareScholar/
Full Transcript:
hi this is James Kong and I want to
welcome you all to the pharmacy leaders
podcast today we are part DoDEA a
first-year medical student at the
William Carey University College of
Osteopathic Medicine as a full
disclaimer part is my own personal
partner in our new new venture the
healthcare scholar magazine which we'll
talk a little bit more about later
parth welcome to the pharmacy readers
podcast thanks for having me okay so we
don't have many people on this podcast
that come from a medical background so
it'll be very unique talking to you so
just a little bit about yourself
starting with your undergrad tell us a
little bit about your road to medical
school and what brought you to where you
are today so I attended undergrad at UT
Dallas and I didn't always exactly focus
on school even though I knew I always
wanted to go to medical school
so the first time when I applied it kind
of showed on my application that I
hadn't been focusing on school so I
didn't actually get in my first time
around so I ended up applying and
attending a specialized master's program
at the University of North Texas Health
Science Center and the second time I
applied after having that extra
experience and you know proving that I
can I can kind of handle some rigorous
courses I was accepted to the William
Carey University College of Osteopathic
Medicine okay so a little bit of a
roundabout way but I think it's
something that a lot of us can really
relate to it's not everyone is able to
get into their dream school or
accomplish whatever they want their goal
is the very first time and so the
dedication you showed really paid off in
the end
so could you since we're on a leadership
podcast could you talk a little bit
about your personal leadership
background and how important the idea of
leadership is in the medical field as a
whole so the only prior leadership
experience I had before coming to
medical school was I was I was captain
of a dance team okay and when I came to
medical school I ran for and was elected
class president
which which has had a whole whole host
of things going on there but I think one
of the most interesting experiences or
opportunities I had was our our student
government president could not attend a
certain conference that all the student
government presidents for medical
schools go to so I was asked to kind of
sub in at this conference and the topic
at this conference was something that I
think is going to be really important it
is really important nowadays it was of
about mental health and mental health
awareness within the healthcare
professions within the you know medical
communities it there's a stigma on it
you almost looked down upon even though
you know we'll we'll treat people who
have it but then if you have it that's
an issue and so meeting all the
different student government presidents
from the different colleges of
osteopathic medicine whose was a really
eye-opening and you know engaging
experience yeah that seems very valuable
and time worthy I think mental health is
it's pervasive throughout our field as
something that there's not always very
openly talked about but I think more and
more being done about it but there's
still quite a lot of work to be before
to move forward in the area so that we
can all be more open about it especially
as students we're all under a lot of
pressure and then as the practitioner
worse it's still a lot more pressure so
it's really cool to hear about some of
the background experiences in the
medical community I'd be interested to
hear more about the parallels and
differences between say like pharmacy
and medical school how do you feel about
the leadership environment as a whole in
medical school so speaking just towards
medical school there's a certain skill
set that is required to gain admission
to medical school and this skill set is
not always conducive to creating great
leaders to in order to get in to get
the first screen when you're applying to
medical school you need to have the
stats to back it up they look you know
your GPA and your standardized test
scores I'm sure you guys go through
similar things applying to such you know
competitive schools but the thing is the
people who get on are really talented
really driven and have you know tons and
tons of potential but not everybody has
had much experience or time to develop
that potential so people aren't always
natural leaders in medical school and
people start at different levels but I
think everybody can have that you know
seed of leadership developed over time
as as long as people practice towards it
I completely agree with that as well I
think from the pharmacy schools
perspective going to pharmacy school at
the University of Texas at Austin
leadership was always heavily emphasized
and it was kind of a do or die like
pharmacy as a profession needs to grow
and develop and you need to be a leader
to expand upon it but at the same time
not everyone is a natural leader
I definitely personally did not start as
one and so something that everyone can
develop over time but you kind of need
to be motivated into it or like find
something that you really love about it
so it's it seems that there's a lot of
similarities and that but then also some
differences in exactly like the school
structure and environment there so since
we have pharmacy and medical here so I'm
curious from the pharmacy side how much
pharmacology and therapeutics do you
focus on in school so I'm still just a
first year student so I personally
haven't had too much in that regard
it'll pop in intermittently throughout
the entire first year for physiology
where we'll talk about the way certain
medicines will work but I think next
year we're gonna have pharmacology and
that that's what I'll be learning the
brunt of it and I'll be able to probably
give a better answer then
but all I know right now is that we have
two courses that are eight credit hours
that go through the entire year and
that's that's it in terms of you know
discrete pharmacology Wow
so more or less two courses to drug
therapy for your entire medical school
that dad took career so the rest of it
is coming from rotations yeah so my
understanding is that a lot of the
experience that we get during rotations
is going to be you know in informing us
on how we should be prescribing and what
we should be prescribing which is very
very different from what I understand of
you know pharmacy school that's that's
pretty much what y'all do that's that's
y'all's school you put in so much time
and effort to learn the intricate ins
and out of every single drug and we take
we got two courses that's interesting
but I mean we all have our specialties
so it kind of does make sense physicians
are very focused on the diagnostic part
and that's where you guys really excel
at so coming from the unique perspective
that you have to what extent do you feel
that so how do you how do you see
physicians and pharmacists collaborating
together under a shared outcomes model
so I just I have my own thoughts and
opinions on what the future is going to
hold and I think collaboration is going
to need to be increased a lot more
between you know pharmacists physicians
and really just leave the entire
healthcare team I think there's there's
a huge emphasis or a huge trend towards
the emphasis of interprofessionalism
and you know we we do diagnose and
currently it seems like physicians do a
lot of the prescribing as well but maybe
if we spend more time talking with
pharmacists as another member of
the healthcare team and not hey I'm
prescribing this go pick it up from your
pharmacist you know more MORE
you know communication there I think
could be really helpful both for the
patient and for you know health care
overall yeah I can I think focusing on
the strange that we have and kind of
breaking down the barriers in that sense
would I mean it directly it naturally
leads to better outcomes right but there
is a a sort of cultural change that
needs to occur for that to happen so for
that to happen I think it just comes up
to exposure for the different
professions so how do you feel that
medical schools in general currently how
well do you think that they cover
working with other healthcare
professions I think it's on the rise I
don't think it's a to a level that it
needs to be yet I can't speak to all
schools but it's something that's really
it's talked about a little bit at my
school but it isn't really implemented
very much so that's one thing I would
personally like to try and push at my
own school but I think there's there's
no harm really in having us exposed to
all the other pieces of the healthcare
team early on so that you know will be
an effective you know disease fighting
squad sooner rather than later
it sounded like superheroes an effective
disease fighting squad yeah and sort of
the Power Rangers would be the pathology
Rangers we should I used to make a new
team so so I mentioned this earlier but
you helped start the healthcare scholar
magazine so first where can people find
that and what is it about the magazine
can be found at the healthcare scholar
calm and it's meant to serve as a
platform for exposure we wanted to
create a website where
students could write articles that would
educate students of other healthcare
professions about the things they go
through about their unique experiences
or just about things that they would
want other healthcare professions to
know so it's completely student-led
student driven and most importantly it's
for students okay so what do you think
the readers will get out of this so one
who chooses to subscribe to it so first
I hope that they they will just enjoy
the articles you know they're gonna be
both informational as well as
entertaining but career-wise I think you
can gain a deeper understanding of what
it is that the other professions do and
what they go through it I think it'll
make you know a student doctor a better
potential physician a student pharmacist
a better potential pharmacist you know
all the way around nurses PA PT so where
the articles coming from who's writing
it yeah I think that's the best part
it's all it's all students it's your
classmates
it's your peers and the other healthcare
professions it's anybody that wants to
write an article to anybody else in the
healthcare profession okay so it can be
anyone who's in the health care area
that's a student but is there like a
certain fit is there like anyone could
be a good fit for a ready an article for
it um yeah yeah so anybody who just
wants who out who has a unique story
that they want to get out there if they
don't have any writing experience or you
know haven't ever written article before
that's fine because it's it's gonna be a
back and forth process we'll work with
them we have you know editors it'll it
it won't come easy because I'm sure a
lot of us are more trained to digest
textbook
and powerpoints and then spit back
either a a B C or D but I think anybody
who has that story inside them or the
message inside them that they want to
get out this is who that's for
okay so it's for everybody for all
students that are interested in
healthcare in the healthcare field and
then anyone can reach out to write how
would they reach you so yeah on on the
website the healthcare scholar comm you
can contact us directly from there both
if you choose to subscribe and we have a
contact page or you can email us
directly at admin at the healthcare
scholar com
gotcha so as this comes to an end is
there anything that we haven't covered
that you want to talk about so I just
want to give a huge shout out to all the
the you know pharmacy students as well
as pharmacists out there I feel like
physicians end up getting a lot of the
credit for you know healthcare outcomes
but it's really a team effort you know
so that shout-out and then I also want
to give a shout with my parents I
wouldn't be where I am today without
their unending supply okay oh it's good
to go back to mom and pop yeah well
thank you very much for joining us today
and thank you for all the listeners that
joined us throughout this entire podcast
and hopefully we will hear from you