“I also had the chance to work with members of the RxPharmacist team to clarify my personal brand and improve my networking, interviewing, and job offer negotiation skills.”
I recently completed an APPE rotation with RxPharmacist. As someone with no experience in medical writing and a limited understanding of what medical writers do, I am not sure what motivated me to choose this APPE rotation. However, after spending 5 weeks learning from the RxPharmacist team I can say I am very happy with my choice.
For the first part of this rotation, I updated the Minnesota MPJE study guide. This was the perfect start to my medical writing journey as I was able to use the previous edition of the study guide to direct my writing. My preceptor guided me through state and federal law updates as well as how to write the best MPJE practice questions! I received thoughtful feedback throughout the process that helped me develop a product that I am proud of.
The second half of my rotation focused on creating blog posts about a variety of pharmacy topics. This challenged me to expand my writing knowledge and to practice condensing complex pharmacy topics into short, understandable posts. I had the freedom to choose topics that interested me which made the whole process very enjoyable. It was a great way to review core pharmacy information from my pharmacotherapy courses while practicing medical writing. My preceptor provided helpful feedback that improved the clarity of each of the blog posts I wrote. She also gave me an overview of the different types of medical writing and shared many of the places medical writing and pharmacy overlap.
As a bonus, I also had the chance to work with members of the RxPharmacist team to clarify my personal brand and improve my networking, interviewing, and job offer negotiation skills. While this was not directly related to medical writing, it was yet another valuable piece of this rotation.
Here are my top 3 takeaways:
- There is something for everyone, whether you want to work on creative writing or dig into state laws.
- Everyone can benefit from learning more about medical writing, regardless of past writing experience.
- It is fun to take a break from direct patient care while still focusing on pharmacy topics!
Completing an APPE with RxPharmacist taught me skills that I would not have learned through other APPE rotations. I would recommend this rotation to all pharmacy students regardless of the pharmacy career they are aiming for. I believe that the experience I gained will help me with upcoming job applications and interviews as well as in my day-to-day work as a pharmacist.
Maggie M.
University of Minnesota 2024 APPE Student