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Official Newsjournal of the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists

Roosevelt University College of Pharmacy
Roosevelt University Fall Update

by Rameez Hasan, P-2, Membership Chair, Brandon Swinford, P-2, Historian/Webmaster, Samana Walji, P-2, Social Services Chair

In late October, SSHP will be hosting its quarterly journal club event. Our journal club discussions are one of the recurring events our chapter holds that has consistent participation. SSHP posts the article for the journal club in advance so students have adequate time to prepare. Together, the SSHP executive board chooses an article that the students read and prepare a journal club on. We provide templates, example completed journal clubs, and rubrics to encourage participation.

This quarter, our journal club discussion is on the article “Pioglitazone after Ischemic Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack” from The New England Journal of Medicine. The journal club events hosted by SSHP provide students with the opportunity to improve their critical thinking skills and increase their knowledge. Fourth and second year pharmacy students must participate in the journal club if they choose to attend, while first year students can participate or attend for their edification. For first year pharmacy students, it provides them with the opportunity to attend or participate in a journal club discussion in a stress free, learning environment. They can observe their senior students, who have more experience with journal clubs, present and learn early on what a journal club is all about. The early exposure can better prepare them before they take their first drug literature class. Furthermore, it gives senior pharmacy students the opportunity to improve their journal club skills and present in front of their peers and clinical faculty member(s).

As the winter months approach, so does ASHP Midyear. For those of us still in our early years of pharmacy school, we are preparing for Midyear by creating and designing a poster to present on the behalf of the Roosevelt University College of Pharmacy SSHP. We decided to create a survey and present it to the P1 and P2 students to see how exposure to journal club discussions hosted by SSHP affect their general knowledge of biostatistics. This opportunity also provides the opportunity for students to see how journal clubs are presented to their peers. For the P1s, the journal clubs we host provide a chance for the incoming class to dip their feet into something that will become a crucial part of their curriculum and clinical skill set. For the P2s, we hope to refresh their skills of literature interpretation by providing them a chance to practice presenting a journal club to members of our clinical faculty. Whether it is reading a journal article as source for a patient case, or providing evidence for treatment procedures in a disease state, understanding journal articles is a key factor to success in pharmacy school.