Panther Profiles are Q&A interviews that highlight Panthers of all stripes -- students, faculty, staff, alum, board members and anyone else in the campus community. Scroll down for video interview.
Christian Rivera-Vazquez is a P2 student in the Pharm.D. program. He completed a Bachelor of Science from the University of Puerto Rico before transferring to ACPHS. He is a peer mentor and a National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) membership chair. Last semester, the bilingual Rivera-Vazquez was called on to translate for a Spanish-speaking patient at College Parkside Pharmacy, one of two student-operated pharmacies at ACPHS.
How did you choose ACPHS?
Christian Rivera-Vazquez: I applied to different colleges, one in Puerto Rico and different ones in the U.S. What attracted me to ACPHS was the high level of education in New York, generally speaking, and also the NAPLEX pharmacy board exam pass rate was attractive to me. And also to get out of my comfort zone in Puerto Rico, to expose myself to a different environment to develop other skills.
Did anything surprise you when you got here?
Yes, it did. When I came here, I didn't speak English on a daily basis. So that's one thing I got practice in. Another surprise was the cold weather. It's not what I'm used to, but I'm getting used to it now.
What do you like about ACPHS now that you’ve been here a while?
I like the close-knit community. You have close communication with professors, students and you get to know everybody. Second thing is that it provides you with different tools and opportunities to complement what you learn in your curriculum.
You get so many opportunities to complement all your learning in classes. I have a job as a pharmacy intern at Albany Medical Center Hospital. It is really important to take advantage of those things because definitely it's going to be worth it in the future.
Tell us about this incident where you got called to help a Spanish-speaking patient at the College Parkside Pharmacy.
I was just sitting in my room and I got an email from (Pharmacy Instructor) Mr. (Andrew) Flynn asking for my assistance with a Spanish-speaking patient. I responded and then I met (ACPHS Resident) Dr. Mariam Gawdat. We called this patient and we made sure she was taking the correct medication, the correct dose and everything. It's called a comprehensive medication review.
Did you feel when you were done that the patient understood her medication?
She did actually. It was tough to go through all her medications. You have to go through all the medications and make sure that they're taking it correctly – the right medication at the same time every day. It's challenging because sometimes you want to move through time, but you have to be patient with these cases.
As a pharmacy student, you learn about communicating well with the patient or customer. Was it at all surprising how that interaction took place in real life?
It actually was. It's more challenging. In our coursework, on our patient interviews and other things, we know what to expect. But real patients, we don't know what to expect. So we have to be empathic with patients and understand what they're going through.
Do you imagine you will always use your bilingual language skills as a pharmacist?
Yes. Being bilingual, for me, is a tool that I have for expanding the amount of care we give to patients within the region. So definitely it’s something that I will use in the future to deliver care to patients.
It is really important to have diverse backgrounds within the pharmacy team because that way we can expand the number of patients we reach and clearly it's going to improve clinical outcomes.
This was probably one of your first experiential learning opportunities. How did it feel?
It felt great. I feel honored, really, to be part of this medication review process with the College Parkside Pharmacy.