My Starting Point – Mayra Ruiz Gallegos – Extern Prep

Hi guys, it’s Mayra again – back to update you on my adventures on the Pharmacy Technology program at the Mesa, AZ, campus.

It’s been a while since my last post as I’ve been incredibly busy; if you’re a Carrington student or Alumni you’ll appreciate that I’m sure! I’ve started my extern already, so I wanted to clue you in a little on the process of getting ready to go out to work in a real-world pharmacy.

Getting Signed Off

About three weeks before I was due to go out on my externship I had a meeting with the Career Services department; it was before class one day. The advisor gave me a binder with all the information I needed to get ready for, and then be able to go out on, my extern. We need to get several different Carrington faculty and staff to sign off that we’re eligible to go off on our externship.

Your teacher will be the first to sign off; after your final exam, if you got a passing grade they can sign you off for your externship. Then the next day, which will be a Friday, you’ll have a meeting with staff and the students that you started the program with. The staff basically explain what’s expected of you during your externship and what you’ll be doing at your extern site.

You will also meet with Student Finance and Career Services. If you’ve met the eligibility requirements, they sign you off. It’s at that point that you’re given the extern site you’ll be going to, and then they send you off on your way.

Part of the preparation process is that you have to have a drug screen before you go out on your extern. During that process my teacher gave me some paperwork that inadvertently had my extern site name on it! I wasn’t supposed to know until we went to get signed off a few weeks later, so I got to know where I was going a few weeks early.

I also had to go into Phoenix to get my Pharmacy Technician trainee license from the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy. You take paperwork that the school gives you, pay the registration fee and get your trainee license. This is a temporary license that students need to work on externship; it doesn’t require a test but I’ll need to take the federal licensure exam before my temporary license expires.

Excitement Building!

Before starting the externship I was most excited about getting to work with real medication; that and not having to do bookwork anymore if I’m honest! It was exciting to think I’d soon be getting out there, and that I was close to completing the program!

Thanks for checking in on my progress; you can read my past blogs here. Next time I’ll tell you about my first day on extern!