Jeffrey A. Chupka

Last fall I began to think about what I was going to do with my last summer off before I entered into the so-called "real world". I wanted something that would fully challenge my pharmacy education, but more than that I wanted a new experience. Retail and mail-order were already part of my resume, and hospital pharmacy would be part of mandatory school rotations. So what's left? I began a quest and started investigating early in the school year. The Public Health Service caught my eye, and working in a prison definitely fulfilled my "new experience" need.

When I reported to work at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida, I was not sure what to expect. We learn in school how pharmacy should be and the ways it should be practiced - then we get into the "real world" and find it is not feasible to counsel, see charts, and discuss drug therapy with physicians. To the contrary, this summer I saw a patient's medical record for every prescription I filled, the physicians were a phone extension away or just down the hall, and there was no insurance to deal with. Patient compliance was easily monitored since they came to pill lines for every psychotropic dose. My preceptor, LT Allison Underwood, was able to actually teach me the skills and knowledge I was interning for since I was not there to just fill a position, but rather was actually an extra person to learn and interact. The two pharmacists at FCI Tallahassee, LT Underwood and LT Josh Feldman, had both been JR COSTEPs and SR COSTEPs for the Bureau of Prisons, and thus were able to share those experiences with me. Taking all of this into consideration, I felt like I was in control of the patient care that I offered patients. It seems that in this day of changing roles of pharmacists, the Public Health Service offers the avenues and room to change and grow into the future.

Please e-mail questions and comments to potter@fred.net Last Updated: January 26, 1998.