Alumni Spotlight: Alberto Aranda Jr., PharmD
Alberto Aranda Jr., PharmD
PGY-1 Pharmacy Resident, Hennepin Healthcare (Minneapolis)
MCW School of Pharmacy Class of 2023
What’s your “why” for pursuing a pharmacy career?
While I was still in college at UW-Madison, I had a family member who had cancer and was going through treatment. On a personal level, it’s hard to watch the condition of someone you care about change so much over time. I wished I had more awareness and knowledge about chemotherapy and medicine in general. I thought it would have been helpful in support of my family, as well, to be able to help clarify and explain everything going on at the time.
While this was happening, I was tutoring students in a scholarship program called the PEOPLE Program at UW-Madison, as well as for a few college courses. I really enjoyed being in a teaching role, where I could use my knowledge and background to help students make connections with material. My conception of pharmacy at the time was really based on community pharmacy, so I initially started looking into pharmacy as a way to help share information and demystify healthcare for others, the way I wish someone would have for me.
What are your pharmacy career aspirations?
Currently, I’m in my PGY1 general pharmacy practice residency at Hennepin Healthcare, and I’m hoping to pursue a second year of residency focused on internal medicine here as well. Long-term, I would love to be in an internal medicine inpatient pharmacist role at an academic medical center, where hopefully I can get involved in some teaching as well.
What was interesting or exciting to you about your specific pharmacy career path?
When I first came to pharmacy school, I thought I would go into community pharmacy. However, during my gap year between graduating from UW-Madison and starting school at MCW, I started working as a pharmacy technician at St. Luke’s Hospital. This broadened my awareness of what a pharmacist can be and the roles they can play in patient care. As I went through MCW’s curriculum and completed clinical rotations, I was exposed to new experiences and discovered there were so many pathways a pharmacist could take career-wise. I learned that I really enjoyed the clinical aspect of pharmacy, which was very different from what I expected when I started school. I liked being able to take input from a team of doctors and nurses, assess labs and cultures, think about what works best for the patient’s lifestyle and socioeconomic position. You’re helping put the puzzle pieces together and figuring out what will work best to keep your patients healthy.
How has your residency experience been so far?
It’s been an awesome learning experience. You’re moving in responsibility from being a student to being the pharmacist who’s directly helping to make care decisions and working within the healthcare team alongside your rotation preceptor. Hennepin Healthcare’s pharmacy team and the whole organization have been super supportive. They do their best to let you build your own practice independently but are always available for support when you need it. Hennepin’s culture really does encourage and expect pharmacists’ contribution to patient care decisions, making it a fantastic place from which to learn. With Hennepin County Medical Center being a teaching hospital as well, it’s nice being in an environment where there are lots of other learners that you can grow with, including the co-residents in my program.
Do you have any advice for someone who is considering a pharmacy career but isn’t quite sure?
There’s a limited preconception of what a pharmacy career is, and I wish the public was more aware of the instrumental roles pharmacists can play across patient care. Whether that’s in a community role, like a Walgreen’s, an inpatient role working with the medical team, a clinic setting seeing patients as an ambulatory pharmacist, or one of the various other places they can be – there’s a practice area that fits your personality and interests. Taking some time to talk with a pharmacy school you might be interested in can help gain some insight into the opportunities they offer and the areas of pharmacy that might best suit you.
Otherwise, one of the best things you can do is seek out shadowing or different opportunities to experience pharmacy directly. Don’t be afraid to email or call looking for an opportunity to observe or get involved! For me personally, taking time to work as a pharmacy tech before I started school helped me make sure that I wanted to do pharmacy. It also gave me the opportunity to continue working while I was in school and broadened my expectations of what a pharmacy career could be. It’s really helpful to get your feet wet with some experience and learn whether you enjoy the profession or not. The MCW School of Pharmacy also does a really good job of exposing you to different practice types through your rotations. Spending time in settings different from what I expected at the start of pharmacy school was really useful to help find a role I’ll enjoy doing for the rest of my career.
How would you describe your experience at the MCW School of Pharmacy?
I really enjoyed how familial and close-knit MCW felt. The professors genuinely care about how you’re doing on a personal as well as an academic level. I’ve had professors email and check in on how I’m doing with residency even post-graduation, and it’s very much the same while you’re in the program. Whether it’s for academic reasons, like clarifying lecture questions, or just talking about your health and wellness on an individual, human level, everyone is very open to making time for you and finding out what will help you succeed. I also liked progressing through the program with a small cohort where you’re taking the same classes together. Going through those shared experiences of lectures, exams, labs, and rotations together lets you build a connection with your classmates. It also makes it easy to find time for each other – whether that’s studying or just spending time as friends together.