Five Hundred

I'm reminded of that game I used to play as a kid. One person would throw a football high into the air toward a group of others trying to catch it. The thrower would yell out a number as s/he threw, and the one who caught the ball would get that many points. The first to reach 500 wins and gets to be the next ball thrower.

Today's the day folks. The day of 500. Today, Heather metaphorically caught the ball.

To become a pharmacist in North Carolina one has to jump through a great deal of hoops including but not limited to strong grades in tough undergrad courses, standardized tests strictly for the pharmacy profession, admission into a pharmacy school which leads to 4 grueling years of hard work with little recompense or satisfaction.

The fourth year of pharm-school is entirely hands on. One of the chief reasons for this is that the governing bodies require students to gain 1500 hours of supervised practice experience before they can take two more tests and be granted a license. Just to be on the safe side, the pharmacy school at UNC-CH arranges for their students to earn 1600 total practice hours before graduating so that they're well prepared to represent the pedigree on their diploma.

The state of North Carolina houses three separate pharmacy schools including UNC, the #2 ranked pharm-school in the nation, and Campbell, a school well respected throughout the Southeast.

The state of Alaska, as majestic as it may be, enacts a different set of guidelines to license it's pharmacists. All of Alaska's pharmacists are from somewhere else, because the state does not have it's own pharm-school (not surprising though, the entire population is under 700k). Alaska requires a new pharmacist to have at least 500 non-educational hours of supervised practice before it will grant a license to a recent pharm-school graduate. This law has been frustrating.

But today, folks, oh today is the day. Today Heather came home from work having completed 502 hours. Tomorrow, we leave for NC, and when she returns to work (hopefully the Board of Pharmacy has processed her paperwork by then) she will be a licensed staff pharmacist at St. Elias Specialty Hospital.

Sk'doosh!

Congrats, Heather! Now you get to be the thrower.