Pharmacy college launches online portal into the world of pharmacy careers

The Pharmacy Exploration Center has information about myriad pharmacy careers in hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical companies, public health, government, higher education and more.

By Susan Enright

Laptop with screenshot of career portal.
Click on image to go to the Pharmacy Exploration Center.

The pharmacy college at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo launched an online resource this week for prospective students to learn more about career options in the pharmacy profession.

Lara Gomez
Lara Gomez

The Pharmacy Exploration Center has information and digital activities for 18 different careers including retail, academia, clinical pharmacy, nuclear pharmacy, managed care, biotechnology and more. Users navigate through activities for an interactive experience in the pharmacy field while also learning more about UH Hilo’s Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy.

Lara Gomez, associate dean for academic affairs at the college, is spearheading the new project.

“As this is a recruitment tool, [the college] will be able to stay connected to those who chose to engage in the activities which can lead to a more personalized approach to recruitment,” Gomez says. “Example, if we notice a student engaged in the ambulatory care pharmacy module, we could tailor our approach to the prospective student and possibly connect them with an ambulatory care pharmacist if they had specific questions.”

Tracey Niimi
Tracey Niimi

Tracey Niimi, student support specialist at the college, says prospective students, high school and college alike, often see the pharmacy profession as only existing in community pharmacies like are found in grocery stores.

“But the profession offers so much more than that,” Niimi says. “In fact, pharmacy is arguably one of the most broad areas of health care you can go into because pharmacists work in many areas other than community pharmacies like hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical companies, public health, government, and higher education just to name a few. Each of those areas have many different specialties.”

Access to the information on the new website is free and available to the public. Users can navigate through the activities at their own pace on their own time. Registration is required.

 

Story by Susan Enright, a public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.

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