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I am currently doing a critical care rotation at a small regional hospital near my hometown.  Prior to starting this rotation I didn’t think I was going to have much interest in critical care, but I was trying to keep an open mind about it.  Then, on the third day of this rotation, I almost cried right in the middle of the ICU!  Apparently, critical care isn’t for me.  So now how do I handle the rest of my critical care rotation month?  Well, here is how you deal with an APPE rotation experience that doesn’t interest you.

First of all, let me just say that it is perfectly okay to have a rotation, or even several rotations, that completely do not interest you at all.  Part of the beauty of the field of pharmacy is that there are so many diverse areas of practice, and there are different areas that different people are better at, and feel more comfortable in.  I am incredibly grateful that there are pharmacists out there that love critical care and can be a huge help to these patients day in and day out!  However, the experience you get at each rotation is dependent on the effort that you put into it.  Very early on I have now realized that critical care is not where I want to be as a pharmacist, but there is still plenty for me to learn on this rotation.  This rotation is going to provide me valuable knowledge and experience that I will be able to apply to my future career as a pharmacist.  So despite the fact that this rotation isn’t what I want to do for the rest of my life, I am going to work just as hard as I did at rotations that did interest me.

I may not like critical care all that much, but there are patients that need my help every day that I show up to this rotation.  They don’t care that I don’t like critical care; they just want me to find their medication problems and help fix them so that they can get better.  No matter what the patient always comes first.  Hopefully, I can learn some good things this month and help some patients along the way.  I also hope I can make it to the end of the rotation without crying in the ICU, so we will see how that goes.  Cross your fingers for me!