**LECOM-Erie WARNING!!**

[pharm B]

I think most preceptors and students have enough tact not to say "your school's students are inept" to your face...

Wasn't Mikey a preceptor?

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[WVUPharm2007]

Wasn't Mikey a preceptor?

I was never the "paper" preceptor, but they stuck me with them all the damn time. And I indeed got LECOM students, too.

Though I never overtly made fun of the students. I'm not really a complete *******. I just made them feel stupid. Not necessarily on purpose, mind you. I just always overestimated what they would know and made their self-esteem drop. It's rather unsettling how many "in one ear, out the other" types you experience. "You don't know? I spent 20 minutes explaining this to you 3 hours ago." type of people. LECOM students aren't bad at all. But the idea that they "dominate" at rotations doesn't reflect my experience. Honestly, Pitt makes the best pharmacists in the region...WVU is up there with Pitt...Duquesne and LECOM make good practitioners as well...then a few other schools that...I think underperform...whom I'll not mention by name.

No LECOM student scared me. However, some kids from other schools have. One day I was trying to explain something....I don't even remember what, but I started out asking, almost rhetorically, "So what does Norvasc do?" Kid looks at me like a deer in headlights, "I don't know."

Yikes.

...

But there ya go, a real opinion from a real person that has had kids from like 6 different schools.

 

[Sparda29]

I started out asking, almost rhetorically, "So what does Norvasc do?" Kid looks at me like a deer in headlights, "I don't know."

Yikes.

...

But there ya go, a real opinion from a real person that has had kids from like 6 different schools.

Was it an IPPE student or an APPE student? Generally, they would know if they have ever worked in a pharmacy. But if they haven't, then the IPPE student would not know... unless they went to Touro, which starts therapeutics in the 2nd semester.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Was it an IPPE student or an APPE student? Generally, they would know if they have ever worked in a pharmacy. But if they haven't, then the IPPE student would not know... unless they went to Touro, which starts therapeutics in the 2nd semester.

Like 4th year, I'm here for a month rotations.

I know nothing of this APC3PO or whatever it is. Back when I went to school and dinosaurs roamed the Earth, we didn't waste peoples' time going on "rotations" in between semesters. We did eleven 4 week rotations our 4th year and that's it.

 

[dislikeLECOM]

You don't do your IPPE during school? We have ours for one day every other week. Then we have to do one six week summer rotation in the P1 year. In our second year, we attend school from late Aug until the end of May and then start third year rotations until the following June.
How is it you are attending class until late July? Do you only go to class for four hours a day?

Yes. Pretty much. our scheduled classes were mainly 12pm to 5pm this term.

 

[dislikeLECOM]

The faculty and staff at LECOM bradenton do nothing but bust their ***** to make the students here comfortable. I wish dislikeLECOM and unhappyatLECOM would've considered that these posts not only hurt every student at Erie but every student at Bradenton as well. My SDN inbox has been blowing up with questions from prepharmers about LECOM's tyrannical administration, unfair practices, and other ridiculous ideas they've gotten from this forum. I'm tired of telling all of them that its not true at Bradenton. We have the same administration, so I don't even know how it can be so bad at Erie. You have a class representative for a reason, you should've communicated your complaints through him/her and the school would've listened. You've only succeeded in embarrassing all of us.

Prepharmers have gathered information from these posts and asked me questions about our quality of faculty, education, rotation sites, and student rights.
We have excellent faculty, an incredibly distinguished assistant dean and the nicest staff you'll ever find. Ask any Bradenton student or prepharmer applying to bradenton. Our assistant dean is famous. He probably wrote the pharmacokinetics book you'll end up using, and I guarantee he will know your faculty.

Our education is top notch. Only experts in the field do the lecturing. We have every learning resource available to us. If you need to see the cadavers to help grasp gross anatomy, the medical school anatomy professor will take you personally to the lab, dissect the organ in front of you and help you work through your atlas.

We dominate the rotations sites and we have many. Preceptors at all the major hospitals in the area hold LECOM students in the highest regard. Our APPE students have done nothing but impress with their knowledge and professionalism.

Nobody is telling us that we can't eat or drink. We have a cafeteria with an amazing staff. Today, I had a lemon baked chicken breast with cheddar mashed potatoes and green beans and an Iced tea ALL for $5. There's a different menu everyday. For every hour of instruction we get a 10 minute break. Yes we wear ties and slacks and dress shoes. But this is a good thing. Nobody comes to school in booty shorts or PJs. We are not 19 year old college frat kids. Our average age is 25.8. As a class we have a lot of life experiences, we are diverse, and we are adults. The school does not dare to treat us like kids. The dean doesn't dare to treat us like kids. He is replaceable, we are not.

Grow up.

Well...I'm glad that you have it so good down in Florida.
I can't speak for Bradenton and never have. Notice that this forum is under LECOM-Erie.
The overall "feeling" of the school here in Erie is oppressive. We have constant reminders of dress codes and attendance that need to be strictly followed or "disciplinary action will be taken". Most of that doesn't really get in the way of studying or accomplishing what you need to here, but it does make me question if the administration believes that we are adult and professional enough to understand what we have agreed to. If they don't think that we are then they made poor choices in the students they have admitted.
I have seen students get yelled at, literally, for walking into the building with their tie undone. I guess the positive way to look at it is if those are the biggest concerns the administration has at least it's a safe place.
Our professors here are replaced almost every year. There are a few who have been here a few years, but there are also a lot of them that are straight out of school. Not only are they fresh out of school, they graduated from LECOM. I have been attending LECOM ERIE (gotta make the distinction) for one year, and we have had three professors leave. One of which was new himself. He was here for one year then left. We also had an instance where our teacher just didn't show up for class. Administration had to shuffled our schedule a bit to make up for it.
Some of our teachers are students themselves. They graduated then went on to med school. It is kind of hard to get in touch with them because they're in med school. How much time do they really have to be there for us to answer questions we have about the material?
I am happy that things are good for you down in the sunny state.

 

[Sparda29]

Like 4th year, I'm here for a month rotations.

I know nothing of this APC3PO or whatever it is. Back when I went to school and dinosaurs roamed the Earth, we didn't waste peoples' time going on "rotations" in between semesters. We did eleven 4 week rotations our 4th year and that's it.

Yeah, the IPPE things for P1s and P2s started because they were going into P4 rotations not knowing a single thing about how a pharmacy worked since they didn't work in a pharmacy during or before school.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Yeah, the IPPE things for P1s and P2s started because they were going into P4 rotations not knowing a single thing about how a pharmacy worked since they didn't work in a pharmacy during or before school.

Well, then they are failing miserably, because they still come into their first rotations with no idea how anything works.

 

[diastole]

Yes. Pretty much. our scheduled classes were mainly 12pm to 5pm this term.

So your mornings are free to use as you see fit? That doesn't seem so bad but it doesn't leave much time for work if you want to do that. We go to school from 8 to 3. Seven hours of lecture makes me pretty sleepy some days. I wouldn't mind not having to get up so early in the morning.

 

[Sparda29]

Well, then they are failing miserably, because they still come into their first rotations with no idea how anything works.

Wow, that sucks. What do you think about schools getting rid of the fluff classes from the P1 year, turning them into prerequisites, and then having 2 years of advanced rotations the way Touro has done.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Wow, that sucks. What do you think about schools getting rid of the fluff classes from the P1 year, turning them into prerequisites, and then having 2 years of advanced rotations the way Touro has done.

I don't think that works very well, either. There is a slow progression. Like building a house. Foundationvfirst , then build up. The first year should be the basic sciences (physical chem, med chem, biochem, pharmacology). And then I think therapeutics and everything dealing with the nuances of pharmacy should be taught over the next 2 years.

Then 10 5-week rotations. No breaks except for a few weeks for Xmas and Spring break.

That's if I was in charge...

 

[Sparda29]

I don't think that works very well, either. There is a slow progression. Like building a house. Foundationvfirst , then build up. The first year should be the basic sciences (physical chem, med chem, biochem, pharmacology). And then I think therapeutics and everything dealing with the nuances of pharmacy should be taught over the next 2 years.

Then 10 5-week rotations. No breaks except for a few weeks for Xmas and Spring break.

That's if I was in charge...

Hmm, Bio Chem, Physical Chem, Microbiology, Physiology, and Anatomy can all be prerequisites. Only thing with our school is that since we have additional rotations that are focused on serving the underprivileged neighborhoods, we also have to take classes in public health, global health, biological/chemical terrorism, biostatistics/epidemiology, health disparities, etc.

 

[rxlea]

Hmm, Bio Chem, Physical Chem, Microbiology, Physiology, and Anatomy can all be prerequisites. Only thing with our school is that since we have additional rotations that are focused on serving the underprivileged neighborhoods, we also have to take classes in public health, global health, biological/chemical terrorism, biostatistics/epidemiology, health disparities, etc.

I do agree with you here. All of those could be pre-reqs and they are, which is why I do not understand when schools require A&P and then teach A&P the first semester of school.

Those sound like some really interesting classes. I think with the way things are changing in healthcare, global health and public health classes are a great addition to curriculum.

 

[IrishHammer]

I do agree with you here. All of those could be pre-reqs and they are, which is why I do not understand when schools require A&P and then teach A&P the first semester of school.

Those sound like some really interesting classes. I think with the way things are changing in healthcare, global health and public health classes are a great addition to curriculum.

It's the whole "level playing field" thing. Yes, many people enter Pharmacy school with Bachelor's degrees, but even amongst people with a BSc, you have no real guarantee that every student has taken the same courses. There was a student in our class who had a Bachelor's in Biology, and spent the first 3/4 of the year talking about how easy all the science courses were and how anybody who didn't already know this stuff should "go back to undergrad", but then struggled when we got to Immunology because she hadn't taken it before. The fact is, not that much science is really required to get in, and they schedule a pretty decent amount of science based courses P1 year. Hell, most state schools only require General Biology I and II. So there's no A&P, no Microbiology, no Immunology, etc. etc. Does it make the first year seem like it's still undergrad? Yes. But unless they ramp up prerequisites, only allow students from their school who followed their specific track, or require a Bachelor's degree to get in (and the latter is a bad idea), that's probably the best possible setup.