Career Partnership Day Gives B-CC Students Unique Opportunity

Suburban staff clinical pharmacist Daniel Albrant (left) explains the day-to-day operations in the pharmacy to B-CC student Ryan Greenhouse

Make sure the right medicine gets to the right patient at the right time.

That’s the job of the folks in Suburban Hospital’s Pharmacy Department, and it’s a job Bethesda-Chevy Chase student Ryan Greenhouse got a firsthand look at on Thursday.

Greenhouse was one of six B-CC students who shadowed nurses, doctors and other professionals in different departments around the hospital as part of the annual B-CC Career Partnership Day.

Nineteen Bethesda businesses and organizations hosted B-CC students throughout the day, including Suburban, the 2nd District Police station and the Bethesda Urban Partnership. The program is organized by Junior Achievement of Greater Washington with help from the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce.

For Suburban Hospital, where access can be limited because of the primary duty of non-stop patient care, it’s a unique opportunity to stoke the interest of prospective nurses, surgeons, pharmacists and therapists.

“We really want to give the students as much exposure as possible because in a clinical facility, it’s difficult if you don’t have the training to get that exposure,” said Suburban community outreach health educator Patricia Rios. “The staff here at the hospital, they really take the time to explain what they do. A lot of the clinicians here, this is something extra that we add on. You can see the team, the different individuals who play a role in making sure a patient gets their medicine.”

Daniel Albrant, staff clinical pharmacist at Suburban, gave Greenhouse the rundown of how the Pharmacy Department operates — from filling patient prescriptions, to transporting those prescpritions in a vacuum tube to other departments to the daily rounds pharmacists make to consult with doctors.

Rios gave the students, each who got one-on-one time with clinicians in two different departments, a brief orientation before dropping each one off at their first destination.

For the students, who all said they’re interested in a medical career, it was an eye-opening look at a day in the fast-paced environment of a hospital.

Last year, B-CC celebrated its 20th year of Career Partnership Day. Suburban has participated since 2008.

The program matches up about 200 B-CC juniors and seniors with professionals to explain the ins and outs of a work day, an attempt to teach students the connection between learning and earning money.

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