Posts Tagged ‘Jon McClymont’

Last month, in July, you met fourth year pharmacy student, Gifty Kusi, who was doing a month long rotation in the drugstore. Gifty, who is originally from Ghana, will be graduating from The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy next June. Gifty told us that her unusual, but very charming name means, “Gift from God.” What a lovely name and how nice to know that her parents felt she was a wonderful gift to them.

This month, we have Ayman Saleh, another fourth year pharmacy student, working with us. Ayman came to the United States from Lebanon when he was 18 and has lived in California until moving to Ohio for pharmacy school.

Ayman is a compounding guru and has been giving me a much welcomed break in the lab the past few weeks. Ayman also clearly has the personality to be a pharmacy owner (something he hopes to become someday), as he has taken part in our craziness in the store, even wearing John Allen’s Hee Haw hat. Beyond that, though, Ayman loves to help our customers and devotes a great amount of time and attention to patient interactions.

Both Gifty and Ayman will be with us for several other weeks in the coming year as they are working together on a Partner for Promotion project in the pharmacy that focuses on compounding.

Plain City Druggist has been involved in the Partner for Promotion program over the past few years. Joe acts as a preceptor (a pharmacy mentor) for the students who work on advanced patient care service projects during their final year of pharmacy school. The students, like Gifty and Ayman, who choose to participate in this program are real go-getters, as they don’t receive any extra credit for doing this.  They do, however, learn a lot for their futures as pharmacists.  They also have to be able to manage their time well. The projects usually establish programs in pharmacies that can continue to work after the students are no longer there. These programs include diabetes clinics, OTC counseling programs, cholesterol monitoring, and other important health services that patients need. 

Our former pharmacy student, Kelly Hawk, who is now practicing in St. Louis, Missouri, did a Partner for Promotion project on smoking cessation at Schieber Family Pharmacy in Circleville. 

As I mentioned, the students who participate in the Partner for Promotion program are really motivated to be the best pharmacists they can be. Both Gifty and Ayman hope to have their own independent drugstores some day. 

For this reason, Gifty, Ayman, and third year pharmacy student, Jon McClymont, decided to attend the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) Pharmacy Ownership Workshop offered from August 19-21 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jon also hopes to return to his home in Nebraska after graduation and open his own pharmacy. 

Joe and I attended the Pharmacy Ownership Workshop way back in 1997 when it was held in Memphis. Joe was still working at Wal-mart at that time and I was in pharmacy school. Joe was trying to make up his mind about opening a pharmacy and this workshop gave him the confidence to start Plain City Druggist just two years later in 1999. 

We hope the NCPA workshop teaches our students many, many things as they journey to becoming pharmacists. We also hope that their time here with us at Plain City Druggist will also make them ready to be independent pharmacy owners.

Since Kelly knew she would be leaving us to take a pharmacist job in St. Louis, she carefully helped us choose a new pharmacy student to take over for her. While no one will ever replace Kelly, her pick, Jon McClymont, has been doing a good job learning the ropes at Plain City Druggist.

Jon is a third year (P3) pharmacy student at The Ohio State University’s College of Pharmacy. Since he is a P3 student, Jon has another year of class work and then a year of rotations working in pharmacy venues to learn practical stuff they sometimes don’t teach in school. Because he is just entering his third year, we should be able to keep Jon on staff for at least two more years before he graduates, becomes a pharmacist, and heads off to Nebraska.

Jon is originally from Nebraska and hopes to some day open his own independent drugstore back in his home state. Jon and his wife, Andrea (pronounced “On”-drea), and their little girl, Chloe, are making Columbus their home temporarily so Jon can finish pharmacy school. Andrea is also finishing a Masters degree as Jon works towards becoming a registered pharmacist.

Jon also is very interested in compounding, as he has an extensive background in lab work. You’ll probably see him mixing and weighing out lots of interesting concoctions for Midwestern Compounding Pharmacy.

We hope you’ll stop by and get to know Jon while he is with us. Jon is usually sporting a big smile, which you cannot miss.

There is one other thing you cannot miss–Jon’s ride to work. If you see a behemoth pick-up truck parked out behind the pharmacy, you’ll know Jon is inside somewhere helping patients, filling prescriptions, and working to become the best pharmacist ever!