During your schooling and training, what research project did you take the most initiative on?
If the pharmacy fellowship that you are applying to involves research or development of pharmaceutical treatments, proving your ability to take initiative and lead efforts during the research process will be vital. This question allows your interviewers the ability to gauge your overall interest and initiative in conducting research as a fellow with their institution.
Your answer to this question will reveal to the interviewers your biggest areas of interest and where your strengths stand out during a research project or clinical trial. Ideally, the answer you provide should have three parts that include the overall details of the project, a description of why you took the initiative on the project, and what the final outcome of the research project was.
"In the final year of pharmacy school, I co-authored a research project on the effectiveness of patient starter kits for hypothyroidism treatment in patients. I took the lead in developing the kits and securing a small budget for the kits themselves. As a team, we wrote all starter materials for the patients. Once implemented, I took the lead in monitoring and measuring results. At the end of the project, we found that patients that had been distributed the started kit had a higher medication adherence and lower adverse drug effect incidence."
