{"id":1811,"date":"2023-08-29T15:29:30","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T15:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/?p=1811"},"modified":"2023-09-21T13:10:47","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T13:10:47","slug":"meet-the-maryland-poison-center-experts-victoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/2023\/08\/29\/meet-the-maryland-poison-center-experts-victoria\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Maryland Poison Center Experts: Victoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared on the Maryland Poison Center\u2019s blog,\u00a0eAntidote<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the goals of our\u00a0eAntidote<\/em>\u00a0blog is to introduce you to the real poison experts who answer the phones at the\u00a0Maryland Poison Center (MPC)<\/strong><\/a>, as well as our staff members. The MPC is located within the Department of Practice, Sciences, and Health Outcomes Research (P-SHOR) at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. In addition to being nurses and pharmacists, they are parents, grandparents, artists, athletes, sports fans, and more! Read the Q&A below to get to know one of our specialists: Victoria Macdonald.<\/p>\n

Why did you go into the field of pharmacy?<\/h3>\n

I grew up with my grandparents and would go with them to their medical appointments and to the pharmacy to pick up their prescriptions. I remember the pharmacists were nice and caring, which made an impression on me. When it came time for college, I was thinking about going to pharmacy school. I was able to do some shadowing with pharmacists before I made a decision. While shadowing, I learned more about what they do and how much they help people. I decided that that\u2019s what I wanted to do as a career and went to pharmacy school.<\/p>\n

How did you end up working at the poison center?<\/h3>\n

One of the professors in pharmacy school was the director at the local poison center. One of my rotations during school was at that poison center and I thought that the work that they do was very unique and interesting. There was an open position for fourth year pharmacy students to work there, so I applied, got accepted, and loved it! I continued to work there during the COVID-19 pandemic and became more and more interested in pursuing a clinical toxicology fellowship. That same professor became my mentor and encouraged me to apply for the fellowship here at the MPC.<\/p>\n

What do you enjoy most about your work?<\/h3>\n

I really enjoy the wide range of different tasks I get to do each day, such as doing research, learning about cases in our daily rounds, and taking calls in the center. Each part of my job is a little bit different, but all results in helping in poison emergencies or general information about poisons and how to prevent poisonings. I also enjoy the data process. We create a case for each poisoning we are called about. Then we use the records of exposure to learn how to better help the next person with a similar exposure. We review data to ensure we keep up with any new or developing changes with where, when, how, and why poisonings happen.<\/p>\n

Why are Poison Centers and poison specialists like you important?<\/h3>\n

Poison Centers are important because they are a really accessible way to help people when they are poisoned or have general questions about poisons. Calling 1-800-222-1222 gets you connected to a Pharmacist or Nurse with special training to manage poisonings, it is completely free to call, and it\u2019s open 25\/7\/365! Poison Specialists are important because we can help manage a poisoning exposure, and also prevent future poisonings from happening by giving advice on proper storage, making sure people understand how and when they are supposed to take a medicine, and more.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s an important message you want to share about poison safety?<\/h3>\n

Poisonings can be prevented! Safe storage of medicines and household products is one of the biggest things you can do to prevent a poisoning from happening. But even if it does happen, the Maryland Poison Center is always available 24\/7 not only to help manage exposures but to prevent ones from happening.<\/p>\n

What do you enjoy doing when you\u2019re not working?<\/h3>\n

Outside of work I enjoy playing Pok\u00e9mon Go, watching Formula One racing, reading, and hanging out with friends. I am excited to be in Maryland and discovering a different part of the country, seeing as I\u2019ve lived in Oklahoma my whole life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Get to know Victoria, a poison expert at the Maryland Poison Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-1811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practice","tag-maryland-poison-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1812,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811\/revisions\/1812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}