Meet Vanna Labi ('25)

Meet Vanna Labi ('25), of Asheville, NC, who served a rotation at Ingles Pharmacy in Boones Creek with Preceptor Dr. Matt Craven.

What does your day look on your rotation experience? Along with Matt Gouge (‘23) who is on his APPE rotation, we assist in getting prescriptions ready, administer vaccines (mostly COVID boosters), and general workflow processes. Because our preceptor, Matt Craven is a Gatton grad (Class of 2011), we compare experiences and try to get all the tips we can out of him!

What is something unique about your rotation experience? Because this is a lower-volume pharmacy, we get to interact with one another and with patients in a low stress environment.

What did you learn from this experience? During our P1 year, we often used the term “Community Pharmacy” — this rotation allowed me to truly experience “community” in the way they meet people where they are— at their local grocery store! Because of their low-volume, they have time to form relationships with their patients, and it shows in the way many of them stop by to talk to the staff even if they don’t have prescriptions to pick up.

Why did you choose Gatton? I was fortunate to work with several Gatton grads while I worked at both independent and hospital pharmacy in Boone, NC. While at the time I had no intentions of attending pharmacy school, my interactions with them stayed with me throughout graduate school. When I decided to pursue pharmacy, I was also ready to start a family and Johnson City, TN, was conveniently located near our families to help achieve both dreams of becoming a pharmacist and a mom.