JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 25, 2024) —As a currently enlisted serviceman and full-time
student pharmacist, Jimmy Owens is no stranger to managing his time in the most efficient
way possible. In the event he is deployed into active duty, he has to be ready; but
he also has to be prepared for that next pharmacology exam.
“It's a lot of preparing for the weekend and then making up for the weekend at the
same time,” said Owens, who is from Lewisburg, Tennessee. “It is difficult to do.
But thanks to the military, I think I have the discipline to do it.”
Owens, who has served as a combat medic for the last few years in the Tennessee Army
National Guard and is currently a third-year student pharmacist at East Tennessee
State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, has become an expert in time management
and honed a work ethic that he believes will serve him now and in a career to come.
He travels to Knoxville, Tennessee, once a month for a three-day weekend of training
where he has to miss Friday classes and then make it up the following week. Owens
said that he believes the self-discipline and grit he’s learning through his military
experience will serve him well as a pharmacist.
“There's nothing they can tell me to do that I will see as menial,” said Owens. “There's
no task that I'm going to see and be like, ‘I'm a pharmacist. It's too good for me.’
It gives me a better appreciation for the work that I'm going to be doing. And honestly,
I think it's just stoked a passion in me to be a pharmacist that is stronger than
it was initially.”
The patient care aspects of being a pharmacist is what makes Owens really excited
about the career, in which he can help patients manage their medications.
“I've always loved medications, the pharmacology that goes behind how everything operates
and then the intricacies—it's like an entire puzzle.”
Ultimately, Owens hopes to either work on the Mountain Home VA Campus as a psychiatric
pharmacist or do emergency medicine at a level one trauma center.
In his military combat medic experience, Owens said he has built relationships with
providers at all levels and as a result gained a lot of perspective on the important
role pharmacists play on an interprofessional team as well as the health care system
as a whole.
“Building relationships with them also allows you to see them as people AND professionals
rather than just a job with a title,” said Owens. “Spending time and building these
relationships is something I believe all health care professionals should get the
opportunity to do, and it should be encouraged. Seeing how the health care system
runs from multiple perspectives better allows me to see more ways that I can make
a positive impact for patients, providers, and the health care system as a whole.”
Owens came to ETSU in order to pursue pharmacy and because of the beauty of the Appalachian
Highlands.
“I toured ETSU when I was a junior in high school and fell in love with it.”
As an undergrad, Owens was able to fast track his pharmacy career and do two years
of undergraduate and then matriculate to ETSU Gatton College of Pharmacy.
Unfortunately, when he arrived, COVID-19 had spread to East Tennessee and classes
went online. Owens had difficulty flourishing in the online learning environment and
struggled academically. However, because of his work ethic and the college’s caring
faculty and staff, he was able to turn his GPA around.
“Not every college would’ve given me a second chance after COVID,” said Owens, “but
they did and it has absolutely been a delight going to school here.”