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PharmD grad juggles school, job, family by Heather Woolwine Public Relations Imagine coming home from your nursing job after an 18 hour shift. You’re beat and mentally whipped. But instead of hitting the sack, catching up with your spouse, or playing with your children, you hit the books and freshen up for the next morning’s exam.   You don’t even have time to be tired.   And so this was how things often were for Richard Hemminger, Pharm.D., R.N. A full-time nurse at Roper Hospital, full-time College of Pharmacy student, husband and father of two, Hemminger managed to realize his dream of becoming a pharmacist, even when it seemed that life might take him in a different direction.   Dr. Richard Hemminger  Hemminger was just finishing up his pre-requisites for pharmacy school in North Carolina when his wife, Stephanie, became pregnant with their second child. Not comfortable with someone else raising their child during the day, Hemminger decided that he could make it into nursing school. That way, he could still work in his chosen field of health care and bring home more money to support his growing family.   After he completed nursing school in North Carolina, the Hemminger family left Riegelwood, N.C., which sits outside Wilmington, and came to Charleston where Hemminger began working as a nurse at Roper. He immediately applied to the MUSC College of Pharmacy.   “So there we were, just moved in, I was applying to a new program and I had a new job in a new profession,” Hemminger said. “And within the first few weeks of my being here, it seemed like a lot of the staff that I was working with in orthopedics quit so then I was moved into the charge nurse position. You could say that I had a lot on my plate.”   A true embodiment of perseverance, Hemminger worked Friday through Sunday at Roper, often pulling 18 hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday, went to classes during the day the rest of the week, studied when he could, and didn’t spend nearly as much time with his wife and children, Grayson, 13, and Alex, 7, as he wanted to. “It was a nightmare trying to schedule everything and figure it all out, and the last year was truly the most difficult,” he said. “There are times in those first couple of years that you get to the point where you’re willing to skip a class and make up whatever you need to but you can’t miss rotations.”   As if Hemminger hadn’t enough on his mind day in and out, he was also forced to pencil in his appendectomy. “That was fun,” he laughed.   You would think that Hemminger’s overloaded schedule would be cause for meltdown at any moment, but instead, he reflects on how much he enjoys patient contact instead of working a problem on the board and looks forward to working in an area of health care that can catch things that others miss, follow a number of different directions, and afford his family a better quality of life.   “One of the things I really enjoyed about going to school at a smaller institution was that I wasn’t just a number here and that was great,” he said. “There are several professors that I’ll keep up with and look up to.”   Now that he’s passed the threshold, Hemminger and his family will move to Mount Airy, N.C., most commonly known as Mayberry from the Andy Griffith TV series. There he will take the position of long-term care manager for a consulting pharmacy company that provides retail and long term care services. He will review charts, look for medication interactions and make sure that medication and procedures are administered properly for the 450 beds his company is responsible for.   Hemminger doesn’t have many regrets attached to his dream; only that he might have gotten to enjoy Charleston more and had some better information about the area, especially parking, before he moved to town. He feels that managing his time now is harder because he has less to worry about and more time to think and do.   He looks forward to spending time with his children and likes be able to say “yes I can” when they ask him to hang out or play a game.   “It’s easiest to do it all when you’re just getting out of school but regardless of whether or not you’re married or have children, you have to have a good support system and know your limits,” Hemminger said. “You may stretch those limits pretty far too. And you can’t forget to have fun.” Top five things I couldn't have made it without: 1.    My family. 2.    Caffeine. 3.    Nice golf courses. 4.    My parking space. 5.    Beaches.   Friday, May 20, 2005 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. 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