Placement

2 weeks in a hospital. Quite a short period to have a deep insight of the setting in a hospital pharmacy.

Rotated around the units. 1 day for each unit on an average.

Basically, what we did were mere listening, sitting, chatting, fishing and sometimes technician's work. Find myself kinda Malay incompetent. Always asking for repeats.

Out-patient counseling:

Just stayed for half a day to observe inhaler and insulin counseling. Get to play around with the pens.

Out-patient:

A busy unit especially on Mondays and Wednesdays when the renal and respiratory clinics open. Get to fill some prescriptions. Kept calculating the amount of drugs required. Somehow my brain is not very sensitive to maths anymore.

Find the system quite troublesome. Not about recording drugs and checking if drugs can be dispensed, but the part where confusion comes in.

A pharmacist assistant came to us with a basket full of drugs we filled. Annoyed, she asked if we had not seen the note written on the patient's card. 'No drugs are needed! Remove the label and put everything back!' If no drugs were required, then why did you not inform the patient straightaway when they came to hand in the card?

Then comforted by a student undergoing training.

CDR/TPN:

A unit where we had only swabbed the clothing for sterile production. And a miniature farewell party for a staff transferring to another unit.

In-patient:

2 days here. Filling as well. A more peaceful environment, at least better than out-patient. Time seems to fly in this unit.

Shop:

Nothing much to do really. Checking prices of the drugs is the main inquiry from the customers. Get to express George characteristic fully here when customers came in to ask a trainee dressed professionally.

Store:

Absolutely nothing to do in this unit. Internet is free for use. So we google-d, youtube-d, played sudoku and were caught red-handed by a high-post staff. And so were asked to tag along with him to Dangerous Drugs (DD) room. Later all of us were required to see him. Management was the topic. A simple problem but a tough decision.

Pharmacists must know all.

Drug Information:

Salute the DI staff. They can provide answers for an enquiry instantaneously. Studied and presented few cases. A project was given later to compare pharmacokinetics profile of 3 drugs from the same class. Didn't know that Zhao Yen practices perfectionism.

Clinical:

Guess I'd never imagined the other side of being in the clinical unit. All types of illnesses and all types of people. Reassured myself that the decision of not becoming a doctor is correct.

Observed counseling on warfarin, insulin and inhalers. Clerked some cases with difficulty. Doctors do love scribbling. Followed the pharmacist for ward round the next day. Lots and lots of questions were bombarded to me. My 'er..er..' disappointed her.


2 weeks ended in such way that pushes me to improve myself more, in the aspects of professionalism, knowledge and perhaps management too. Hmm, guess it's not an all bad experience.