Jennifer
at
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
I was able to experience many different aspects of hospital pharmacy while at Providence Park. Each day was filled with different activities, so here I have organized my experiences by week. The pharmacy staff was very welcoming, gladly allowing me to participate in pharmacy tasks!
Week 1: During this time, I was able to orient myself with the pharmacy department. I spent time learning how they keep track of controlled substances and how they purchase medications and deal with medication shortages. I worked in the clean room for a day and made IVs, worked in unit dose and packaging, and shadowed some of the pharmacists to see how they verified medication orders.
Weeks 2-3: Here, I focused on kinetics and anticoagulation. The hospital has paper forms the pharmacists use to keep track of certain antimicrobials and anticoagulant medications. I was able to look at patient profiles and discuss medication adjustments with my preceptor.
Week 4: I began attending ICU rounds during week 4. Before rounds, I would “pre-round,” meaning that I worked-up patients before rounds. The rounding team consisted of the attending physician, two nurses, a dietician, the pharmacist, and me. Since it was a smaller group compared to the larger rounding team at my previous rotation, it was easier to have team discussions here. After rounds I would discuss my patients with my preceptor, much like my first rotation. I learned a great deal about a variety of disease states.
During week 4, I attended a Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee meeting, summarized pertinent updates, and presented the minutes to the rest of the pharmacy staff. I also gave a presentation to nurses, pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians, titled Prevention and Treatment of Opioid-induced and Immobilization-related Constipation.
Week 5: I attended ICU rounds during the week and also began working with the metabolic support pharmacist and hospital dietician for adjusting parenteral nutrition for patients. During week 5, I was able to observe two procedures in the operating room. The staff kindly explained their tasks and answered any questions that I had about the operations. I had never seen an operation before, so it was an interesting experience! Throughout my rotation I also worked on projects, such as analyzing proton pump inhibitor usage in the hospital and adding information to hospital oncology guides for specific medications.
I enjoyed the variety of projects and activities with this rotation and the fact that I was able to work with people from different departments in the hospital (nurses, physicians, dieticians). The pharmacy staff here is friendly and work so well together that they are more like a pharmacy family. I’m thankful for my time spent at Providence Park Hospital!
