Rotation 4 - Medication Safety

Posted by Unknown at Saturday, October 12, 2013

               With my rotations finally taking me back to Ann Arbor, I had the chance to get back into my school/life balance groove which I had finally perfected by the end of P3 year in Ann Arbor.  I recently started with a triathlon coach who has thus far kept my honest about training and injury free.  The increased training regimen made my mornings a bit earlier but it was well worth it.  Thankfully, this rotation with Dr. Ciarkowski, the adult medication safety officer, started at 8AM which allowed for my early morning wake up swim at 6AM.

                While this rotation was not as clinical or therapeutic heavy as others on my list, I learned so much regarding pharmacy practice, administration, safety, and communication skills in the process.  During my rotation, I saw first-hand the implementation of Alaris smart pumps and all the policies and training that were required to implement such a system.  In addition to the numerous training and policy meetings, I was a part of a root cause analysis meetings, pre-P&T medication-safety meetings, pediatric medication-safety meetings among many others.  I analyzed the 2012 data of pharmacy related medication errors and developed and presented an executive summary of strategies to implement that could greatly cut down and eliminate pharmacy related errors using systems such as widespread DoseEdge®, PharmTrace® among other strategies.

                In addition to going over medication safety topics and philosophies to prevent and address medication errors, Dr. Ciarkowski and I had the chance to talk at great length about what makes a pharmacist effective including career planning.   During numerous meetings, I observed how Dr. Ciarkowski interacted with numerous other health professionals and the strategies implemented to empower others and achieve pharmacy and safety goals.  By getting the right people together and not forcing change on any group, he allowed critical thinking and problem solving by the group as a whole to occur and create a group solution which gained multidisciplinary buy-in increasing the chance for success. 

                I gained far more than I initially thought from this rotation and enjoyed every day of it.  I even got some extra exercise walking outside to each meeting on a daily basis.  Next, I head to the Health System rotation at UMHS to bring my medication safety perspective to the actual process of medication management itself.  Already half-way done with rotations!