Rotation 7: Health System/ Hospital -- The Return of Med Rec

Posted by E. Caliman at Wednesday, February 17, 2016

This past rotation I spent at a local health system. While there, I mixed countless IVs all while trying to keep up with the IV batch fill. I also spent time dosing patients taking on warfarin or heparin. Later in the day, I'd start doing patient education for heart attacks and a antiarrhythmic drug that requires a lot of monitoring. After all this, I had to make notes in the patient chart, because "If you don't document it, it didn't happen". My preceptors frequently quizzed me, which is helpful when you start studying for the boards.

My main project was to medication reconciliation on patients from a specific unit. The pharmacy department wants to be sure all inpatients are started on the home meds that they need. I did this on the computer, comparing the meds, noting discrepancies, then reading the notes to see if  there was a reason a patient wasn't on certain meds. Obvious reasons included overdoses or a lack of a beta-blocker due to a low heart rate. If I couldn't find justification in the chart, I wrote an intervention.

This was a great rotation for this block, because it's interview season, and a rotation that doesn't require much of your outside time is ideal. The rotation is longer to accommodate your interviews. As long you get your work done, you'll be fine. I had to travel for a few interviews, so having that extra time as a buffer was welcome.