Rotation 4 – Drug Information at the BIG House!

Posted by Unknown at Monday, November 28, 2016

This rotation presented me with a whole different view of Pharmacy. It was quite unique from the previous rotations that I have had and most likely would experience in later rotations too. On this particular service, we would answer questions from various healthcare providers such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc. The types of questions we answered varied IMMENSELY from one phone call to the next. Often times, we were the last line of help before it was deemed ‘unanswerable.’

My day-to-day on this rotation was extremely manageable. It was a 9-4 service with lunch from either 12-1 or 1-2, depending on when the classmate on rotation wanted to take lunch. Everything on the rotation was laid back. The several preceptors we worked alongside with were mostly familiar faces and all accommodated us well.

How our time was spent:
Everyday we alternated who answered the phone in the morning and afternoon. When you were on phone duty, you had to work up any questions that came through. If none came through, you were able to work on anything else that needed to be worked on. Occasionally, we would be slammed with phone calls (OR POWER OUTAGES!!!) and both my classmate and I would work up questions together.

When we were not working the phones, we were most likely doing the following:

Working on previous drug information questions that we were not able to be complete the day before.

Our drug monographs – This was the big project of the rotation. We each were assigned a specific drug and had to complete a drug monograph on it. I was assigned chloral hydrate. This particular drug is not really used anywhere anymore. It was a major project researching the studies behind this drug and the requested indications that were associated with it being placed on formulary.

Journal club – We each were assigned one day to present a journal article. During this time, we went through EBM concepts with our previous EBM professor.

Random events – side projects that came up, various drug information meetings, etc.

Overall, this rotation was an excellent one. Our main preceptor was ABSOLUTELY fantastic!