Sarah Choi
at
Sunday, January 19, 2020
My sixth
rotation was an inpatient pediatrics rotation. Overall, it was probably my
busiest rotation in terms of patient care and projects. Specifically
for this rotation, I was given two teams to cover—a pulmonary team and a
general team. It was really daunting at first since it was the most amount of
patients I had to cover out of all my inpatient rotations. Despite that, my
past rotations really gave me the skill to cover both teams fully pretty early
on. I learned how to skim notes for key details, I was familiar with navigating
the electronic medical record, and I knew how to work up a patient since I had
done it during three other rotations (though a little differently each time).
The biggest challenge I faced this
rotation block was how unfamiliar I was with pediatric pharmacy as this was my
first exposure to it. In the beginning, I wasn’t familiar with pediatric dosing
(it’s always best to report in mg/kg dosing) and pediatric disease states
(things like Kawasaki disease or Henoch-Schonlein Purpura). Everything was new
and challenging, but this was also one of my favorite parts of my sixth rotation.
There was so much pay off for the work I was putting in to learn, and it was far
easier to see improvement in my skills throughout the rotation.
Another aspect I loved about this
rotation was the fact that I was exposed to cystic fibrosis. Children with
cystic fibrosis will come in with exacerbations/diminished lung function
and be admitted for IV antibiotics. I learned so much about
vancomycin/aminoglycoside dosing and monitoring, which are vital skills for
pharmacists as these antibiotics can really impact a patient’s kidneys. Cystic
fibrosis patients are also on long lists of medications and this is where a
pharmacist can really carve out a role and be a vital member of the team.
Aside from patient care, I was also
completing multiple projects, which included a journal club, vaccine order set,
audits for a new insulin labeling process, final presentation on IV
bisphosphonates use in pediatrics, and a monograph for a pediatric genetics
medication. This rotation definitely kept me busy!
Next rotation with be my health
system/hospital APPE!
