Published by Computachem Services

P.O Box 297.
Alstonville. 2477
NSW Australia

Phone:
61 2 66285138

As you may, or may not know, over the last month I was travelling overseas and had the one of the greatest experiences of my life.
My time began in Lincoln, which is a city in the UK. I worked for two weeks at the Lincoln County Hospital, a large hospital with a broad range of patients.
The pharmacy department allowed me to venture throughout the hospital, and really get a feel for what the pharmacists do there.
Each day, I had a set schedule with written learning objectives making each day efficient, and action packed.

I went on many ward rounds to several different specialised clinics.
Cranwell was my favourite ward because it was not focused on one disease state, but was for temporary admission.
In one single bed, there could be three different people in it each day.
You would never know what to expect when visiting there – I saw a huge range of patients such as a Temaze overdose, DVT case and even witnessed an expected myocardial infarction.

The pharmacists worked very quickly and efficiently.
The majority of their time was spent on clinical work, which is great in a lot of ways.
The pharmacy technicians would spend all their time typing up labels, and getting medication off shelves. The pharmacists would constantly be going through medication charts, ensuring all doses were correct, that there were no interactions with the current medications, and doing other relevant clinical interventions.
If you read my last article, you would have realised that this operating system did concern me in many ways.
I am still not totally confident that an assistant should get the medication off the shelf and then deliver it to the patient without the pharmacist checking it.
I did question the department on many occasions, and they were even able to show me statistics that technicians have been shown to do fewer mistakes than pharmacists when it comes to dispensing because this is their job all day.
The pharmacists are trying to juggle several tasks at once and are more likely to make a mistake.
This does sound like a valid point, but it is still the pharmacist that is legally responsible for the medication, and they are really only seeing half the job being done.

Besides ward rounds, I also witnessed how to calculate and produce specific IV fluids, or TPN for a patient. There was a strict aseptic procedure that had to be followed, and pharmacy technicians also did this.

There was also a pharmacy shop for outpatients at the hospital, which I worked at for one day.
The technicians did all the dispensing, and the one pharmacist focused on counselling and overseeing the running protocols for the shop.
The shop was not too busy, so one pharmacist was enough.

I found their computer systems extremely backward.
I am not sure if this is the system used by many pharmacies, but it was very old.
It was extremely un-user friendly and definitely required updating.
I think that running costs, and budgeting is quite difficult for hospital pharmacies in the UK, and most likely the computer software was not a top priority.

The second half of my trip was in Hungary, Budapest.
I attended a pharmacy conference for pharmacy students.
There was about two hundred and fifty students present from around thirty countries.
This was an exciting time to talk to young pharmacists from all over the world.
The conference was organised by the International Pharmacy Students Federation (IPSF), a large organisation that operates with many other large organisations such as WHO (World Health Organisation). There were many seminars that discussed world wide issues and campaigns like AIDS awareness, tobacco, caring for the aging population, plus student exchange possibilities and many others.

There were many social events, such as the auction night, where each country brought gifts from their country and were sold.
Money raised went to various projects such as the Neema project.
Its aim is for improving the health status of the villagers residing in and around Kiromo, Buma and Mataya. This is done through various means, including the setting up of a dispensary and health education.

Overall, this was an experience I will never forget and was definitely beneficial for my education, and broaden my appreciation for pharmacy.
Although it was quite costly, I believe it was an opportunity of a lifetime that has increased my passion for pharmacy.