Estne Hospitalis?

It's another weekend before an exam, which means it's time to vent my other thoughts for the week!

While I was afraid that traveling every Friday to a site an hour and a half away for a nine hour day would be an issue, I've found that the real issue is what happens to the rest of the week.  Mashing 17 hours of coursework into 4 days and then having three lab type things in the afternoons means the week is packed.  All the same, I love the experience I'm having at the hospital so I think it's worth it, and I'll digress on the issue of lack of free time.

The best part about the Friday experiences is that, although it's a tiny hospital compared to what I'm used to, they really have their act together.  This is in part because there isn't much that needs attention on the grand scale so details can be a greater priority.  I've been able to round with the Pharmacy Director on both of my visits, which is an excellent experience in clinical pharmacy.  Although classroom work is important for leaning the science of pharmacy, there really isn't a viable replacement for experience in the real world.  Ostensibly, that's the reason these rotations are required, but that isn't as vividly apparent until actually being there.  In any case, the rounding means I get a more hands-on approach to going through a patient's chart and hearing what patients have to say.  I can ask the director anything without being worried I'll look bad in front of any of my classmates as with a question in class and the approach is much more personal.  I love it!

The pharmacy itself is, as I've come to expect, located in the basement away from the happenings of the hospital.   I'm hoping that with the future development of hospitals architects will learn to put the pharmacy at least on the main entry floor.  It's difficult at times to feel connected to the rest of the world when you have to go up a floor or two to make it to the patients and every medication order shows up on a computer display.  It would also be nice to have a window to know the outside world still has sunlight, but I digress.  The benefit of having a central pharmacy on the basement level is that it's less likely to be found by someone wandering the hospital looking for trouble.

There are two pharmacists that staff the pharmacy itself that work on different days.  They alternate every Friday, but since both they and the director are preceptor certified that isn't a huge issue.  The one-on-one time with each of them leaves me free to ask about their opinions on modern pharmacy (since they both went to school quite some time ago when it was different and are closing in on retirement) and to get a feel for where the culture of pharmacy was and where it's going.  That's in addition to anything I see that looks interesting that I can ask about and they'll point out some of the more interesting medication orders to me.

I'm hoping that this experience will continue to contribute to my growth toward becoming a competent pharmacist.  Not having much experience in a retail pharmacy I'm withholding judgment until I've been through the daily grind of one but so far I really like the clinical direction that pharmacy is going in the institutional setting.