As I have probably mentioned before, in order to graduate and get licensed as a pharmacist, a pharmacy student must complete over 400 hours unpaid in a variety of pharmacy settings before the final year of rotations (in which over 1600 hours of unpaid work is completed).
I have been working on completing the initial 400 hours and am just about done. This past week I completed over 40 hours by working at a hospital in Aurora, Illinois, Rush-Copley Medical Center. Since this was only my second experience in a hospital, with my first experience being stuck in a hospital basement filling medication orders, my expectations were low and my anxiety high that I would not know enough.
Turns out, the experience was GREAT! I learned more about pharmacy, hospitals, professionalism, medication dosing, and myself then I ever thought I would. I now regret not putting down the hospital as one of my rotation preferences (which I turned in a month earlier). The hospital and all of its staff are very teaching oriented which made the experience worth every volunteer hour. My preceptor, Debbie, is a clinical pharmacist that has been helping pharmacy students for over 18 years and did not miss a beat when working with me. She is a phenomenal teacher, mentor and person. I was able to see and learn more in this week then many pharmacy and even med students see in one of their month long rotations.
Each morning I rounded with a team of practitioners including a pharmacists, a cardiologist, a medical resident, a respiratory therapist, a social worker, two nurses, and a nutritionist. We would visit and get a review of the progression of all of the patients in the Intensive Care Unit. This showed me how well a medical team can work together to get a holistic view of patients' health.
Each day I practiced monitoring and dosing for patients staying in the hospital on antibiotic IV medications or blood thinner medications. This showed me how important trust is between medical professionals as the doctors gave their full trust to the pharmacists to take care of the dosing of these medications for most of the patients in the hospital.
I was able to attend a meeting about infectious disease control within the hospital. Each area of the hospital has representatives present as well as an 'infectious disease control coordinator' (whose position I did not know existed). This taught me the importance of communication across specialties as well as the hospitals true goal of patient wellness.
I spent a few hours in the IV compounding hoods learning how different medications, nutritional feedings and chemotherapy agents are made. I was also able to practice my sterile techniques and compounding skills by making epidurals and compounded IV medications. I learned about the responsibilities of the technicians and pharmacists as well as the importance of precision and trust within the pharmacy department.
I was able to witness two "CODE BLUE" commands (one adult, one infant) which signify that the paramedics were rushing a patient with cardiac arrest into the ER. It was amazing how so many people could fit into one room and work together so well to try to save someone's life.
I was able to watch as a cardiologist placed a chest tube into a patient's lungs who was intubated but still having breathing problems. The doctor knew exactly where and how to place the tube between the man's ribs and into his lungs with little to no mess in about 20 minutes.
And the encore of the week, was that I was able to witness first hand an open heart surgery in which two heart valves were replaced and one coronary bypass was performed. This experience was definitely special as I do not think I will ever witness something like this again unless I were to go to medical school. The timing, precision, accuracy, knowledge, teamwork, and focus of all the professionals involved in the 6 hour long procedure is beyond outstanding.
To sum it up... This past week was AMAZING! My expectations were far exceeded with my knowledge from the experience more than I would have ever thought.
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