First Day in a Hospital Pharmacy

LuJacqueline

Dear all,
I welcome you all to the Hospital Pharmacy Forum where we will share various topics regarding this setting.

If we could all start out by mentioning where we are from that would be great!
I will begin the first post, and I look forward to hearing from you all!

Greetings from California, USA! Whether you're in Australia, South America or Asia I am sure all of us as pharmacy students remember the first day we stepped into a hospital pharmacy.

I am curious so do tell:
What were your expectations of what a hospital pharmacy would look like? Were you anxious? Scared? Nervous? Excited?
Did the experience meet your expectations?

I still remember of my first day as an intern at a hospital that had just opened in town. It was a modern hospital with less than 50 beds and I was super excited to meet the staff as well as get a tour of the hospital.
It was during December which happens to be winter time and also the busiest time of the year due to flu season. The parking lot was full and it was difficult finding a spot. I was nervous that I would be late on my first day as I had 15 minutes to park and to find the pharmacy in a 5 floor building.
I was lucky enough to find a spot after driving around for a few minutes.

I was able to make it to the pharmacy after roaming the hospital halls. The pharmacy technicians greeted me at the door and began to explain to me where everything was.
Everything had been organized alphabetically on shelves by generic name by dosage form. Tablets were all in the first section, vials in the next, refrigerators along the wall. The IV room was the whitest and cleanest room I had ever seen. The phones would constantly ring which was a bit overwhelming at first but I quickly got used to it.

Some of my classmates had mentioned that they had attended what we call "Code Blues" which is when a patient goes into cardiac arrest- a pharmacist usually is in charge of handing the nurses or physicians the medications with the doses already prepared. The medications are held in what we call a crash cart. So I obviously was terrified yet excited to get to witness this happen but it thankfully didn't happen!

The staff was wonderful! They were always eager to answer any questions I might have.

The best part was that they had a tube system that delivered medications throughout the whole hospital!!
I think that's the part that excited me the most 🙂

Overall, it was a great experience. I learned many things from the various pharmacists that I shadowed. I don't think I exactly knew what to expect in the beginning but I was pleasantly surprised.

I look forward to hearing how everyone else's experience was!

gbriellegimenes

LuJacqueline AlisonEkwereWilliams Hi guys! Thank you for sharing your experiences with us! 😃

Well, I'm from Brazil (São Paulo), when I first entered a hospital pharmacy, I was a graduate student, I was very excited and a little apprehensive!

My expectation was a clinical, assistance and administrative care unit, where activities related to pharmaceutical assistance are carried out, run exclusively by pharmacists, responsible for tasks such as production, storage, control and distribution of medicines through the wards of a hospital, guiding the use of medicines according to their efficiency and cost-benefit, according to each patient's case.

And when I went it was more complex than in theory, I found it very interesting.

It was also interesting to talk with more experienced people in the area and with other health professionals, it is very rich to learn from a multi-professional team.

AlisonEkwereWilliams

Hi everyone,
My name is Alison from Nigeria and I am happy to read about your first day at hospital Pharmacy.

My first day at a hospital Pharmacy was not so much different from yours. I was assigned for my clerkship rotation as a pharmacy student to a very big tertiary hospital in my country. This hospital had over 15 different pharmacy units serving different clinics such as Accident and Emergency, General outpatient etc. within the hospital.
Initially, I was really anxious and at the same time confused as regards where to go, who to meet, what are the expectations of me etc.
However, this Initial anxiety was eliminated when my wonderful Preceptor showed up and did the orientation process.
My expectations were not truly met though as I could not relate practically to some concepts thought in class and in the hospital such as Pharmaceutical care roles of Pharmacists. Most activities are dispensing related alone with exception of the anti-retro viral therapy Pharmacy unit where I saw good display of Pharmaceutical care roles of Pharmacists.

I also look forward to hearing about everyone's first day in a hospital pharmacy!