Pharmacy

Learning Report
1. I did not have any specific responsibilities this week, but I had to ask questions and take notes.
2. I learned how many different medication there is and how many different sizes/amounts there are of the same drug.
3. The best thing that happened this week was that the technician I followed was nice and good at explaining things while he did them.
4. The worst thing that happened was that I did not see any medical procedures on patients.
5. This week was fair because I got to talk to cool technicians but the unit itself was not interesting.

Experience Record
Technology- I observed several different types of technology in this unit, on of them was the cabin that contain all the drugs; it calculates the amount of drugs in it and opens the doors needed for what drug you are looking for. The shooting doors that leads to new hallways with drugs where another type of technology that i saw. I also saw the computers and the labeling machines that they use to know what drugs that are needed for what patients. The machine that sends the different drugs up to the floors in a little tube was that last technological thing I observed.

Diagnostic procedures- The pharmacist and the pharmacy technicians do not do anything that is diagnostic procedures for the patients. The only diagnostic thing they do is prepare drugs and IV bags.

Therapeutic procedures- Everything they do in the pharmacy is for therapeutic help for the patients, every drug given is a therapeutic procedure. They make all the IV bags and every drug to help a problem that a patient has.

Disease observed-  In the pharmacy you do not see any diseases directly but we see medication that could go to so many different diseases. There are medication specifically for babies, pregnant women, medication that can only be taken by mouth and heart and lung disease medications.

Medical terminology-
BP- blood pressure
Px- prescription

Experience Journal
I. The environment in the pharmacy was clean and strict but messy at the same time, for example it was sterile and everyone did their job in an orderly matter but there were drugs everywhere and for an outsider it looked messy. The smell in there was not different compared to the rest of the hospital and it was a lot brighter light in there than the rest of the hospital.

II. The staff in the pharmacy was really nice and willing to teach, if you started talking to them. They were not as strict and "boring" as I had imagined, they were fun and helpful people. They also worked as a team; covered and helped each other when needed.

III. This week I learned that there are many shapes and sizes for the same drug, and that it because different cases need different amount of the drug and it can also depend on the way they are giving the drug to the patient. I also learned that the pharmacy technicians have to have everything approved by the pharmacist before they can send the drug away. I learned that the drugs can be send up to the different floors in the tube machine, but if the drug cabinets on the different floors need to be filled the technicians walked them up to the floors. The technicians know what drugs and the amount needed because of the labeling machine that prints out prescriptions every time the nurses send what they need, that is another I learned.

IV. This week at the hospital was okay, I learned a lot about the technology in the pharmacy but because there was no patient interaction it wasn't that fun. I did enjoy talking to the technicians because they were really nice and liked to teach. What I learned from this week is that I do not want to work in a pharmacy, I want to interact with patients.