I spent the day at Gleneagles hospital today. It was an eye-opening experience, as mentioned by the pharmacist there. Obviously there is more variety of medicines and the volume of prescription is very high. Was a little disoriented because of the slightly different layout of the medicines. They also have some dosage forms that are not found in the outlet I was at. Like, DUH. They are a hospital pharmacy anyway.
So what did I do today. Arrived extremely early and proceeded to get myself a bottle of mineral water and some cough drops (was having a scratchy throat and a little phelgmy cough when I woke up this morning). After taking my time to settle down, I went around to get to know the people in the pharmacy. Spent a bit of time talking and then I started to familiarise myself with the store layout.
When the pharmacist came in, we went out for a little talk and I was given some instructions on my assignment. Then the day begins. Torrents of patients started to flood the counter and many prescriptions have to be filled quickly. There is no room for any mistakes here! As I was quite slow with the labeling, I was comfortable only with the packing. But eventually, I got the hang of typing labels and it came to me quite naturally. A few more little details to iron out. Hopefully I could accomplish that by tomorrow.
While we were processing the prescription, we came across a few interesting cases. Like, a lady was prescribed tadalafil (a drug that has similar function as Viagra). I have yet to check what are the not-so-common uses for a lady. And a very fussy patient that wanted all of her 120 tablets at first, then decided to take only 4 boxes (which contains 56 tabs) and finally settled her mind on wanting to have 60 tablets (4 boxes with 5 loose pieces). While packing, we were cursing away...already there was so many customers and yet still so demanding. Wanted to smack her. Pfft.
Did something out of the norm today as well. The pharmacist gave me a few medicines and instructed me to "pop" them from their blister packs into a container. Those are expired drugs and were meant to be destroyed. Well, to the un-enlightened mind, medicines are not supposed to be thrown away "just like that". What if some kid finds it and decided to pop it in his mouth? We are not talking about safer drugs like Panadol, but stuff like anti-depressants, tranquilisers, anti-hypertensives etc. So there I was, "popping" the pills. And as a result, got myself a few cuts here and there. I am having difficulty typing as of now due to my bandaged fingers. :( All my "e" tend to be typed as "r". Bah.
Well, I was missing my outlet quite a lot. *whisper* And especially my preceptor. Even though time passes very quickly at the hospital, there is a lack of something. Maybe it's the familiarity huh.
And tomorrow will be another day at the hospital pharmacy. A wonderful opportunity for me to learn. I think I am very lucky to have this opportunity to see how a hospital pharmacy is like. Ahh. But I still miss my outlet lah. I even went there after work just to see my preceptor leh...
Anyway, I shall go read up on some product leaflets.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Moreeeee
I'm counting down to the end of my preceptorship. Not because I am eager for it to end, but rather, I'm quite reluctant to go. I have spent the past 6 weeks learning and absorbing at the pace I'm comfortable at. And I have the capacity and curiousity to learn more without the rigidness of a syllabus to clamp me down.
This is the first time I have been so happy ever since I stepped into uni. I am just afraid that when school reopens, the mundane routine will set in and I'll get disillusioned once again. This preceptorship programme has been an eye-opening experience. Initially I was a little apprehensive about becoming more cynical when I leave, but to the contrary, I am more optimistic about this profession. I guess I must thank my preceptor for the wisdom he imparts to me. Frankly, my level of knowledge about drugs and their dosages etc will not be as high as my other classmates, but I do know the reason why I am in pharmacy and why things are done in certain ways. My preceptor is very good, because he teaches me the HOWs, he also teaches me the WHYs. And being able to understand the WHYs would make the HOWs make sense.
I know I have totally abandoned the other blog meant for the record of this preceptorship. Somehow, I feel more at ease blogging about my feelings in my "homeground".
Today, I had the privilege to attend a training session with the pre-reggers. It was a last-minute invitation by my preceptor to attend the session. I wouldn't say that it was fun or interesting (in fact, it was sooooo dry I almost wanted to die), but I do realise the importance of community pharmacist in detecting the first signs of an epidemic *touchwood*. They were discussing about cold, cough and flu (simple stuff) but went on to see how malaria, dengue or even mycoplasma infections could be disguised and diagnosed as a common cold, flu or cough. Kinda scary...
Then when we were back in the store, my preceptor went through with me on the "little" antibiotics (an-tie-biotics for you American speakers, heehee) project. He said that my piece of work was the best he has seen so far, but there is definitely room for improvement as my level of knowledge on antibiotics is still quite rudimentary. He made me do this so that it can help me later in future when I go out to practice. And I think he is quite excited over my BIG plan on going overseas as well. He always manages to squeeze in a casual question about my status. Haha...
Oh my, there I go again. Babbling on and on and on and on about my preceptor. I think that he's just so cool lah! Really. And I just cannot stop talking about him. But I must! In case my baby gets too jealous of a man 12 years older than him. Heehee.
This is the first time I have been so happy ever since I stepped into uni. I am just afraid that when school reopens, the mundane routine will set in and I'll get disillusioned once again. This preceptorship programme has been an eye-opening experience. Initially I was a little apprehensive about becoming more cynical when I leave, but to the contrary, I am more optimistic about this profession. I guess I must thank my preceptor for the wisdom he imparts to me. Frankly, my level of knowledge about drugs and their dosages etc will not be as high as my other classmates, but I do know the reason why I am in pharmacy and why things are done in certain ways. My preceptor is very good, because he teaches me the HOWs, he also teaches me the WHYs. And being able to understand the WHYs would make the HOWs make sense.
I know I have totally abandoned the other blog meant for the record of this preceptorship. Somehow, I feel more at ease blogging about my feelings in my "homeground".
Today, I had the privilege to attend a training session with the pre-reggers. It was a last-minute invitation by my preceptor to attend the session. I wouldn't say that it was fun or interesting (in fact, it was sooooo dry I almost wanted to die), but I do realise the importance of community pharmacist in detecting the first signs of an epidemic *touchwood*. They were discussing about cold, cough and flu (simple stuff) but went on to see how malaria, dengue or even mycoplasma infections could be disguised and diagnosed as a common cold, flu or cough. Kinda scary...
Then when we were back in the store, my preceptor went through with me on the "little" antibiotics (an-tie-biotics for you American speakers, heehee) project. He said that my piece of work was the best he has seen so far, but there is definitely room for improvement as my level of knowledge on antibiotics is still quite rudimentary. He made me do this so that it can help me later in future when I go out to practice. And I think he is quite excited over my BIG plan on going overseas as well. He always manages to squeeze in a casual question about my status. Haha...
Oh my, there I go again. Babbling on and on and on and on about my preceptor. I think that he's just so cool lah! Really. And I just cannot stop talking about him. But I must! In case my baby gets too jealous of a man 12 years older than him. Heehee.
Monday, June 13, 2005
Dumdeedum
Went to work slightly late because I decide to laze on the bed for slightly longer than usual and thus, left the room slightly late. When I reached the bus stop, the bus was slightly late and when I reach the main road to catch the public bus, I was late. Since I didn't want to wait too long for the next bus to come, I decided to take another route. So there was I, waiting at another bus. Good thing the bus came promptly. But the bus driver seems to be driving slightly slower than usual and as I got to the next bus stop, I realised that my route is a little faulty. So I had to traverse the whole of Holland Village to get to the other end to catch another bus to work. So there I was, spending precious 10 minutes walking from one end of Holland V to another. But it was good exercise nonetheless. Thank goodness for the good pair of shoes I bought from *cough*Bata*cough*. Heh.
Preceptor was unusually busy this morning as well. So I amused myself with rearranging shelves and refilling empty shelves. A baby peed in her nappy and it leaked! So I had to double up as a cleaner and help clean up. Haha. Then I resumed the inventory work which took me about 30 minutes to complete keying in the data. Thereafter I went around the store to pretend to be helpful again. Heehee. Preceptor probably sensed that I had nothing to do and he assigned me to the surgicals (aka first aid) section to rearrange everything. Meaning, I had to clean out the whole display and reorganise the whole thing again. Didn't really require much brainwork, but it definitely need creativity to be able to put everything you want on a shelf. So there was I, happily removing everything (those self-adhesive-gel-type of bandages and gauze pads and alcohol swabs and loads of sterile cotton balls) and rearraging them. So now the leftmost shelf has all kinds of bandages grouped together, followed by different types of tapes to hold those bandages together. Makes sense doesn't it. Previously the tapes and bandages are placed on totally different ends of the display. Then all the insulin syringes and needles are all moved "downstairs". Moved stuff here and there. It took me almost the whole morning. Supposed to complete it by 11-ish, but because there were so much interference from customers looking for stuff, I had to abandon my mission for a while. Heh. So my whole morning was gone rearranging stuff.
Had a good lunch...only 3 dollars! Haha. I am so thankful for this Indon auntie that comes along EVERYDAY at LUNCH time and DINNER time to deliver our meals! I remember I jokingly told someone that I should start making friends with the Indon maids who frequent the shop and then get them to cook meals for me. Haha. My "joke" came true partially. Except that this kind lady isn't a maid. She's a rich old lady with a bigbig heart and I love talking to her. She's already 68 but she looks like she's just approaching 60. Very cheerful lady.
Oh. And after lunch, I resumed the inventory counting. This was when I almost went bonkers. I don't mind counting tablets...ONLY if they come in strips or blisters. NOT when they are loose. And if the bottle originally contains 1000 tablets and some of it has been dispensed, it's no fun at all. my highest record so far is 739 tablets. I was going mad counting those coffee0coloured tablets. At least they are still of a reasonable size. The smallest tablet I have seen and counted has a diameter of approxiamtely 2mm. Get that, it's 2mm. Diameter eh. Good thing there's only 120 of those tablets to count. Haha. And it kinda struck me that in no circumstance I should lose any of those tablets. Cos they are expensive things. Some tablets has a unit price of a few dollars! Imagine you have to take it 3 times a day, for a period of a month. A tablet of Drug X costs $2.45. So there you go, a month's supply will cost you $220.50 already. And imagine you need to be on this drug for long term, i.e., years and years and years. For one year, it will be $2646 on medicines alone. So, think about this. Watch your diet and lifestyle carefully. Because if you can make a lot a lot of money now at the expense of your health, it will eventually end up as your medical bill.
Preceptor was unusually busy this morning as well. So I amused myself with rearranging shelves and refilling empty shelves. A baby peed in her nappy and it leaked! So I had to double up as a cleaner and help clean up. Haha. Then I resumed the inventory work which took me about 30 minutes to complete keying in the data. Thereafter I went around the store to pretend to be helpful again. Heehee. Preceptor probably sensed that I had nothing to do and he assigned me to the surgicals (aka first aid) section to rearrange everything. Meaning, I had to clean out the whole display and reorganise the whole thing again. Didn't really require much brainwork, but it definitely need creativity to be able to put everything you want on a shelf. So there was I, happily removing everything (those self-adhesive-gel-type of bandages and gauze pads and alcohol swabs and loads of sterile cotton balls) and rearraging them. So now the leftmost shelf has all kinds of bandages grouped together, followed by different types of tapes to hold those bandages together. Makes sense doesn't it. Previously the tapes and bandages are placed on totally different ends of the display. Then all the insulin syringes and needles are all moved "downstairs". Moved stuff here and there. It took me almost the whole morning. Supposed to complete it by 11-ish, but because there were so much interference from customers looking for stuff, I had to abandon my mission for a while. Heh. So my whole morning was gone rearranging stuff.
Had a good lunch...only 3 dollars! Haha. I am so thankful for this Indon auntie that comes along EVERYDAY at LUNCH time and DINNER time to deliver our meals! I remember I jokingly told someone that I should start making friends with the Indon maids who frequent the shop and then get them to cook meals for me. Haha. My "joke" came true partially. Except that this kind lady isn't a maid. She's a rich old lady with a bigbig heart and I love talking to her. She's already 68 but she looks like she's just approaching 60. Very cheerful lady.
Oh. And after lunch, I resumed the inventory counting. This was when I almost went bonkers. I don't mind counting tablets...ONLY if they come in strips or blisters. NOT when they are loose. And if the bottle originally contains 1000 tablets and some of it has been dispensed, it's no fun at all. my highest record so far is 739 tablets. I was going mad counting those coffee0coloured tablets. At least they are still of a reasonable size. The smallest tablet I have seen and counted has a diameter of approxiamtely 2mm. Get that, it's 2mm. Diameter eh. Good thing there's only 120 of those tablets to count. Haha. And it kinda struck me that in no circumstance I should lose any of those tablets. Cos they are expensive things. Some tablets has a unit price of a few dollars! Imagine you have to take it 3 times a day, for a period of a month. A tablet of Drug X costs $2.45. So there you go, a month's supply will cost you $220.50 already. And imagine you need to be on this drug for long term, i.e., years and years and years. For one year, it will be $2646 on medicines alone. So, think about this. Watch your diet and lifestyle carefully. Because if you can make a lot a lot of money now at the expense of your health, it will eventually end up as your medical bill.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
An update!
Whee~
I know I have not been diligent in consistently updating this blog...but I was busy. And very much occupied with loads of work. Sort of lah. And the days are getting quite mundane. It would sound dumb if I were to recall every single thing.
Well. Went out for an auditing exercise today (Gosh. I'm starting to sweat like a horse even though I just showered 15 minutes ago) and guess what, Singaporeans are SNOBS and they are RUDE. Some people can just treat me like an invisible wall even though I stood right in front of their horizontally enhanced body. Geez. They think they can run me down with their tons of fats? Anyway, no bitching here. So there I was, standing and waiting and pleading for an hour and I only managed to get 2 responses. I was so desperate that I had to pretend to be a customer. But I got myself a chocolate bar! Yay.
And I got scolded by a customer today. And I wanted very much to scold her back because she was absolutely wrongwrongWRONG! Some middle-aged-approaching-menopause-woman thought that some tablets were soldat $1.90 for 20 tablets. But the actual price was $1.65 for only 10 tablets! And she was insistent that she was right and that she had only gotten it from somewhere else at that price. So I called up that branch and enquired and found that there is no mistake at all. Grrrr. Piss me off. And still want to act high and mighty. Anyway, on my part, I could have been a little calmer and handled the situation better. My stubborness gotten the best of me this time. Need to be humble...yes, need to be humble. Customer is always right even though they insist that shit tastes better and chocolate...Ahhhhh. Crude analogy, but I can't think of anything else now.
I'm very tired. I shall go to bed now. Tomorrow morning I will have to do work again!
I know I have not been diligent in consistently updating this blog...but I was busy. And very much occupied with loads of work. Sort of lah. And the days are getting quite mundane. It would sound dumb if I were to recall every single thing.
Well. Went out for an auditing exercise today (Gosh. I'm starting to sweat like a horse even though I just showered 15 minutes ago) and guess what, Singaporeans are SNOBS and they are RUDE. Some people can just treat me like an invisible wall even though I stood right in front of their horizontally enhanced body. Geez. They think they can run me down with their tons of fats? Anyway, no bitching here. So there I was, standing and waiting and pleading for an hour and I only managed to get 2 responses. I was so desperate that I had to pretend to be a customer. But I got myself a chocolate bar! Yay.
And I got scolded by a customer today. And I wanted very much to scold her back because she was absolutely wrongwrongWRONG! Some middle-aged-approaching-menopause-woman thought that some tablets were soldat $1.90 for 20 tablets. But the actual price was $1.65 for only 10 tablets! And she was insistent that she was right and that she had only gotten it from somewhere else at that price. So I called up that branch and enquired and found that there is no mistake at all. Grrrr. Piss me off. And still want to act high and mighty. Anyway, on my part, I could have been a little calmer and handled the situation better. My stubborness gotten the best of me this time. Need to be humble...yes, need to be humble. Customer is always right even though they insist that shit tastes better and chocolate...Ahhhhh. Crude analogy, but I can't think of anything else now.
I'm very tired. I shall go to bed now. Tomorrow morning I will have to do work again!
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Wednesday
I am getting very lazy. In fact, I think after I type this entry, I will be getting ready to go to bed. Heh. Tired lah. And lazy too.
This whole week has been quite mundane. There's only 1 or 2 interesting event happening every day. And as for today, I made a huge mistake...and almost embarrassed myself...Gah.
I'm not sure whether I should even blog about it.
Anyway, my preceptor's going to be back from his 5 days hiatus. And tomorrow, we will be expecting short tempers and lots of being serious. No more fooling around. Argh.
But we had a good debate today as to why domperidone is P/POM and metoclopramide is only POM. Heh.
Customer called to enquire about side effects in taking tolbutamide (antidiabetic). And I had a "great" time digging through Martindale (a reference book with everything under the sun in it) and trying to help the guy. I am so grateful for the presence of the pharmacist. Otherwise I'll be embarrassing myself again. :P
Oh. The founder (I think) of Guardian in Singapore came today. And she praised me for my smile and alertness. *MUAHAHAHA* And she also said that it is a good start. And also mentioned some tea thing she wanted to have with our batch. Woohoo~ Brilliant indeed.
And I think that is all for today. I want to go to bed already. Still waiting for someone to call me...Dumdumdum.
This whole week has been quite mundane. There's only 1 or 2 interesting event happening every day. And as for today, I made a huge mistake...and almost embarrassed myself...Gah.
I'm not sure whether I should even blog about it.
Anyway, my preceptor's going to be back from his 5 days hiatus. And tomorrow, we will be expecting short tempers and lots of being serious. No more fooling around. Argh.
But we had a good debate today as to why domperidone is P/POM and metoclopramide is only POM. Heh.
Customer called to enquire about side effects in taking tolbutamide (antidiabetic). And I had a "great" time digging through Martindale (a reference book with everything under the sun in it) and trying to help the guy. I am so grateful for the presence of the pharmacist. Otherwise I'll be embarrassing myself again. :P
Oh. The founder (I think) of Guardian in Singapore came today. And she praised me for my smile and alertness. *MUAHAHAHA* And she also said that it is a good start. And also mentioned some tea thing she wanted to have with our batch. Woohoo~ Brilliant indeed.
And I think that is all for today. I want to go to bed already. Still waiting for someone to call me...Dumdumdum.
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