My preceptor IPPE consisted of visits to Sanford Hospital’s cardiology floor where I got to shadow Dr. Kirsten Johnson. My first experience occurred on October 6, 2016 from 0800 – 1100, and the second work period was October 20, 2016 from 1630 – 1930. I enjoyed each visit to the hospital and felt very welcomed by Dr. Johnson. The only hospital setting experience I had was my IPPE II at Avera Queen of Peace in Mitchell, SD. Therefore, I have never been to a hospital the size of Sanford, and I was excited to learn all about how a large hospital works. During my first work period, Dr. Johnson provided a tour of the main pharmacy in the basement of the hospital. I was amazed at the size of the robot that counts and organizes the medications
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I was surprised at how the hospital slows down during the evening and night. Because the shift was so slow, a majority of my time was spent reviewing medication orders and getting quizzed by my preceptor over anything interesting that came up. Another common occurrence during the evening shift is receiving bags of prescriptions brought by patients from home to take during their stay. One of the jobs of the pharmacist is to ensure that all the medications in the vial are what the label says. Dr. Johnson gave me a bag full of prescriptions and I used the Drug ID function on my Lexi-Comp to identify each vial. Close to the end of my shift, a nurse approached the pharmacy asking us to do a medication reconciliation on a patient who had recently been admitted to the floor. This had been his second time being admitted to the hospital in the last week so he was no stranger to the floor. Dr. Johnson explained to me that since he was a recent admit, she could print his past medication list from his last visit and we could use that as a guide for our reconciliation. When we entered the room, the patient seemed lethargic and confused, after introducing ourselves, I began the reconciliation process. I noticed that the patient seemed unable to focus and almost falling asleep so we discontinued the session and sought out a nurse. The nurse later informed us that the patient had just come back with a blood glucose of 28, which would explain his inability to stay awake. After the patient had some dinner, we were able to continue our medication reconciliation. This time the patient was feeling significantly better, and we were able to get quality answers. We did not notice any problems with his medications or pick-up any problems with compliance so the medication reconciliation went
I was surprised at how the hospital slows down during the evening and night. Because the shift was so slow, a majority of my time was spent reviewing medication orders and getting quizzed by my preceptor over anything interesting that came up. Another common occurrence during the evening shift is receiving bags of prescriptions brought by patients from home to take during their stay. One of the jobs of the pharmacist is to ensure that all the medications in the vial are what the label says. Dr. Johnson gave me a bag full of prescriptions and I used the Drug ID function on my Lexi-Comp to identify each vial. Close to the end of my shift, a nurse approached the pharmacy asking us to do a medication reconciliation on a patient who had recently been admitted to the floor. This had been his second time being admitted to the hospital in the last week so he was no stranger to the floor. Dr. Johnson explained to me that since he was a recent admit, she could print his past medication list from his last visit and we could use that as a guide for our reconciliation. When we entered the room, the patient seemed lethargic and confused, after introducing ourselves, I began the reconciliation process. I noticed that the patient seemed unable to focus and almost falling asleep so we discontinued the session and sought out a nurse. The nurse later informed us that the patient had just come back with a blood glucose of 28, which would explain his inability to stay awake. After the patient had some dinner, we were able to continue our medication reconciliation. This time the patient was feeling significantly better, and we were able to get quality answers. We did not notice any problems with his medications or pick-up any problems with compliance so the medication reconciliation went