I woke up early once again at 6am. While I thought I was getting faster at my morning routine of having a shower and getting dressed, I seemed to have spent more time than the morning before! Fortunately there was still plenty of time for me to have some toast and Milo, talk to Aunty Jill and then leave for Burwood Hospital.
Aunty Jill drove me to Burwood Hospital. We initially turned left into this road that had an arrow pointing to it saying Burwood, but after a while Aunty Jill thought we had gone the wrong way, so she did a U-turn and took the other turn. Luckily enough we somehow managed to arrive at Burwood Hospital! We drove around for a while looking for the main entrance before I ended up just getting out and asking someone at the Spinal Unit reception. Even after that I still had to wander around till I finally found the pharmacy department! Joanne was already there!
We were introduced to the three pharmacists and the pharmacy technician in the department, and told that we wouldn't be doing any work today, just following them around. We first followed one of the pharmacists to the admissions ward, but there weren’t any patients there to see! It was really quiet!
We then went to join another pharmacist at the spinal unit who told us all (and quizzed us!) about drug treatment for patients with spinal injuries. She was telling us how the patients in this ward were either paraplegic, tetraplegic, some were paralyzed and confined to wheelchairs, others were temporarily reliant on ventilators to breathe, while some other more unfortunate patients were permanently reliant on them. We didn't get to visit the patients, but we did see quite a few in wheelchairs going down the corridors. We also saw some equipment being transported that is used to lift patients up. The corridors are a lot wider than those at Christchurch Public Hospital too, and the spinal unit have their own resident cat!
One interesting thing we overheard while at that ward was that there was some sort of outbreak in a couple of the gastro wards back over at Christchurch Public Hospital! Hopefully it gets cleared up before we go back on Friday!
At around 10.30am we went to the café to meet up with the other pharmacists. Some drug rep was meeting up with them to tell them about some new drug that is used for prophylaxis of hip injuries…I think. She says it has better efficacy than enoxaparin (a low molecular weight heparin), and came prepared with all these brochures, journal articles, guides with graphs and statistics and even samples of the medication for the pharmacy to stock if they wanted to! Oh but don’t forget the most exciting thing, she paid for our drinks! I had a mocha! Flash!! She also brought all this merchandise, such as branded pens, diaries, note pads, bags, and even a figurine of some character called ‘Clot Man’! She gave Joanne and me a note pad each which was cool!
After the drug rep was finished with us, or should I say we were finished with her (asking a thousand questions), Joanne and I went to watch a pharmacist do a medication history review with a patient with rheumatoid arthritis coming in for surgery. I can’t really say much due to patient confidentiality and I don’t want to get into trouble but it was interesting watching that.
Finally it was lunch at 1pm! We just ate at the café. I ate the lunch Aunty Jill once again made for me before we went over to the brain injury rehabilitation unit to follow another pharmacist. This time there was a lot for her to do! It wasn’t too exciting for us though, just watching her do paperwork.
We did follow her into one of those rooms populated with nurses, and one of the nurses turned around and when she saw us asked sharply
“What are you doing here?!”
Then she realised we were pharmacy students following the pharmacist!
We did get to watch the pharmacist talk to a patient about which medication they had been taking upon arrival to hospital, and it seemed as though he was non-compliant.
After that, we just stood around for a lot longer in the ward drug room watching the pharmacist try to complete her paperwork while being distracted and pulled away by nurses!
We were supposed to finish by 4pm but finished half an hour later. We went to the nearest bus stop and Joanne showed me this little box that is on a pole at the bus stop. You push a button and a light next to the amount of time the next bus will be showing up brightens!
The bus ride back to the Bus Exchange in the centre of the city took about half an hour. Once we got into the city, Joanne and I went our own ways and I went to find the Dollar Store 123 to buy a ‘Thank You’ card for my relatives to give to them this Thursday when I leave them! After that, I went to the food court above the Bus Exchange to wait for Uncle John to meet me.
When he arrived, we had to walk to (what felt like) the other side of the city to reach his car. We just talked and I got to check out the sights as I walked so it was all good.
When we got home, Alice had cooked dinner for us! It was fish wrapped with ham or bacon, and some chips with some lemon sauce I think! Anyway it looked and tasted really good! This family likes cooking!
We spent the evening watching a couple of food shows on TV before the women went off to bed and left Uncle John and I to watch Spooks.
After that I finally went to bed!
No comments:
Post a Comment