Hospital Practicum – Finished…!

The last week at the hospital pharmacy, I was in sterile/chemo prep. Because of the long weekend, they were extra busy mixing drugs. at this particular hospital where I was at, they only have one Tech working each day so it can be quite hectic for that person. 

For example, on Tuesday, we had 25 chemo drugs to mix and on top of that, there were two TPNs and 3 or 4 sterile drugs. it’s a lot for one person to do throughout the day. It can be tricky because all those drugs has to be mixed at certain time too…

Because they were so busy, I basically pretty much watched for the first couple of days and on day 3 and 4, I had some opportunities to actually get hands on experience.

At Insignia College where I took my Pharmacy Tech. Program, we had lots of opportunities to practice with needles and syringes, and at the end of the program, i was feeling quite good about my techniques. It’s shocking rather than surprising how QUICKLY we lose things if we don’t use it all the time. When I had a chance to do TPNs for the very first time at the hospital, I felt very awkward manipulating syringes and I was very disappointed how poorly I performed….but at the same time, it was also amazing how fast things started to  coming back to me as I did more and more of it….so then I was a bit relieved…phew…! 😉

My 4 weeks of practicum has finally came to an end…I had an amazing time from beginning to the end….worked with the most kindest, intelligent people and I feel that I have grown tremendously….I am very thankful that I was given this wonderful opportunity and I am so ready to actually work and start making lots of $$$. 😉 I will miss everyone at the hospital, but I am sure I will see them again in the future…!! 

I keep thinking lately….I am such a lucky girl….I have only met the nicest people throughout my practicums and for that, I would like to say BIG THANK YOU to everyone who helped me through along the way. This has been a long road and wouldn’t have been the same experience without any of you….This includes people at Insignia College(including my awesome classmates), Rexall on Yates, Cook and Johnson st., Rexall Long Term Care, and everyone at CDH.

I LOVE YOU ALL and I wish you all the very best in your lives. If you have any questions regarding my experience, please feel free to write me anytime! 

 

— Lena Imada

 

 

 

Hospital Practicum – Week 2

Week 2 is completed….! 🙂 So, here is what happened this week.

I was at the LTC (long term care) this whole week. I’d say…it was a quite easy week and quite often, I had to help some other areas or find something to do. The thing is, the hospital where I’m doing my practicum, they have just switched over to using the “Pac Med” so everybody is still learning and trying to get used to this new fancy machine. So, I couldn’t really learn how to use the Pac Med since there were other people needed to be taught how to use it…which is okay. I tried my best to just look and observe and I read the manual so I have a good idea of how its operated now.

I did learn about Pac Med at my long term care practicum, so I already knew a little bit about it. But, at the hospital, they had this another fancy machine called “Med Check” and the name says it all….it checks the meds came out from the Pac Med.

So here is the brief description of how it works:

1. According to the report printed from the computer, you have to fill trays (which is devided into 50 cells or so) <eg. Fill cell A-1 with 0.5 Trazodone, A-2 with 1 ASA 81>

2. When the tray is ready, put the tray into the machine, drop all the pills inside of the machine.

3. Pac Med will start working and producing packaged medications. At this hospital, they had multi meds in a pack eg. all 8:00am meds in one package, all 12:00 meds in one package and all 1800 pills in one package and all 2200 pills in one package)

On the package, they have

-Patient’s name and her/his MRN #

-Where they are located

-Date and time of administration

-Name, dose, quantity and strength of medications

-Drug DIN #

-short description of how to take the meds

-description of what meds looks like

-pack med ID#

-SQ code

but I think you can manually modify what information you want to be printed on the package.

4. when a long strip of meds comes out, the next step will be to run that though the Med Check machine. When you do this, this machine takes pictures of each package and verifies that the medication within the package matches with the information pre-programmed in the computer. They get this information by scanning the SQ code on each package.

5. when this verification process is completed, the ones that have potential errors will be displayed on the computer screen. This error can occur due to….:.

-pill is tilted

-pill is broken

-pill is missing

-pill size is not correct

-extra pill was detected

-machine did not recognized the pill

-pill was over wrapped in the picture

and….could be a few other reasons…

and there are a few pills which just cannot be recognized by the machine…one of it was cyanocobalamin tablet…it’s pink and rounded…for some reason, the machine cannot recognize the colour or something. Strange. So this pill will come up as an potential error every time which can result in having 20 or 30 error messages at the end…

6. When all the packages are ran through the machine, you go to the computer screen and check all the error messages. For example, if there was an error on package #499, you check the package and if there was actually an error, you fix it and tell the computer you fixed it, or, if the pill was just tilted or hidden and it wasn’t an error, then you have to tell the machine what the problem was.

7.When this is all done, it’s all ready to go! Technicians will separate the medications by a patient, roll it,  and then puts it in the medication cassette.

Ta-da-! this is interesting eh? This process only requires 2 technicians. Here is how they do at this particular hospital:

– Tech#1 runs the Pac Med machine, fills the medication tray

– Tech#2 checks the medication tray filled by Tech#1

– Tech #1 runs packaged meds through the Med Check machine, checks all the error messages. if there were missing pills, extra pills, broken pills or wrong pills in the package etc., Tech #1 will correct it (they will cut the package and insert the missing pill or remove the extra pill etc.) and Tech #1 will initial where it was fixed

– Tech #2 will co-sign on the fixed package.

and all DONE!

So, you see, it only takes two techs to run it which is quite awesome. 🙂 A few Techs has told me that they were skeptical at the beginning to rely so much on this machine…and I felt the same at the beginning…I can totally understand that. but if you see and experience the accuracy of this machine, you will be amazed and you will soon be able to trust it and work with it comfortably.  I actually think it’s important for techs to not trust and rely 100% on this machine anyways so that we will always handle it with a caution.

Other than using the Pac Meds, I have learned occasional blister packaging, LTC order entering and other general office work stuff like paper filling etc. I have also helped dispensary when I had some extra time, did a little bit of compounding and put new drugs away.

Starting tomorrow, I will doing the Wardstock/Purchasing. The Technician who is in charge of doing it, she told me that there are lots to learn so I am very excited for this new opportunity!!! Hours are great. it’s 8:30 am to 4:00pm. It will be a easy week 🙂

Have a great week everyone! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Lena

Hospital week 1

I have decided to write a weekly blog for my hospital practicum…due to my super busy schedule…it’s nearly impossible to write it daily…!!

So, I have successfully completed the week 1. I have worked at the dispensary all week. Any comments?….it was GREAT. 

Here are the routine of working at the dispensary. I have mentioned about it in my previous blog but this one is more detailed:

 

1. Go get returned Meds from all the wards./ collect empty med casettes

2. Go get used opioids kits from OR. 

3. Check night cupboards to see if any meds have been taken 

4. Fill 10am orders

5. Tech check if it’s refill meds, or otherwise, ask pharmacist to check 

6. whoever working at the dispensary is responsible of dealing with out/in patients, nurses or whoever comes to the counter 

7. tube up meds to wards if not many 

8. deliver the 10am orders to different wards

9. fill refill orders, opioid kits, stat boxes and hypoglycemia kits (if applicable)

10. fill orders as they come  in and deliver every two hours.

11. order entry on the computer (transcribing Rxs)

 

I feel like I have learned and was capable of doing almost everything at the end of this week. I feel really good about going into this week! I will be working at the LTC (long term care) station where I will be operating Pac Meds and all that exciting stuff!! 🙂 

This week…my schedule is from 9:30am to 6pm….It’s going to be a long week….! But I am just going to have fun and learn as much as I can!!! 

 

Have a great week everyone!! 

 

 

Day 1 – Hospital Practicum

So…I didn’t write about the last couple of days at my community pharmacy..It went well. I was very sad to leave 😦

I have moved this weekend….so I have been just very busy!!!

So…I finally got accepted to do my practicum at the Duncan Hospital…(Cowichan Valley Hospital) It’s about 45 mins commute each way but I didn’t want to wait to do my practicum so I have decided to do it there.

My 1st day, I worked in the dispensary. I will be working in this area every day this week. Lots and lots to learn. 🙂

——- AM –7:30am—————————————————————————————

1. Went to different wards to pick up returned/unused meds.

2.  filled orders and delivered to diferent wards (in the AM and PM)

Also, filled up night cupbords and stat box.

—- Rotation PM——————————————————————————————-

1. Transcribed orders, added, discontinued or changed doses of medications on the computer system.

——-END of the day—–4:00PM———————————————————————-

So, when you process the order on the computer, that will generate the label and

the technicians will fill that order. In the hospital, it’s done by unit dose and they provide 24hr supply. If the med was refill, then another tech can check your work but if it’s a new Rx, then Pharmacist has to check before delivering to the patient.

Transcribing the Rxs was probably the most tricky thing I have done today. and determining which doctor is from their signature. Even experienced Tech sometimes has a hard time doing so.

Anyways…what a day…I didn’t get home until after 6pm…I have to get up by 5am so I need to go to bed…! See you tomorrow everyone!! 🙂

My Life Jornal – Chapter 2

 

So…yes. I took all the beating… I fought back my sister every time, but I didn’t stand a chance. She is 3 years older than I am. But, I never just took the beating. Even though I knew I was going to get beaten, I always fought back, I wanted to at least hurt her a bit.

Another thing is that…growing up…I felt like I was always in the shadow of my sister…My sister was pretty, good at any sports, and had a lot of friends…she was so popular.

That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t good at those things and I wasn’t popular. I was actually good at many things just like she was, people thought i was as pretty as my sister was and I was always one of the most popular kid in the school. But, at home, things always ran around my sister and I think that’s why I’ve always felt like I wasn’t good enough, I have to try harder so that my mom will start paying attention to me.

My sister had lots of friends through her ballet lesson, piano lesson or any other lessons she was taking. As I said, my mom put her strong focus on my sister and I often went to those lessons to watch her. and of course, the people I met there, they are all my sister’s friends and they all recognized me as my sister’s little sister. I didn’t enjoy that, but because I was young, I was always dragged to those social gatherings.  Ever since I was born, it was always all about my sister. so, nobody actually recognized me as “me” and I was extremely frustrated in my younger age. When we moved to live close to our cousins, that even became worse because one of our cousin was the same grade as my sister, my mom and my aunt’s focus was on them. It really was hard for me.

Being a third girl to the family wasn’t easy. and from age 5 to 14, I just wanted to become “me”, and I wanted everyone to recognize “me”.

So, I think that explains a little bit why I was so different than everybody else. I was always trying to find the way to be “unique” to draw people’s attention. I never wanted to do things the same as other people did. for example, when I was in elementary school, when we were creating some kind of art, I always came up with a unique idea so that I could differentiate my art with everybody else’s. I remember trying so hard to be “different”.

After graduating from elementary school, of course my mom put me into the same school as my sister…It was a private christian school and was an only girls school…no fun…:( and of course, I became famous as “my perfect sister’s little sister” immediately after enrollment.

I really got tired of people treating me specially just because they loved my sister. So, by the 3rd year, I knew I had to find something that I am really good at which my sister isn’t good at.

Then, I met English. English was introduced to me when I was in grade 7. It was a mandatory subject. The teacher Mrs. Suzuki, was a wonderful teacher. She recognized those students who were actually studying very hard, and she often told me how great I was and how proud she was of me. and that really made me happy as a child. I felt  that she was the first person who actually recognized my effort and I just wanted to study harder and harder to make her even more proud. and ever since then, I haven’t stopped learning.

I found English fascinating. Well, the fact that there is a whole another world out there and they all speak English, I felt like maybe that’s the place I belong. Maybe I don’t belong here because as I said, I always felt like I was born into the wrong place.

Enough writing for Chapter 2….

When I feel like it…I will publish Chapter 3….

Day 10- Community Pharmacy

I am getting sad that my practicum at this pharmacy is almost over…Again, just like the long term, I LOVE the people I see everyday at this Pharmacy….

I wish I had three different ME so that I could work everywhere I love! lol

As much as I am looking forward to my hospital practicum, at this point, I am leaning towards working at the Retail Pharmacy after completing my practicum…

I just love interaction with people. and not only patients but I love doing the office work, talking to different people on the phone, and facing difficult situations etc. as I said before, I love challenges and I have feeling that community pharmacy offers more challenges and variety in every day work…well, I will see….!

Anyways, I was emotional to say good bye to this pharmacist who I have worked 3 days with this week…He was funny and was very helpful, so passionate about his work even after 25 years of being  a pharmacist…I truly admire that.

Only 3 days left…:( 😦 😦

 

 

Day 8 & 9 (is it? lol) – Community

The regular Pharmacist is on her vacation this whole week.

So, I have been working with another pharmacist. He is quite funny and just like any other pharmacists, very intelligent and knowledgeable.

I love when I’m able to work with different pharmacists because I can always learn something new. and in fact, I thought I have learned a lot last week but I have (already) learned a lot this week as well…!

One thing I have realized by working at the pharmacy is that all the pharmacists are SUPER nice people. I’m not sure if it’s the company or what, but so far, I’ve met about 10 pharmacists and they are all really nice. They are also really fair and have a good moral which I am glad to see because those things are extremely important in my life also. So I can really see myself working in this field for a long time. 🙂

I did a lot of things today for the first time, this pharmacist wanted me to (or didn’t mind me to) do lot of things and I was very happy and excited to take that challenge. after today, I feel 10X more confident.

I have dealt with couple of very unhappy customers today. They were mostly unhappy because the regular pharmacist who knows everything about their medications wasn’t there to talk to them. and I totally understand it is very frustrating trying to have to explain everything to a new person especially when they are taking 7 or 8 medications (and the fact I am new)….so, I felt bad, but at the same time, I knew all I can do is try my best to help them. So, I kept apologizing for the inconvenience and I told them I am trying to do my very best to help them. She yelled at me quite few times but at the end, I think she realized that I was trying my best to help her and she became nicer. The important thing is, I did it through, and I felt a huge accomplishment at the end. I stayed calm, and tried not to take it personally. and it really helped for me by just focusing on what I can do to help her.

Things I did today:

– phoned and communicated with other pharmacies

– took refill requests over the phone, processed and filled.

– printed out re-fill auth. form and faxed over to the doctor when it was necessary

– phoned doctor’s office to confirm with patient’s Rxs

– prepared Rx for delivery

– Put Rxs on hold

– dealt with unhappy customers

I took tomorrow and the next day off this week 🙂 I will be working at my other job…I am a Marketing Manager for one of the English school in Victoria as well. I will talk about this job in the future if I feel like it too…! 😉

Back to the pharmacy on Friday!

Night! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Day 7 – Community

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Today was another great day at the retail pharmacy. I am really liking this job which makes me very happy. 🙂 Going to school not knowing 100% if this is what I want to do was very scary but now I know for sure that I made a right move and I am happy but also relieved that the fact I didn’t waste all that money I paid to go to school. 🙂

I am always craving for more knowledge, and I think this occupation is perfect for me because of that reason. There’s always something new that I can learn. and everyone who works for this pharmacy is super nice…I would love to work for them in the future…!

Today, I finally learned how to use the till. So I felt a lot better being able to help customers  and not making them wait.

I have received and processed a few prescriptions today. I forgot to ask for allergies couple of times….:(  I know I just need to do it few times and I will be able to get into my own routines. I will try very hard to do everything perfectly next week. The key is to pretend that I am very confident and NEVER PANIC. I am quite good at it but I will do a lot better next time because of today.There’s always a way to fix things as long as you are providing the right drug and dose. The most important thing is obviously the accuracy(right drug, dose, route, time & patient) so I am always paying strong attention on that.

I feel like I have gained a lot today. and I am very thankful for that!! I am very thankful that my practicum host is really trying to give me the best experience as possible…I am such a lucky girl…I have had a wonderful experiences in the world of pharmacy so far and I can’t wait to see where I will end up….!

I am off tomorrow so have a great weekend every one!

Day 6 – Community Pharmacy

I am happy today because the Pharmacist / Manager told me today that 

she thinks I am very polite, have a great attitude, and smart. She thinks I’m SMART!!!!! 

THE PHARMACIST thinks I’m SMARRRT!!! She is very intelligent and I have a lot of respect for her. Very intelligent person telling me that I’m SMART…….it means a lot to me……!!

 

 

😉 

Another blog – “My life Jornal”

I want to say thank you to those people who has been regularly visiting(snooping out) my blog.  I am surprised that  I’m getting 35 views or so daily. There are lots of *bored* people out there I see….lol Please spare me your time…! hahaha…

Anyhow…earlier in my blog, I  told you guys that I will talk about my past and how I grew up and all that… and I am getting into that now… I think my life story is quite interesting, and I thought it might help or encourage some people…I just want to share some positive energy.

If you are an immigrant and having a hard time adjusting to this new country, my story might interest you especially….

 

seto city, japan

 

Chapter 1 – My childhood

My name is Lena and I live in Victoria BC Canada.

I have been living here for the past 11 years or so but I am originally from Japan. I was born in Aichi, Japan on October 3, 1985 as a second daughter of my parents, Sumiko & Shigeki Imada.

I’m sharing my life experience here because I would want to remember everything when I’m older and I want to be able to share my story with my grandchildren. I hope some of you find this interesting.

I feel and I strongly believe that the purpose of my life is to live my life as the way I want to live,  be as happy as I can,  learn and experience as many things as I’m able and from those experiences, grow bigger and bigger as a human. This has been focus in my life especially for the last couple of years. (and I will tell you why a bit later on)

Ever since I was 5 or so, I always knew that I was just different than everyone else.

In kinder garden,  I often ran away from school because I thought school was just so boring. Poor mom…she often had to put her head down, apologizing to my teachers. I was a troubled child…All I remember from grade 1 to 4, is that I was beating my boy classmates and making them cry. And at the same time, I was beaten lots by my teachers.(ppl say…Karma is a ***** lol)

I was beaten (I guess people might say “disciplined”) because I had strong belief and I knew when I was right and wrong.  I was not a typical Japanese child who listened and obeyed their teachers. I was different and I didn’t want to shut up or apologize when I wasn’t wrong so they often beat me up physically, dragging across the room with holding my pony tail.

Thanks to my evil teachers. I became really tough and strong because of that.

On top of all the beating from my teachers, at home, my older sister was beating me up almost every day. She is super nice now (what the heck) but she was such an angry child up until when she was 20 or so.

She even admits that now and she thinks it was because our dad was beating her when she was a child so she had lots of anger inside of her growing up.

OMG. sounds like a HORRIBLE family….lol  but we get along really well now. so we just put all of that behind us.

 

to be contd. to Chapter 2 whenever I feel like writing lots lol…