The New Pharmacy Student on the Block (Five)

Hi Everyone!

My name is Chantel Asamoah and I am 4th year Pharmacy Student doing block 5 of my APPE (Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience) here at mdBriefCase.

APPE is a time for pharmacy students to put together everything we've learned over 3 years of school and apply it in real-life practice as a pharmacist. Although mdBriefCase will be my only non-direct patient care (NDPC) placement, I'm excited to learn about the impact that pharmacists can have in non-traditional settings. We all tend to envision the role of a pharmacist as binary - either a community pharmacist or a hospital pharmacist. Or at least that's how I saw it before I started pharmacy school. But there's so much more you can do with a PharmD degree - industry, education, consulting, public health, government, the list goes on!

Before coming to mdBriefCase, my placements included  Michael Garron Hospital (MGH) in general medicine, respirology and oncology, a community placement at a No Frills pharmacy, and a "study" block - which I used as an opportunity to visit Chicago with one of my best friends. I can say that there was at least one thing I learned from each of my previous blocks that has positively influenced the way I will practice as a pharmacist or how I think of the patients I will work with in the future.

1. Block 1 General Medicine Unit at MGH - a common task for pharmacy students during a hospital setting is discharge prescription counseling. During this rotation at MGH, I was asked to provide discharge counseling to a deaf patient through a sign-language interpreter. It was such an eye-opening experience because I couldn't imagine how the patient would have dealt with all the changes to his medications and understood how/why he needed to start taking new medications. It really got me to start thinking about how language barriers can prevent people from accessing the health information that they need, and as a pharmacist, I should be mindful of these barriers and always have strategies to help. These can include providing written information or asking if I could call a family member that speaks English to translate.
2. Block 2 Respirology and Oncology Unit at MGH - during my 5-weeks, one patient that I was interviewing was experiencing an excruciating migraine and didn't have any of her medications from home, which are usually effective. She had to resort to laying in her hospital bed with her eyes closed, lights off, and with an ice pack on her forehead. None of the medications she was getting in the hospital were helping, but she remembered receiving something in the emergency room years ago that helped, but she couldn't remember the name. Although it would have been easier and less time-consuming for me to give the Advil some more time to work, I looked through all the records of her previous hospital admissions to find the name of this specific medication that helped years ago. I didn't get to see her or find out if it was helpful because she was discharged over the weekend, but I'm glad I didn't just take the easy way out in the interest of time.
3. Block 3 No Frills Pharmacy - being a familiar face in a community pharmacy allows you the opportunity to building lasting patient relationships. During this placement, I became involved in the care of a patient who was recently prescribed insulin for the first time. While he was very happy to have me review his medications and progress with him every week, he lacked the confidence to start an injectable medication that would get his diabetes under control, after years of struggling with it. It required a lot of motivational interviewing on my part before he was finally able to make that leap. Sometimes, people just need someone to take the time to listen to their fears and motivate them to reach their goals.
4. Block 4 "Study" Block/Chicago Trip - if you've ever been to Chicago, you know that the city has a lot of culture (and good food)! Learning about the culture of the city made all of the tourist sitesand experiences much more meaningful. This reminded me why it is important for us to make an effort to at least try to understand our patient's culture or where they're coming from.

I'll be sure to share the experience at mdBriefCase that most greatly shaped who I am as a pharmacist and person by the end of this rotation. Stay tuned for my upcoming projects (a critical appraisal presentation, eNewsletter, MedSchoolForYou mini-module) and weekly blog posts! 

Chantel