WEEK 3: PHARMACY

Pharmacy

 

This week I did my clinical observations with an IV tech. She spent most of her time working with other pharmacy techs and occasionally came into contact with a pharmacist. Her duties mostly included getting all the IVs needed for the patients for the next couple days and preparing IVs. She went to several the sections of the hospital to restock the medicine she had prepared into the Pyxis machine.

 

Things I learned this week-

• The many categories of drugs 

• The life of the many drugs

• Daily Distribution

•  Duties of a Pharmacy Tech                

    The BEST thing that happened this week is that I got to go around to all the different areas in the hospital to distributed the medicine (primarily to all the ORs). I haven't been around to those areas yet ,so it got me excited for that rotation.
  
  The Worst thing that happened this week is that during the second day of   rotation through the area they didn't really have much for me to do since I had already received a thorough orientation of the facility and they were waiting on a shipment of drugs. For a consolation they just let me watch videos about the Pharmacy field.
  
  This week was: Good
  
  
  What I Observed

  

  Pyxis Drug Carousel

  Technology
  • crash carts
  • powder IVS
  • pyxis drug storage

  • pyxis drug carousel (talus)
    
  
  

  

  Crash Cart

  

  Powder IV

  

  Pyxis Drug Storage

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Diagnostic Procedures
  •  doctor's/nurse's assessment of the patient
  Therapeutic Procedures 
  • IV's
  •  (sodium chloride or dextrose [usually sodium chloride] usually an antibiotic)
  • powder, pre-mixed, frozen, or in separate entities that need to be physically mixed by hand

  • Capsules

  • narcotics
  • pediatric 
  • general 
  Diseases/Disorders
  • treats generally all diseases to some degree
  Medical Terminology 

  • "Piggy Bag"    - IV bags

     

  Other
  

  •  If a patient doesn't end up using the IVs that they were originally supposed to but they were already stocked in the medical closet than the patient recieves credit they can use the next time they come in. 
  • When distributing narcotics to the patient the nurse must have a witness to document how much was actually given.
    
     
   

   

  I. I worked in the pharmacy within the hospital which is protected by two doorways and a buzzer with a lock to get in. Within the room was about four other rooms including a lounge area, a director's office, an IV room and a storage room. The narcotic room is left under lock and key and only the pharmacist has the key.  They had crash carts which supplied all drugs necessary for an emergency. Powder IVs are the most common IV they use; it contains the IV liquid and a powder vessel.  The talus was a carousel of drugs that was hooked up to a computer so that they could type in a drug name and it would rotate to show the drug. The pyxis drug storage was where they kept all the drugs that were stored in the medicine storage rooms. I didn't remain in this area the entire time because we had to distribute the medicine to all areas of the hospital to keep the medical rooms stocked for easy access by the nurses and doctors.
  
  II.The majority of workers were pharmacy techs expect for the IV tech that I was shadowing. The pharmacist only came in once to ask about the stocking of flu shots. Each pharmacy tech was in charge of a specific area of the hospital; within these sections they were responsible for keeping the drugs stocked. All the techs work together and help each other with the different jobs involved with preparing the drugs. In order to prepare IVs they must be in full PPE including shoe covers.
  The nurses and doctors are the ones putting in the order for the patient according to their diagnosis. 
  
  III. Each of the capsules or IVs have different expiration dates ranging from one week to over a year. Piggy bags is the term they use to refer to the IV bags. I learned the process to starting a powder IV; you squeeze the sodium chloride or dextrose into the powder vessel, then you mix it in the vessel until the powder loses all its chunks, then return it into the IV bag, and then you can hook it up to the patients IV line.
  
  IV. This week I had a good week. Monday consisted of the nurses throwing a lot of information at me as they gave me an orientation. Wednesday was mostly them waiting for a shipment so they could label and put everything away. I feel like they had a lot to show me and tell me in terms of pharmacy, but I also got a chance to talk to the IV tech about my experiences so far and she gave me tips on what steps to take.