5 1/2 days

This past week has been interesting at work! I didn't see any snakes, much to my disappointment, but I did get to.....



......Meet a really nice and funny Indian doctor. The reason it is important to mention he is Indian is because he can speak fluent Hokkien with patients. Amazing! Well, OK, I don't understand Hokkien, so 'fluent' is debatable; I would have no idea if he inserted German into it. But it must have been good enough for the Chinese uncles to respond as though they were talking to other Chinese uncles in the coffee shops.



......Meet another doctor who looks a bit like Ewan McGregor and speaks with a wicked British accent. The reason it is important to mention the British accent is because....well, because it's a British accent.



.......Watch a bone marrow aspiration being done. Now THIS tops my list of learning experiences. One of the perks of working in a hospital....you get to see anything and everything related to healthcare, even if it has NOTHING to do with what you actually do. The only thing is, now that I've seen what it involves (a fairly thick needle, pushed into your hip bone with a lot of strength from the doctor, some light jerking back & forth required to get some sample thing), I would cry if I was told I had to undergo it. When there was discussion that the doctor may have to repeat it because they thought they didn't get the sample, I nearly fainted on behalf of the patient. Fortunately, they found a chunk of something in the needle which was what they wanted in the end. Phew. The patient (another old uncle) even thanked the team for their effort, though he was clearly in real pain at some points of the procedure. What a trooper!



.......Learn a LOT about stigma towards certain illnesses and how truly difficult it makes some patients' lives



.......See the role of social workers in the care of patients. I feel social workers are a bit like pharmacists in the sense that the general community don't really know what we do. But our roles are important =)


 
I also got a bit carried away with the alcohol wipes....wiping my reference book, my phone and my trusty green pen religiously after work each day. You do it once, and then you find you HAVE to do it everyday. I even alcohol-wiped my bag at the end of my rotation. I hope the PVC doesnt melt away...haha.



So that was my week as a learning pharmacist =)