Bogged down by the so-called revision...
And when was busy revising pharmacy practice side today - I realised, may be I am actully too lucky, to actually choose to do this course, although I have dreamt myself to be such, at the end...
What I mean here, erm, well, simply because, although they keep saying, pharmacy is a course that need to have strong mathematical, biological and chemical knowledge, it needs more than that, actually, I shall say...
Wait wait wait, that sounds only to make everything worse, sounds worse...
Mathematics - you count number of tablets, volume of ampoule, etc etc...
e.g. Mrs JB was prescribed nitrofurantoin 50mg tablets, 1 BD for 4 days. How many tablets should be dispensed for her?
Biology aka Pharmacology - Cellular and molecular signalling, organelles, microbiology...
e.g. Compare and contrast the actions of DMARDs and anti-cytokines in the treatment pathway of Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Chemistry - Neurochemistry, chemistry of functional groups, chemical aspect of drug discovery...
e.g. Discuss the mechanism of actions of different types of opioids on mu, delta and kappa receptors - relate these with the structural formulae of various simple and complicated opioids.
Physics (sometimes) - Principles of HPLC, radiography, atomic excitation...
e.g. Discuss the principles of using various iodine isotopes in radiopharmaceutics.
Pharmacy practice - Legality / Law
e.g. Controlled Drugs are not allowed in emergency supply on the request of patient, prescribers or both?
Pharmacy Practice - Ethics
e.g. Mrs ML come to collect the prescription of amoxicillin for her daughter DL. You discovered that DL is on some oral contraceptive pills as well from the patient medication record. You realised that amoxicillin may cause diarhoea hence may render the oral contraceptives she is using to be ineffective. How would you convey this message to DL then?
Pharmacy Practice - Practice
e.g. Discuss the roles of pharmacists in the management of patients with long term conditions such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2, asthma and chronic obsctructive pumonary disease.
Pharmacy Practice - Communication
e.g. Mr HT presenting a prescription for diclofenac, budesonide inhaler and salbutamol inhaler.
There is a clinical interaction there. Discuss how you would approach Mr HT that seems to be in rush and want his prescription to be dispensed immediately?
(Even) Psychology!
e.g. Discuss how we can promote behavioral change to facilitate smoking cessation in a long-term smoker?
So if you are getting sick in the middle of the revision of one subject there was always another subject to be covered. And as a pharmacist, you may end up learning everything, yet isn't that what make this profession so wonderful?
Like one of the indutstrial pharmacy speaker told us before -
'You are the only professional that can talk about everything with all other professions - biologist, chemist, statistician, inspector, regulator, accountant - due to the massive knowledge that we had so that we can deal with any aspects concerning medications, effectively...'.
And when was busy revising pharmacy practice side today - I realised, may be I am actully too lucky, to actually choose to do this course, although I have dreamt myself to be such, at the end...
What I mean here, erm, well, simply because, although they keep saying, pharmacy is a course that need to have strong mathematical, biological and chemical knowledge, it needs more than that, actually, I shall say...
Wait wait wait, that sounds only to make everything worse, sounds worse...
Mathematics - you count number of tablets, volume of ampoule, etc etc...
e.g. Mrs JB was prescribed nitrofurantoin 50mg tablets, 1 BD for 4 days. How many tablets should be dispensed for her?
Biology aka Pharmacology - Cellular and molecular signalling, organelles, microbiology...
e.g. Compare and contrast the actions of DMARDs and anti-cytokines in the treatment pathway of Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Chemistry - Neurochemistry, chemistry of functional groups, chemical aspect of drug discovery...
e.g. Discuss the mechanism of actions of different types of opioids on mu, delta and kappa receptors - relate these with the structural formulae of various simple and complicated opioids.
Physics (sometimes) - Principles of HPLC, radiography, atomic excitation...
e.g. Discuss the principles of using various iodine isotopes in radiopharmaceutics.
Pharmacy practice - Legality / Law
e.g. Controlled Drugs are not allowed in emergency supply on the request of patient, prescribers or both?
Pharmacy Practice - Ethics
e.g. Mrs ML come to collect the prescription of amoxicillin for her daughter DL. You discovered that DL is on some oral contraceptive pills as well from the patient medication record. You realised that amoxicillin may cause diarhoea hence may render the oral contraceptives she is using to be ineffective. How would you convey this message to DL then?
Pharmacy Practice - Practice
e.g. Discuss the roles of pharmacists in the management of patients with long term conditions such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2, asthma and chronic obsctructive pumonary disease.
Pharmacy Practice - Communication
e.g. Mr HT presenting a prescription for diclofenac, budesonide inhaler and salbutamol inhaler.
There is a clinical interaction there. Discuss how you would approach Mr HT that seems to be in rush and want his prescription to be dispensed immediately?
(Even) Psychology!
e.g. Discuss how we can promote behavioral change to facilitate smoking cessation in a long-term smoker?
So if you are getting sick in the middle of the revision of one subject there was always another subject to be covered. And as a pharmacist, you may end up learning everything, yet isn't that what make this profession so wonderful?
Like one of the indutstrial pharmacy speaker told us before -
'You are the only professional that can talk about everything with all other professions - biologist, chemist, statistician, inspector, regulator, accountant - due to the massive knowledge that we had so that we can deal with any aspects concerning medications, effectively...'.
1 comment:
I am completely agree with you! to be honest I never realize that we, the pharmacy students have the opportunity to gain the knowledge that seems covered almost all the medical related subjects, not until my Aunt told me one simple phrase. My Aunt's hubby's niece once told her: Pharmacy is the hardest course!
It struck me as I never actually appreciate that before! Malaysian's attitudes regarding pharmacists is like s*** to the extend I wondered myself why am I taking this course in the first place. But again, When I read your article about this, I stand on my ground again. Thank you for your wonderful yet simple explanation!
Despite whatever people say about pharmacy, I am proud and it is privilege to be a part of pharmacy field!
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