CXXII : Dear Nurse,

I understand how anxious and frustrated you can get when you're trying to find a medication to give your patient on time. And I understand that it makes sense for you to call the pharmacy to request your medication in that urgent tone of yours, but do you really need to emphasize how you looked everywhere for the medication just now-- the patient's cassette, the patient's room, and by the tube station? and when I say I'm sure I just tubed it to you 5 minutes ago, you doubt me and retort "I just checked 5 minutes ago and it's not there." I know you're waiting for me to say "ok, I'll fill it and send it to you" because of course, it's not your fault the patient is going to get the medication late. Although I really want our professions to work well together, to have a mutual understanding and respect for each others positions and responsibilities, I was irritated with your response and so I adamantly did not want to fill a medication I clearly remember sending to you already. When I said, "can you check the tube station again and call back if you don't find the medication?" couldn't you trust the one who sends you the medications? What is pharmacy to you? I do remember most of what I fill and send out. But I know you didn't think it was there when you said "okay-y" in a doubtful tone. But hey, you didn't call back. Now can you trust the pharmacy when we say we sent it to you?

Seriously though, I want all the health professions to respect each other, to understand how important each one is in the treatment of patients. Some nurses give off that "my profession is better than yours" air when they call pharmacy wondering "where's my medication?" [I'm glad that most nurses do understand the importance of pharmacy though] One satellite pharmacy covers the whole FLOOR of patients (and sometimes it's multiple floors and at night, one central pharmacy covers the whole hospital), while nurses have a few (maybe around 5) specific rooms to look after.

At the hospital I'm interning at, they separate inpatient pharmacists into two types: dispensing and clinical. The dispensing pharmacist is in charge of verifying medications, making sure that the active orders are still necessary, and answering a lot of phone calls from nurses and physicians. On the other side, the clinical pharmacist is in charge of monitoring TPNs (liquid food that is given intravenously [IV] for patients who can't take in foods by mouth), drug levels for dose adjustments of IVs (something I just learned called pharmacokinetics [PK]), and pharmacy-controlled medications like warfarin. There's a bunch of duties I'm missing, but overall, pharmacy's impact can be seen on cost. Regulate the meds, regulate how much is spent on them.

There are a bunch of other types of pharmacists involved in the hospital (administrative positions and outpatient), but I haven't really been exposed to those yet. I have a vague idea, but not much, and now I'm not sure if I want to stay in inpatient. I like it because I'm seeing so much of what I learn from class, but I don't know... It's starting to seem like I can't really be picky about where I end up in. As long as I get a job, I'll adapt to its environment and enjoy it as much as I can.

I want people to understand what each other's responsibilities are. More trust among professions would be nice.