though i'm reading pharmacy, i'd never taken the initiative to know what the abbreviation Rx stands for. pity me isn't it. to those pharmacy students out there please pardon my ignorance. so it remained an unknown to me till my current hospital attachment. the abbreviation made its presence so often on so many drugs packages and MIMS guidelines. Rx is the symbol for 'prescription' or recipe in Latin, whereby 'x' being the variable.
shameful enough to discover it now. -__-"
speaking about attachment, have yet to take any photos, so will just allow words to depict my working environment. Tropicana Medical Centre (TMC) , a merely two years old specialist centre is an incipient in its field, but its medical workforce stood far apart from amateur standards. equipped with the latest technology, combined with the expertise of over 50 commendable specialists of various specialties, TMC is truly a state-of-the-art hospital.
the pharmacy department may be small to be compared to other major government hospitals, the pharmacy team comprises of about 15 members, from chief pharmacists to pharmacist assistants and stock checkers, alongside with 3 apprentices. one thing which i must comment on is the 'shooting system'. it was pretty amazing to learn that this 7 floors building can easily transfer stuffs between floors in a matter of seconds using this system. maybe other hospitals utilises the same system, but for a kampung person like me, it's considered an eye-opener loh.
URGENT prescriptions were inserted into a plastic tube and placed into the transfer machine, just key in the desired ward number, then voila! the tube is 'shoot' to your destination.
as an apprentice, we normally assists the pharmacist assistant to pack drugs according to received prescriptions. after keying in the prescription into the computer system, we proceed to print labels, indicate dosage forms, frequency, and consumption methods on printed labels.
it was fun as you go along, though i did struggle a little memorising the brand names. in class, we often deal with generic names, but at dispensary, brand names are of more frequent usage. i was lucky as everyone in the pharmacy department are friendly and helpful enough with my perpetual questions. that wasn't all, i was given chances to dispense medications too!!! :O
to my other classmate, sook yee who will be joining in next week, hopefully you'll enjoy your attachment as much as i do. lastly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much to each and every TMC pharmacy members. i really did learn a lot from all of you. thank you for your patience dealing with my questions. most importantly, thank you to my chief pharmacist, puan maria, who is kind enough to give me this platform to build up my foundation in this field.
~~THANK YOU~~
