Day 28: Tuesday, April 10
Tuesday morning started off both good and bad. Good because we got to sleep in (again!) due
an afternoon meeting with the pharmacists and bad because, once again, we woke
up to yucky, yucky weather! London had
us fooled pretty good with the amazing weather my first two weeks here (after
that unfortunate first couple of days).
Carmen and I recently read in the paper that it has been the 3rd
warmest “spring” here since weather recording first started. That’s a long
time of reporting…and not a lot of warm weather! The last time it was as warm as it was a few
weeks ago (mid 60’s) in the springtime was in the early 1950’s!! That’s just crazy! So, we got spoiled with what we thought was
the end of winter and beginning of spring.
But apparently it was just a teaser because now it is wet and cold. Just like weather.com told me it would be,
but I chose to live in happy ignorance and denial :) Anyway, back to the point of this blog: our
afternoon with the mental health pharmacist, Noreen (and her technician,
Sandra). The mental health department is
actually its own hospital with its own trust that shares some of the space at
the hospital and employees pharmacists at the hospital to provide the proper
clinical services that are needed. These
include both in-patient and out-patient services. Noreen deals a lot schizophrenia, bipolar
disorder, and clozapine. With all the
restrictions to its use and constant monitoring, she spends the majority of her
day working with in-patient and out-patient clozapine monitoring. She also explained the different types of
wards for the patients depending on whether or not they are “jail” patients,
meaning they were brought in due to a crime or for some other reason. Eek! I
know we have the same thing in the States, but from what I’ve seen, there are
not separate wards for these patients.
Since the weather today was, per the usual now, gross (it
was phenomenal until the UT boys came and then a couple of days later turned to
what I suppose is “real” London weather.
I’m still blaming it on them though), Carmen and I just came home and
chilled. I wasn’t feeling super great,
either, so we just made an easy night of it and were, for one of the first
times since we got here, completely unproductive in the way of getting
cultured. It happens. Plus, there’s always tomorrow to make up for
it!
Day 29: Wednesday, April 11
Wednesday morning started bright and early, as we had a
meeting with the pediatrics pharmacist, Chew, at 8:30am. Carmen and I were both looking forward to
this, as pediatrics holds a special place in our hearts. Plus, Chew was one of the few pharmacists who
actually seemed excited to talk to us.
We figured that had to be a good start!
After discussing some of her job duties, we also learned that she is the
maternity and women’s health pharmacist, but usually only has time to go on
rounds with the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) team due to her busy
schedule. Since there were 2 of us with
her this morning, we did our own rounds and shadowed her throughout the
patients’ rooms. We first went to the
high dependency rooms, which hold premature babies who are, as you probably
figured out, highly dependent on equipment and medications to survive. Some of these babies were born weighing less
than a kilogram and their weights are measured in grams. To convert to the American system, the babies
weighed around a pound. They were so incredibly tiny. It is just heartbreaking to see a 2 month old
baby that has “grown a ton” and now weighs just over 2 pounds. But it is also amazing to see how technology
has helped to save these amazing, beautiful babies who would have never had a
chance before medication and technology became so advanced. Chew is responsible for checking and
verifying appropriate medications, as well as checking weights to make sure the
dosing is appropriate for the most recent weight, as all neonatal and pediatric
medications are given by weight dosing.
For a baby gaining weight and fighting an infection, a little more
medication could mean saving his or her little life! We also visited the step down room, which is
before the patient is ready for the regular neonatal nursery, but has been in
the NICU or high dependency unit. These
babies looked huge compared to the
tiny, tiny little babies in the other rooms, but some still only weight 4-5
pounds.
Unfortunately, it was also very, very warm in the NICU area,
and of course, I was dressed for the extraordinary cold outside, so I got very
overheated. I started feeling a bit
faint and had one of those incredibly awkward moments where you break out in a
sweat and feel really dizzy and almost pass out. Which then causes everyone to rush around
you, and all you want is to just feel better instantly but can’t because you really
have no control over the situation. At least
I was with nurses, a pharmacist and an almost pharmacist (thank you Carmen!)
who made me all better, got some sugar and water in me and propped me in front
of an open window. It was just so hot in
that nursery and I think I got overwhelmed by all the poor babies, plus as you
read from last night’s post, was not feeling super great then either. I think it just all compounded there in that
one moment. It was most unfortunate, and
I felt so bad for causing such a scene, but everyone was so nice, and as I said
before, I guess it couldn’t have happened in a better place! Haha.
After our time with Chew, we did not have any more meetings
scheduled for the day. So luckily I was
able to go home and rest for a bit.
Which turned into a very lazy afternoon.
Sometimes I guess you just need one of those. I was feeling completely better, though,
thank goodness. Carmen and I also used
the afternoon to touch up our presentation for the hospital pharmacy staff,
which is tomorrow! For dinner, we went
with the boys to Masala Zone, which is a local Indian restaurant that is very
popular. I have seen found out that I am
not a big Indian food fan (I had never had it before, but you don’t learn unless
you branch out a little bit), but from what I could tell from the Indian food
lovers, the food was very good :)
Day 30: Thursday, April 12
Today marked our big presentation to the hospital pharmacy
staff! Carmen and I were asked to give a
presentation about pharmacy education at Mercer during the weekly clinical
meeting. Little did we know that we
would be the actual, entire clinical
meeting!! We had been editing and
updating and adding fun statistics and information to our presentation all week
so that it would hopefully be enjoyable for the pharmacists. We started with a slide about where exactly
Atlanta is…we have found that just because we are a city that has also hosted
the Olympics (they are in London this summer!), that does not mean that people
know where we are! And we informed them
that they have our wonderful city to thank for the invention of Coca-Cola (and
by a pharmacist, no less!). Anyway, we
explained how pharmacy education is different than in the UK, especially in
that we get a doctorate degree at the end of it! Woo-hoo! A good portion of our presentation was on
Mercer’s curriculum and rotations, as well as the addition of the simulation
lab this year. We told them about licensing
and the examination process (did you know they get part of their registration
papers [aka tests] using open book??? I
would think it quite shameful if any of them failed. I would love an open book NAPLEX or MPJE!!!)
Everyone seemed very interested, and we got some great
feedback from all of the pharmacists and pre-reg pharmacists who were there. Some said it was the best presentation on
pharmacy education in the States that they had heard (possibly because of my
and Carmen’s love of interesting facts that we kept throwing in about Atlanta
and pharmacy)! It’s always nice to get
good feedback about presentations :)
After our presentation, we had a shadowing day set up with
Clare, one of the post-STEP (aka residency but for 3 years) pharmacists. And can I say that she is phenomenal!! The kind of pharmacist that I think everyone
should aspire to be. We had an
interesting day on the wards, to say the least.
I met the most adorable old lady (with slight dementia, which always
makes things a bit more interesting) who told me all about her fiancé who died
in the war (I’m going to guess WWII) because she saw my ring. It just broke my heart because she never got
married to anyone else after that! And
then we had a TB patient who was supposed to go home that day who was found in
the bathroom cutting his wrists! Oh my
heavens! Security, doctors, and nurses
galore were running about the hall! We
certainly got a show that day. But we
also had a chance to work up some patients and get a little bit of pharmacy
practice in too.
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| The cupid statue at the center of Piccadilly Circus. |
Since we were close to Trafalgar Square, and what could
possibly be the world’s largest M&M store, of course we had to visit! Wow!
Four stories of M&M madness.
Anything you wanted, you could get it with an M&M logo on it!! Stephen had been majorly craving something,
anything peanut butter (the UK has plenty of Cadbury, but zero Reese’s to be
found), so when Carmen and I happened upon the entire wall of every single
color M&M known to mankind, we decided a bag of peanut M&M’s was in
store for Stephen that evening. We had
the hardest time picking a color, so we finally decided on the 22 color mixed
bag. We were way too excited about that
store :)
 |
| So.many.options. |
 |
| It was like being in ROY-G-BIV paradise :) |
We then met the boys for Chinese at Won Kei at the
suggestion of Professor Cairns. It was
very good, and we all got the same thing (sweet and sour chicken), except
Michael, who had to be different and order something else :) We had plans to go out that night to some of
the pubs, so it was agreed by all that we were so tired, we’d be much happier
just going back to the house and resting.
Which I suppose means that we have turned into old people. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow! (I feel
like I justify a lot of our decisions with that statement!! Ha ha).
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| A little bit of "science" for everyone :) |
Day 31: Friday, April 13
Our plans for Friday at the hospital were to shadow the
dispensary (aka staff) pharmacist, Richard.
After spending some time with him, we moved to each person in the
pharmacy to see how their job duties differed from the person with the same
title in the US. I think the biggest
difference (which I touched on in a previous post about our aseptics experience)
is that techs have a lot more responsibility. But, they also have a lot, and I mean A LOT
more training. At least 2 years of
schooling, and for those who want greater responsibility, such as the ability
to do the final check on a prescription, several more years of schooling and
documented hands-on experience is required as well. It was such a hard concept for Carmen and me
to grasp that a pharmacist might not see the final product before it headed up
to the wards for the patients, but after seeing and hearing about all of their
training, it was a little easier to understand.
I think we are both a little hesitant about it still though.
After spending the day in the dispensary, Carmen and I
headed to the Camden Lock Markets (and the absolute craziness that goes along
with them!). There was such really, really fantastic people
watching, as well as interesting shops and items for sale too! We both bought some really pretty earrings,
and Carmen bought several different scarves.
I bought a replacement souvenir for mom since I accidentally decided I loved
the first one too much to give it to her :) But no worries, Mom, Carmen has made me promise
I won’t keep this one too! Lol.
One thing that Carmen had been wanting to do is to visit the
Hard Rock Café in central London, as it was the first one built. We knew it was a Friday evening, but seeing
as how we got there right around 5pm, we figured it wouldn’t be a problem. Wrong! There was over a two hour wait! We exchanged one look (the kind that says, “NO
WAY!”) and then headed back to old faithful, The Slug and Lettuce, for dinner
instead. We’ll have to try back at a
non-popular eating time this weekend! After
admiring Carmen’s sweatshirt (you remember, the one from the really sketchy
store?!), I had decided that I must have one myself, so back to the semi-creepy
souvenir store we went on our way home.
I had seen a beautiful teal London sweatshirt, but couldn’t find my size
anywhere. I finally found a medium
instead, and when I tried it on, I couldn’t even fit it over my head! Every single size was different. So luckily, there were plenty of larges (I don’t
think I’ve ever had to purchase a large to be able to fit into something
before) that were super comfortable and my head fit in them :) And they were on sale. Double score!
And an exciting weekend to look forward to as well!
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