Day 34: Monday, April 16
On Monday, Carmen and I did not have any official meetings
set up, as we were not able to get in touch with any of the pharmacists. We shadowed again with Clare, the former STEP
pharmacist, on her normal ward. We spent
a good deal of the morning doing research on a patient with not only TB, but
extremely drug resistant (XDR) TB. We
were able to brush up on our knowledge of TB treatment, which will come in very
helpful for our boards! And plus, we’re
really hoping to be able to meet with the ID pharmacist now to see how they
monitor and regulate antibiotic use at the hospital. In the afternoon, Carmen and I were assigned
to 3rd year pharmacy students to help precept them. This was their first time at the hospital and
actually their first pharmacy experience.
We helped them as they worked up patients, did pharmacy management plans
(aka our SOAPe notes), and medication histories and discharge counseling. It was neat to be on the other side of the
“school” experience and get to help those who are in the same place we were
just a few years ago!
Since it is the beginning of our last week, we had decided
that we wanted to at least get one more show in since we were able to use the
discount ticket booth and get such good deals!
We checked for Mamma Mia again, but the £35 seats were up on the
balcony and partially blocked. Not cool. So we decided to see Rock of Ages
instead. We got 12th row
seats for only £35. Very exciting! This musical is being made into a
movie/musical in the States with Tom Cruise, so we were curious to see the
stage performance before it hits theatres this summer! It was really good, but we both decided that
Jersey Boys is still phenomenally better!
And if we had been in the 10th row or closer, we would have
been covered in glitter and streamers at the end of the show, as they shot it
out into the crowd! We were that close. It was still really good, and we enjoyed it a
lot! A good start to our last week!
Day 35: Tuesday, April 17
On Tuesday, we checked in with Professor Cairns, and then
headed back up to the wards to see how our 3rd year students were
doing. We worked with them during the
morning on their patient management plans and answered any drug questions (and
America questions!) they had along the way.
We had ordered a lot of pizza
on Sunday night, so we had a pizza meal for the 3rd day in a
row! It saved us some money, so we can’t
really complain. Although I don’t think
either one of us was particularly crushed that we finished off the pizza that
day either, though :) In the afternoon, we checked back with our
students to help them pick appropriate patients to interview and get medication
histories. We also went over the basics
that they need to be looking for in each patient when they read over a chart
for recommendations to be making as the pharmacist. And, as usual, we answered some more
questions about America!
Tonight was our farewell dinner with Professor Cairns and
the boys at a French restaurant called Chez Bruce in a really neat part of town
right outside central London. We met him
at a local pub beforehand, and then headed to dinner. It was a really, really nice restaurant. We
had good wine, appetizers, entrée, and dessert!
Stephen and I both got the French version of the steak meal, and it was
delicious! And for dessert, I picked the
crème brulee, which was absolutely phenomenal!
We all had a great time together and stayed out quite late! As lovely as the dinner and company was,
though, today was the first day that I’ve really been ready to go home. I honestly haven’t been homesick this entire
trip, which has really surprised me (not that I haven’t missed Bryce and my
family; this trip has just been so amazing and jam-packed that I haven’t had
time to sit around and miss not being with the familiar). I think it’s the combination of knowing how
close we are to heading home and the wet and cold that it just not right for
mid April! I’m ready for sunshine and
shorts :)
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| Just realized I never showed any pictures of our street and "home" for 6 weeks. This was just after a rain storm, so everything looked very pretty and calm. And surprisingly spring-like with all the blooms for the cold temperatures! |
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| Our house was the one in the middle. Notice a non-Victorian house beside it on the left, which, if you remember from a previous post, means it is one of the houses that was bombed during WWII and re-built in the style of the 1940's, rather than the 1880's like the rest of the street. |
Day 36: Wednesday, April 18
The original plan for Wednesday was to wake up extra early
and head to the discount ticket booth in Leicester Square to see about getting
the good £35
seats for Mamma Mia before going to the hospital. But when we woke up and it was dark and pouring
down rain, our plans changed! A little
extra sleep and no tickets, but we were dry and therefore, happy. Ha ha.
We headed to the hospital for what we thought was our 11:30 meeting with
the community services pharmacist, but learned it was later in the afternoon
instead. So up to the wards again to
check on our students before they took their medication histories from the
patients they selected yesterday. Since
it was really their first time talking to patients, we went over some pointers
about communication skills before they went in with Professor Cairns.
In the afternoon, we met with Finlay, the MI
pharmacist. In the UK, they do not use
the term DI (drug information), but rather MI, for medicines information. We also worked with the STEP (aka resident)
and other MI pharmacist who were working on questions to see their reference
options to compare with what the US has.
They use a lot of books, whereas we have many more computer resources. Carmen and I decided that the US is a little
bit further along in the area, mainly because we utilize the internet for the
most current data. After our meeting
with Finlay, Carmen and I met with Michelle, the community services pharmacist. This position is one that we do not have an
equivalent to in the States. She is not
a community pharmacist, but rather, works with all the medicines involved with
the hospital Trusts’ community services, which included newborn home care, home
infusions, dental services, long-term care patients, and rehab, just to name a
few. She is always very busy, but her
job always has something new and different going on, and we were quite
intrigued by everything that she does!
Since it has been rainy for days now, Carmen and I decided
to just do dinner at the good ole Brockley Barge with the boys. Afterwards, we just chilled and caught up on
any remaining work. I think we’re both
slowly but surely tiring out since we can feel our trip coming to an end. And if you read above at everything we’ve
been up to, you can probably see why!
We’ve hit just about every tourist-y thing there is to do in London,
plus some! The countdown for home is now
on!
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| These signs are all over the neighborhoods in London. Carmen and I got a kick out of each and every one of them. Meerkats make the best look-outs of all the animals, I suppose :) I also thought Haley would greatly enjoy this picture! |
Day 37: Thursday, April 19
Thursday started bright and early, as today was Michael and
Stephen’s big presentation at the hospital!
We talked about pharmacy education at Mercer for ours, so they discussed
pharmacy school at UT for theirs. One
thing I learned: they do their course
work in the first 2 ½ years, so their final year and a half are all clinical
rotations. I think Mercer could learn
from them! We’d have so many more
experiences! After their presentation,
we didn’t have any meetings scheduled until the afternoon and Professor Cairns
was not due to be at the hospital until then either, so we headed back to the
house to work on our poster presentation for Mercer. We stopped at a restaurant for a quick lunch
before heading back to the hospital when Carmen started to feel really
bad. Poor thing. So close to heading home, and she comes down
with food poisoning/some sort of stomach bug.
Needless to say, we did not make it back to the hospital for our meeting
(I couldn’t just leave her at the house as bad as she was feeling), but
luckily, Professor Cairns was very understanding, as was the pharmacist we had
a meeting with. Michael and Stephen got
lucky with our misfortune and got a meeting of their own in without even trying :)
Carmen slept for the rest of the day and night, but
Michael’s girlfriend, Tara, arrived today in London. So the four of us, (sans Carmen) went out to
dinner at…you guessed it…The Slug and Lettuce.
We wanted Tara to experience what our past few weeks have been
like! We did pick a different location
this time, right near London Bridge, so that after dinner, Michael could take
her (just like we took him and Stephen on their first night) to see Big Ben,
the London Eye, and Parliament all lit up at night! Tara is such a sweet girl, and we all had a
great time hanging out for what is probably one of the last times. And I also ordered my favorite cider for
possibly the very last time :( But no worries, I made sure to order and
enjoy 2 since it was such a monumental occasion!!
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| Where we'll be headed back to in a few days...good ole Mercer. This street was on the way to one of our shows! |
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