April 9, 2019, by brzlds
Reflection on Pharmacy Leadership and Management (PLM)
My time working at Minshull Pharmacy in Pilchester has nearly come to an end. I should clarify that Minshull is a simulated pharmacy and Pilchester (affectionately nicknamed Pilly) is a fictional town. Our Pharmacy was focussed on empowering patients to make decisions about their health and building trusting relationships. This is all part of the PLM module to not only help us prepare for summer OSCE exams, but to also give us a taste of community pharmacy.
A normal day in the pharmacy starts at 8:30. The team discuss what tasks need to be completed before the end of the day – the bulk of the day’s workload is to dispense 40 electronic prescriptions. We also allocate training for staff, carry out audits and co-ordinate meetings with our sister pharmacy. The training is very interesting – we had refreshers on medical emergencies, children’s health, and much more.
During opening hours 9:00-16:00, we have a number of simulated patients come into the pharmacy with various requests. This could be as simple as picking up a prescription, buying medicines over the counter or asking for a consultation and advice. We are equipped to provide a chlamydia testing service and do simple physiological tests such as taking blood pressure. Other tasks include responding to emails from the public or Clinical Commissioning Group and taking phone calls. Around lunchtime, our 40 prescriptions are labelled and dispensed, so the pharmacists accurately check the medicines. At the end of the day, we close the pharmacy and pass on to the team what we learnt from our individual flash training.
Our performance is quantified in the form of points, which translate to numbers of patients. There is a friendly competition between 5 pharmacies within Pilchester to assess how your pharmacy is doing based on communication to patients and the quality of advice given. The marks help you identify areas of weakness.
PLM is an all-round great module and actually quite fun. It is rare that at university, you can closely mimic a real life work environment, while being in the safety of simulation. After being employed for 7.5 days, I have had the opportunity to work with a group of hardworking and dedicated peers. The days spent in the pharmacy have a real personal feel because you get to know your team very well and help each other grow, in terms of professional skills and clinical knowledge. The patient contact has been a great experience for OSCE exams and for future practice. Being a pharmacist at Minshull has made me more competent and confident.
Bye Pilly!
No comments yet, fill out a comment to be the first
Leave a Reply