Second thoughts about hospital pharmacy

[CanPharm]

Hey guys,
I'm doing my last year pharmacy hospital rotation. I always thought that I would apply for a residency and go into hospital (clinical) pharmacy after I graduated. But now, I'm having second thoughts. It's been my second day at the hospital and it seems that all I do is look through chart after chart. To make things worse, I don't feel like I'm doing my job well because it is so difficult to get good information from the charts due to the the bad writing and that pieces of relevent information scattered around. I'm starting to miss community because at least you get to talk to patients and make more recommendations.
I know you guys can't really help, but I just wanted to ask if or can it get better? Is an actual residency better than a school related practicum? I guess I'm just disappointed with how my rotation is turning out, especially since I'm rotating in a medical specialty which I have no interest in. Sorry, I just wanted to vent a bit

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[Tessalon]

Residency and staffing are WAY better than being a student on a hospital rotation. It is so hard to just jump into a bunch of patient profiles when you haven't been following them up close, or you are not familiar with the drug regimens being used. Last year I had a similar situation where my preceptor handed me a stack of profiles and told me to look through them to see if I found anything - I never really did and always felt like I was wasting my time because theoretically, the staffing pharmacist should have checked for errors when the original order came through. It was very frustrating and I never really knew what to watch out for. But this year as a resident I get to round with the doctors, give advice on drug selection and correct dosages, and I really feel like I'm helping patients who might otherwise be under or overdosed. You would be surprised at how many of the doctors don't dose for renal impairment, or tend to glance over penicillin allergies and prescribe Zosyn. Granted, I am in a teaching hospital and they are all learning, too. But as a resident you get to be so much more involved instead of feeling like a fly on the wall.

 

[CanPharm]

Last year I had a similar situation where my preceptor handed me a stack of profiles and told me to look through them to see if I found anything - I never really did and always felt like I was wasting my time because theoretically, the staffing pharmacist should have checked for errors when the original order came through. It was very frustrating and I never really knew what to watch out for.

That is exactly how I'm feeling. It seems like I'm totally out of the loop, and don't know what the hospital protocols are. I'm glad to hear that the residency worked out better for you. At least now I'm a bit more hopeful. Thanks for the reply