Hospital Intern Responsibilities

[sakigt]

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Im an "intern" at an institution with CPOE and not a lot of experience with what to do with me. Right now I do everything a tech does. Accudose refills, IVs, batch IVs, PO batch, TPNs, troubleshooting, customer service, accudose repair tech etc etc.

Is there anymore clinical work that interns are capable of doing at your hospital? Need some advice on what to ask for. I dont even know where to begin.

Thanks in advance

 

[type b pharmD]

Im an "intern" at an institution with CPOE and not a lot of experience with what to do with me. Right now I do everything a tech does. Accudose refills, IVs, batch IVs, PO batch, TPNs, troubleshooting, customer service, accudose repair tech etc etc.

Is there anymore clinical work that interns are capable of doing at your hospital? Need some advice on what to ask for. I dont even know where to begin.

Thanks in advance

warfarin dosing, aminoglycoside or vanco dosing, discharge or admission counseling ? Those are some things we did as interns over the summer where I worked, not sure how widespread that is.

 

[sakigt]

Thats exactly the kind of stuff Im looking for.

Anything that can be batched to be done every other night or on weekends in addition to the "regular" stuff?

 

[spacecowgirl]

Policies and procedures (dose adjustment policies, electrolyte replacement policies) if your facility doesn't have them already in place to be reviewed by a pharmacist, of course. DUE. Adverse drug reaction reports and follow-up. P&T work - class reviews, monographs, etc.

 

[type b pharmD]

Policies and procedures (dose adjustment policies, electrolyte replacement policies) if your facility doesn't have them already in place to be reviewed by a pharmacist, of course. DUE. Adverse drug reaction reports and follow-up. P&T work - class reviews, monographs, etc.

yeah ADR reports. Definitely. Usually our pharmacist would come give me something saying "this person has x or y symptom, see if it's drug related" , and have me spend a while looking into their regimen. Im sure pharmacists have a lot of stuff like this in the hospital that they could toss your way (the OP's way i mean)

you could also look into a MUE/ what we liked to call quality control. You may be able to work out some kind of research project you can do on drug use and utilization , that you could do during your downtime. Looking at doses given, clinical indicators, alternatives.. comparing drugs and outcomes. I'm talking retrospective number crunching, not anything super advanced or needing to be approved by a committee

 

[IndpdtPharm]

Assesing newly admitted patients for DVT and recommending prophylactic SCD's/heparin/enox to physician based on lab values/present illness/PMH and their risk factors.

 

[confettiflyer]

i do mostly tech work as described above during my "on the clock" time but being a hospital employee opened me up to other clinical/research type opportunities.

as an employee, i had easy access/rights (vs. a random student) to medical records & other data so setting up MUE's/etc... was a piece of cake. this stuff was "off the clock" but i got posters/pubs out of it and a close working relationship with our clinical coords.

my philosophy: hospital interning is "slow learning" where you pick things up randomly over a long period of time and things become familiar to you (standard doses, regimens, etc...), your rotations are "fast learning" where things get thrown at you with the express purpose of getting you to learn how to actually do things.

put both together and you'll have a more employable person than someone who only has gone through rotations without concurrent work experience.

 

[sakigt]

Sorry Im not posting sooner. Work/School is eating me alive this week. 😀

So far Ive been ok just doing tech work, but at my review (where I scored fabulously but am ineligble for a pay raise), I brought up my intrest in doing more "Pharmacist" work in return for a different job title. That would serve me two ways: 1) gain more experience I can use on rotations and 2) earn more.

I think Ive got a good grasp on what to ask for but if any of you have any more ideas before friday Id appreciate it. I especially love the counseling idea. I dont think they like to do it, I think Im good at it and now with Medicare changing I can put a $$$ amount to whats its worth. 😉

 

[Dalteparin]

Warfarin/Lovenox/Arixtra discharge counseling, flu/pneumococcal vaccine screenings, IV to PO conversions. Ask your clinical coordinator if there's some project that s/he needs some help with; chances are they have something you can work on.

 

[confettiflyer]

Sorry Im not posting sooner. Work/School is eating me alive this week. 😀

So far Ive been ok just doing tech work, but at my review (where I scored fabulously but am ineligble for a pay raise), I brought up my intrest in doing more "Pharmacist" work in return for a different job title. That would serve me two ways: 1) gain more experience I can use on rotations and 2) earn more.

I think Ive got a good grasp on what to ask for but if any of you have any more ideas before friday Id appreciate it. I especially love the counseling idea. I dont think they like to do it, I think Im good at it and now with Medicare changing I can put a $$$ amount to whats its worth. 😉

Depending where you work, job description (and salary) is essentially not negotiable. If you're at a smaller community hospital, you probably have more leeway in doing more "pharmacist" things. The issue that comes around is that a pharmacist needs to go with you/review your work anyway (unless you're trusted), so why tie up two people when just having the pharmacist do it will suffice and frees up the intern to do other things?

While I understand your want to do more things, you're not on rotation, you're a staff member. I would advise setting your expectations low. You know your institution better than we do so what I'm saying may not apply, but keep this in mind going forward.

I'm faced with the restrictions I've mentioned above but manage to run up to codes with our clinical pharmacist, discuss patient cases in our unit with our clinical staff, and review what clinical decision making went on behind each order...but i've had to do it in between my normal tech duties (lulls in the day, downtime, or having to catch up later), and not as a part of my official job description. This might be an option if you hit a wall during your review.

 

[owlegrad]

... faced with the restrictions I've mentioned above but manage to run up to codes with our clinical pharmacist, discuss patient cases in our unit with our clinical staff, and review what clinical decision making went on behind each order...but i've had to do it in between my normal tech duties (lulls in the day, downtime, or having to catch up later), and not as a part of my official job description. This might be an option if you hit a wall during your review.

QFT. I find that as an intern most pharmacists let me do whatever I am interested in doing...provided my "tech" work gets done. Your job is still your job and that comes first. But once you know how to manage your workload (perhaps you already do if you are looking for more) the sky may be the limit as far as extra tasks you can pick up. They probably like the initiative anyway.

For example, at first I wasn't allowed to enter orders. Now I am. It's just a matter of earning trust and figuring out how to make it a part of workflow (and the pharmacist being willing of course, but I haven't worked with anyone who wouldn't let a competent intern perform extra functions).

Good Luck.
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[Praziquantel86]

I interned at a place that gave me a 50/50 split on tech/clinical responsibilities. Half the time I acted as a "super-tech" that fulfilled the normal responsibilities with some additions based on my scope as an intern (answering medical questions, compounding medications, attending codes, etc.) I still performed all the distributive and clerical functions of a technician during this time.

The other half was more of a float position. I would round with our clinical pharmacists, present cases, complete med-use evaluations, QI projects and other administrative type stuff. The same sort of stuff that a resident would do, but obviously tailored to my educational and experiential level.

It was a great experience for me - I learned the basics of the job while developing my interests in clinical pharmacy. The other interns and I have since gone on to very good residencies, and built up a good reputation for the intern program around the country. It's a win for the intern and a win for the program.

 

[confettiflyer]

I interned at a place that gave me a 50/50 split on tech/clinical responsibilities. Half the time I acted as a "super-tech" that fulfilled the normal responsibilities with some additions based on my scope as an intern (answering medical questions, compounding medications, attending codes, etc.) I still performed all the distributive and clerical functions of a technician during this time.

The other half was more of a float position. I would round with our clinical pharmacists, present cases, complete med-use evaluations, QI projects and other administrative type stuff. The same sort of stuff that a resident would do, but obviously tailored to my educational and experiential level.

It was a great experience for me - I learned the basics of the job while developing my interests in clinical pharmacy. The other interns and I have since gone on to very good residencies, and built up a good reputation for the intern program around the country. It's a win for the intern and a win for the program.

we're in the process of developing a 50/50 intern program, i'll have a detailed update at a later point. i'd like to see more of these pop up vs. the more distribution driven positions w/ ad-hoc clinical opportunities.

 

[a runner]

I interned at a place that gave me a 50/50 split on tech/clinical responsibilities. Half the time I acted as a "super-tech" that fulfilled the normal responsibilities with some additions based on my scope as an intern (answering medical questions, compounding medications, attending codes, etc.) I still performed all the distributive and clerical functions of a technician during this time.

The other half was more of a float position. I would round with our clinical pharmacists, present cases, complete med-use evaluations, QI projects and other administrative type stuff. The same sort of stuff that a resident would do, but obviously tailored to my educational and experiential level.

It was a great experience for me - I learned the basics of the job while developing my interests in clinical pharmacy. The other interns and I have since gone on to very good residencies, and built up a good reputation for the intern program around the country. It's a win for the intern and a win for the program.

This was similar to my summer intern experience, but even during the operational 50%, almost half my time was taken up by going on rounds, going to meetings (P&T, SCIP, QMC, IRB, etc.), grand rounds, taking notes at pharmacy meetings and sending them out, project days every other week to work on my projects, etc. The rest of the time I was learning and doing tech duties.

For the clinical 50%, I did medication reconciliation, clinical monitoring, infectious disease rounding and put recommendations in pt. charts, and vanc/AG dosing in the ICU/CCU. I did SOAP notes on interventions, took patient medication histories, and gave weekly presentations to the clinical pharmacists about guidelines for different disease states. We also did two journal clubs and a case presentation. I had projects doing a formulary review, cost analysis for switching from community insulin vials to pens, and an MUE. Its really what you want to do and get out of it. Some of the things I just showed my interest and that I was willing to do the work by offering myself for projects, and they gave the responsibility to me.

It sure seemed like an intro to a residency to me too, but at my much lower level of knowledge.