Monday, May 17, 2010

pharmacy...

One very, very bored friend asked me to write about this. At the risk of increasing the intensity of her boredom, i still comply. U have time to run away, skip, logoff, pangkah, whatever.
So, here goes. To the rest of u who still want to get bored. Pharmacy. What does it represent, you ask me.. well, let me ask u, what comes to mind when you see that word?
Hm...?
Guardian? Watson? Supplement? Medicines? Tukang bagi ubat kat spital?
Yup. All correct.
But, the fact that we have to study for 4 years for this must be saying that it is not that simple. Not to us who have to tonggang-tonggek belajar selok-belok, atas-bawah, kiri-kanan, belakang-depan, utara-selatan-timur-barat-baratdaya-baratlaut-tenggara-timurlaut pasal ubat-ubatan ni.
So, benda pertama yang dipelajari back in our first year was that pharmacy is divided into four categories. Clinical pharmacy which is our tukang bagi ubat dekat hospital, retail pharmacy which is our tukang bagi ubat dekat guardian, Watson, or any pharmacies out there, industrial pharmacy which is our tukang buat ubat dekat kilang-kilang buat ubat mana yang ada kat Malaysia ni, and academia pharmacy which is our teachers dekat university yang kena mengajar kat kita org yang baru nak mengenal farmasi ni. That was first year. Going past second and towards third and forth year, we were enforced to go deeper into only one category of pharmacy, which is clinical pharmacy. Which is where i’m currently working rite now.
Yup, wow, u’re such a good student. Hospital pharmacy. U got that one rite, heh!
So, to be honest, i did think, back when i was a naive first year student, that pharmacy in the hospital was just strictly giving medicines to people. I was wrong. Boy, i was way wrong. That is the job description for dispenser, or we now call, pharmacist assistant. For me, a pharmacist, a bachelor grad, the job description is wider, broader, and way more complicated than just thrusting pills at people.
So, okay, to go a lil’ bit into the details. Hospital pharmacy has to handle supply of medicines to people, true, and also to wards and other units like the emergency department and there’s also a pharmacist at the main store of a hospital to approve purchasing of the medicines and the supply to the said units including pharmacy unit.
Talking of supplying medicines, we don’t merely supply. We have to make sure what we supply is correct. I mean, we’re talking about people’s lives here. The risk is high. So, in order to do that, pharmacist plays a big role. Pharmacists have to check the medicines are given correctly, saying it simply, kena pastikan dos, berapa banyak kali kena bagi, sebab nak bagi ubat tu in the first place, all of those kena betul. Takkan tak de kuman, nak kena bagi antibiotic kut, betul tak? (although, this is practised widely under the false pretense of precaution). Kena jugak check side effects dia, boleh tak patient tu tolerate ubat tu... things like that. And that is a wholla a lot of work. Because there a wholla lot of patients and a wholla lot of medicines. Memang dulu waktu belajar, jenuh korek ruang dalam otak nak menghafal nama-nama ubat ni. Hampeh, tak ingat pun! Bila kerja, duk tengok tu je hari-hari, baru la lekat nama ubat, dos dia, frekuensi dia, side effects dia mana yang common. Tu pun tak la semua. Baru kerja tak sampai 3 tahun, weh!
Back to pharmacists. Pharmacists jugak kena check kandungan sesetengah jenis ubat tu cukup ke tak, ke lebih ke, ke kurang ke dalam tubuh badan seseorang pesakit tu. It’s called the Therapeutic Drug Monitoring unit, to be specific. Sebab ada ubat yang kalau lebih, boleh buat bahaya kat organ dalam badan pesakit. So, kena check selalu. Dan nak menge’check’ tu, kena kira pakai formula yang memang waktu belajar dulu made me feel like throwing the book out of the window. Serabut, berselirat dengan symbol pelik-pelik, entah apa-apa. Tapi, sekarang bila dah kerja, slow-slow, boleh terima, fuh! :)
Pharmacists jugak kena bagi kaunseling kat pesakit yang makan terlampau banyak ubat. Kut ada interaksi ke, lawan-lawan perang ke ubat tu dalam badan nanti. Kena jugak cerita macam mana nak guna sesetengah jenis ubat, macam insulin untuk pesakit diabetes, yang ada kena guna pen untuk cucuk ubat tu. Pesakit lelah yg guna inhaler. Kena ajar dia orang macam mana nak guna properly.
Pharmacists and pharmacist assistant jugak yang kena prepare ubat antikanser, yang cara penyediaannya kena dalam environment yang terkawal, sebab ubat ni special sikit. Fungsinya nak matikan sel-sel kanser, tapi ada jugak sel-sel badan yang boleh dibunuhnya. So, orang yang nak membuatnya ni kena la pakai apa-apa safety precaution equipment yang patut. Untuk mengelak badan terkena harmful side effects like that.
Heh, apa lagi? Ada yang dah dozed off ke? :)
Hm, tu basically what we do at the hospital. We also have ward pharmacists now, kerja kat wad, ikut doktor round and bincang dengan doktor treatment apa yang paling bagus untuk seseorang pesakit. Bidang ni memang ramai pharmacists yang gerun sikit (including me, heh!).. sebabnya, takut nak borak dengan doktor. Hah! Padahal, doktor tak cucuk pharmacist pun, cucuk patient je.. hehe... tapi, ye la.. it’s the stigma... feeling intimidated tu memang ada... selagi tak confident enough, tak cukup ilmu dan pengalaman, memang akan macam tu. Especially apabila berdepan dengan doktor pakar. Maunya malam tu tonggang-tonggek study dulu apa yang patut.
Besides that, we also have management side. Kerja buat kajian la, buat laporan la, bagi maklumat ubat-ubatan kat orang yang bertanya la. Tapi kalau nak citer bab yang tu, yang dozed off tadi terus terkulai pengsan kut, mana yang belum dozed off, selamat dah start bermimpi. Heh!
So, tu dekat hospital. Dekat retail, basically buat benda yang sama jugak. Jual ubat. Bagi kaunseling mana yang perlu kaunseling. Uruskan purchasing atau pembelian macam pharmacist yang jaga stor kat hospital.
Dan semua ni kena buat according to the laws. Banyak tau laws berkaitan ubat-ubatan ni. Jenuh jugak nak menghafal klausa-klausanya dulu. Yang ada dengar kat TV selalu, Akta Dadah Merbahaya la apa la tu pun pernah jugak kita orang tonggang-tonggek kena menghafal perenggan apa cakap apa. Huh? Apa dia? Sekarang ingat lagi ke?
Of course not! Heh!
Bercakap pasal law, ada jugak pharmacists yang kerja dekat law enforcement office. Kejar drug pusher, jadi spy siasat mana-mana tempat yang jual ubat tak berdaftar, check lesen, menyamar beli ubat Viagra, lepas tu tangkap orang yang menjual tu. Heh, it sounds fun, ey? Yeah...
It comes with a price, though. First, kena belajar basic. Yang memang Tuhan je yang tau jerih payahnya. Yang sometimes bila kerja, tak guna pun basic tu, sebab belajar pulak benda lain altogether different. Second, deal dengan nyawa orang. Memang la doktor yang first line deal with patients ni, tapi kalau tersilap... uih, nauzubillah... Third, deal dengan orang. Bukan senang. Pelbagai ragam. Tu nak kata orang yang jadi pelanggan di hospital. Belum lagi orang yang buat salah laku jenayah jual ubat entah apa-apa kat luar sana. Forth, deal dengan the risk of being bribed. Ye la, nama lagi ubat. Benda yang memang orang perlu kalau dah sakit. Dan bukan orang yang sakit macam sakit jantung, darah tinggi je perlu ubat. Orang sakit ‘lain’ pun konon perlu jugak. Dan orang yang jadi pharmacists ni la yang bahaya kalau didatangi ‘orang-orang’ yang nak ubat tak legal macam ni.
Heh, so, still interesting to you? Maybe... it is to me, now that i explain it like this.. hm... maybe, i am cut-out for this after all, ey? However i try to say it otherwise before? Maybe...
angah? satisfied? :P

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