Today I had the
opportunity to go on rounds with the emergency intensive care unit (ICU)
pharmacist. The ICU medical team goes on rounds every morning at 9 AM and
consists of the attending, two residents, and a pharmacist. The team was
definitely a lot smaller in comparison to when I was in PICU. There are many
different subsets of ICU’s in NTUH including the cardiovascular ICU, general
surgery ICU, medical ICU, chest surgery and neurosurgery ICU, and the emergency
ICU. In NTUH, the pharmacy profession has been well established in the various
ICU departments so there is always a pharmacist on each ICU medical team. When
speaking with the ICU pharmacist, he mentioned that in the past, any of the pharmacists
could be an ICU pharmacist. However, now that the position of the ICU
pharmacist is more competitive, pharmacists must complete a series of ICU
rotations in the various departments before taking up this position.
The emergency ICU department consists of 10 beds. I was very surprised by the layout of the department. There are no individual rooms for the patients. Instead, all of the patients are situated around the room and are only separated by a curtain. I asked the ICU pharmacist about this because in PICU, all of the patients had their own rooms. He responded that because the ICU was located in the old building, the room happened to be designed that way. Because the PICU is located in the Children’s Hospital, which is new building, they were able to build individual rooms for each PICU patient. It was definitely an eye opener for me because I’m so used to seeing ICU patients having their own rooms. In fact, when I did my general medicine rotation at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, all of the patients had their own room as well!
As of this morning, we had 6 patients in the ICU, all admitted for interesting
reasons. One of the patient’s was admitted with pesticide poisoning and another patient was being treated with daptomycin for a VRE infection. Overall I had an enjoyable experience rounding with the ICU team and learning more about the department. I found the relationship between the doctors and the pharmacist to be very similar to how it is in the United States. According to the ICU pharmacist, the role of the pharmacist has been well established in the ICU for over 10 years. Because of this, doctors have developed a good relationship with the pharmacists and will often consult their services for any questions medication related. Unfortunately, the same may not apply for other departments in which the role of the pharmacist has not been as well established.
The emergency ICU department consists of 10 beds. I was very surprised by the layout of the department. There are no individual rooms for the patients. Instead, all of the patients are situated around the room and are only separated by a curtain. I asked the ICU pharmacist about this because in PICU, all of the patients had their own rooms. He responded that because the ICU was located in the old building, the room happened to be designed that way. Because the PICU is located in the Children’s Hospital, which is new building, they were able to build individual rooms for each PICU patient. It was definitely an eye opener for me because I’m so used to seeing ICU patients having their own rooms. In fact, when I did my general medicine rotation at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, all of the patients had their own room as well!
As of this morning, we had 6 patients in the ICU, all admitted for interesting
reasons. One of the patient’s was admitted with pesticide poisoning and another patient was being treated with daptomycin for a VRE infection. Overall I had an enjoyable experience rounding with the ICU team and learning more about the department. I found the relationship between the doctors and the pharmacist to be very similar to how it is in the United States. According to the ICU pharmacist, the role of the pharmacist has been well established in the ICU for over 10 years. Because of this, doctors have developed a good relationship with the pharmacists and will often consult their services for any questions medication related. Unfortunately, the same may not apply for other departments in which the role of the pharmacist has not been as well established.
All of the beds are separated by a curtain
No comments:
Post a Comment