The rotation that I had over the month of October was my Ambulatory Care rotation. I completed this one at the Naval Medical Center at Camp Lejeune in the Family Medicine Clinic. I spent a lot of time with patients in the clinic, but I would consider this rotation a “blended” Ambulatory Care rotation.
In the mornings for most of the month, I was on the inpatient Family Medicine team doing rounds. During these rounds, I would work with the pharmacist to answer any questions that the medical interns/residents/students had for us about the different patients and their medication regimen. We also pre-rounded on the patients so that we had suggestions of regimen changes ready to go when we met with the team.
For the rest of the day, I was working in the Family Medicine Clinic with my preceptor or another clinical pharmacist to take care of patients. We saw a variety of patients for different chronic conditions such as diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and anticoagulation (with Warfarin, for INR checks and regimen changes).
I didn’t really start writing up patient encounters in the electronic medical record (EMR) until the last week and a half. At that point, I wrote up pretty much all of our encounters and had them sent to my preceptor for review before he signed them.
Because I was at a military location, the clinical pharmacists were able to change medication regimens without a collaborative practice agreement. It was really a great experience being able to see the impact of pharmacists on a clinic. It reinforced for me the true value of pharmacists in the clinic environment.
Over the month, I was able to watch 2 eye surgeries and was also able to shadow a variety of different practitioners (NPs, PAs, and Physicians) and see how they interacted with patients.
I’m so thankful for the opportunity, and although the military environment isn’t really for me, I’m confident in the care that they are receiving.
Stay Golden,
Emily
Gluten Free PharmD 