Week One - Internship
Jotting
down this experience reminds me of the essay we were told to write in high
school in the English class. Our then English teacher, referred to it as my
first day in secondary school. In this case, it would come off as “My first
week doing internship:”
The first week spent at
Kawempe Hospital would be better referred to as orientation week. We were
welcomed and had a short tour of the 9-level hospital, Mulago National Hospital
‘s directorate for Obstetrics and Gynecology for the mean time since the main
hospital is under renovation. I have been placed to work on level 6, a level
housing the Highly Dependant Unit, Oncology section, General Gyn, and Urogyn
units. 2 Intern pharmacists placed on level 5 where the volume of patients seen
is highest. Level 1 in which there is the OPD unit, level 4 housing the
delivery suite and level 7 dedicated for patients who pay for all the services
out of pocket all have one intern pharmacist in charge of the pharmacy unit.
 |
| An Intern Pharmacists Selfie moment during the Hospital Tour |
As is the norm, the tools of
work such as the stock cards, dispensing log books, stock that remained after
the previous interns left were handed to us and we were officially handed the
mantle to start our 1-year long internship program. Week 1 was also an
opportunity to get to know our colleagues better.3 of my colleagues pursued
their pharmacy education from Algeria and one from India while the 3 of us all
studied locally in the same university. I came to learn some interesting facts
about pharmacy education in Algeria.
Apparently, Algeria offers both Doctor of Pharmacy
programmes which is a 7 year program and bachelors of science in Pharmacy
programme which runs for 5 years. Regardless of which path an individual
chooses to take, he/she ought to learn French, the language in which the courses
are taught, in the first year exclusively rendering the first year basically
for learning French. No doubts my ability to speak French could not match their
fine mastery of the language. One of them offered the PharmD programme while
the latter offered the BPharm programme and so I was curious to know what was
unique about the 2 courses.
What stood out in my
interaction with these folks was the extent to which they had studied modules
related to medical laboratory work as they detailed their knowledge in
parasitology, microbiology, clinical chemistry and other related course units.
Had they pursued these related course units in Uganda, they would pass off more
as Medical Lab scientists than Pharmacists. It was more surprising to learn
that pharmacists in Algeria were allowed to open medical laboratories to
perform some of the laboratories to carry out the medical investigations synonymous
to what medical laboratory scientists do here in Uganda.
 |
| Group Photo of the Intern Pharmacists; Back Row from Left;m Komakech Walter, Nabuuma Mariam, Kyambadde John .M. Front Row: From Left: Aboda Noah, Nantege Rachel and Namukasa Flavia |
Unlike our foreign trained colleagues, our learning
leaned towards more hospital based pharmacy roles such as provision of
pharmaceutical care, pharmaceutical analysis in industry and developing a
better understanding of use of natural products or herbal products in the
management of diseases. Like Algeria, India also runs a dual pharmacy program
in which both the PharmD and BPharm curriculum are run. With all this diversity
in education, we can only hope for a richer interaction sharing experiences and
getting a better sense of how either parties can benefit from these varied
learnings.
No comments:
Post a Comment