PRP Diaries: Week 1- Of Lapor Diri, Orientation and Tagging

Salaam and hello everyone! This post charts my first week experience of a PRP. Before I started working as a PRP, I had scoured through the internet to look for a detailed account of a PRP experience but well, there wasn't much to be read. And I was nervous, having a bleak idea on how will my life be and so after I had finally become a PRP myself, I thought, why not I write about a PRP's experience at the hospital?

This post is very long but I hope that it will be of many help and use to the Pharmacy students out there or other graduated Pharmacy students who are waiting for their PRP posting, in terms of getting a clue about the whole process of becoming a PRP and consequently to be mentally prepared. I'll try to blog as regularly as I could, insya Allah.

Here it goes:

LAPOR DIRI 

On the 19th of January 2014 aka the sacred date, the day of judgement (so-called), I woke up at 5 am, got ready for my first day of work and headed off to Seberang Jaya Hospital at 6.30 am. 

Truth be told, I was really nervous the night before, and when I was driving from Sungai Petani to Seberang Jaya. It was my first time driving that far. The sky was still dark and yet, there were many cars, plus I was alone. 

I was contemplating my fate. Seberang Jaya is still pretty far from home. But imagine, what if I get GH Penang? Then I'd have to find a house to rent on the weekend. But who will stay with me? What if I'm the only one who got posted to GH Penang? And just the day before, my mom was driving the car to show me the way to GH Penang, and the roads leading there are quite small and narrow, hectic and jammed, packed with cars and vehicles of various sizes. Of course, many 'what ifs' were in my mind. I just prayed to Allah to give me the best. But still, I'd pray to get the nearest hospital to home, which is Hospital Kepala Batas. 

I parked my car in Hospital Seberang Jaya and saw a Farmasi Klinik Pakar just a distance away. I wondered whether I'd end up in Hospital Seberang Jaya? So, from HSJ, I got into my friend Suney's car, and Aliaa was in it as well. All three of us in the same car, off to Penang Island we went, not before crossing the busy Penang Bridge and Penang Roads. T___T

The Jabatan Kesihatan Negeri (JKN) Penang is located on the 35th floor of the KOMTAR (Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak) building. The parking fee is RM1 per hour. ZzzZzzz...

We arrived there at 8 something a.m and got our 'visitor sticker' from the counter. We had to lapor diri at 9 am. So, after meeting Muna and her mom and sister there, we decided to have a breakfast there. I ordered a piece of roti canai but somehow, I couldn't really bring myself to chew and swallow it. I was extremely nervous, the same goes with my other friends.  Only 5 of us IIU-ans went to lapor diri on that day (and plus another girl who graduated from University College London, and that makes the six of us). The remaining 3 UIA students haven't received their posting letter yet and JKN has this rule that you couldn't lapor diri if you do not have the original posting letter with you. >_<

So At 9 am, all of us went to JKN. We waited there for about 40 minutes. Then an officer came out of the room and said that they are going to discuss about which hospital shall we be posted to, and that we're required to come back to JKN at 10.30 am. 

I asked him abruptly "What criteria do you usually use to decide this?"

And he said "Usually, we'd base it by your home address," 

And I replied "In that case, please let me get Seberang, hehe,"

The rest of my friends responded the same. xD

The officer just smiled and said "Well, let's see,"

He sure had a way to get our hopes high up. 

Those 40 plus minutes of waiting were dreadful. We had high hopes that all five of us would be posted to Seberang Jaya or Kepala Batas, and the other 3 in Pulau Pinang Island, LOL. 

Then, 10.30 am. We walked slowly to the office. We had to wait again. The officer in charge went out of his room and gave us each a form to fill. A personal particulars form. 

After about 10 minutes later, he walked out of his room, bringing a stack of envelopes. 

He called out my name first.

I was nervous as he passed the envelope bearing my name and the hospital I'm going to be posted to, to me. 

I took the letter out of the envelope and saw "Pengarah Hospital Seberang Jaya," typed at the top of it.

An immense relief swept me off my feet. I was elated. Alhamdulillah! I was expecting to get Hospital Kepala Batas but...Hospital Seberang Jaya is still acceptable. I didn't get posted to GH Penang!

But that feeling was temporary. My girl friends, all of them got posted to Hospital Pulau Pinang, and I was left with a male classmate. Only two of us got Hospital Seberang Jaya. T__T

The thing about JKN Penang is that, they are inflexible. Other JKNs allowed you to exchange your hospital placements amongst yourselves. But Penang, no. It's a sad case for Aliaa as she has a daughter back home in Seberang Jaya. To cross the bridge everyday to Seberang Jaya is something that is quite difficult, especially in your PRP year, as your schedule is not really fixed. But never mind, the first step is always the hardest. 

SEBERANG JAYA HOSPITAL 

As for me, to Seberang Jaya we shall go! I had no choice but to sit at the back seat of Ban's car (which was filled with his stuffs he lugged from his home in Taiping), directing him the way to HSJ at the back like a boss! While he was driving in front, xD.

We reached there at about 12 something pm. We were required to report to the Pengarah Hospital Seberang Jaya. But she was in a meeting.  The person in charge gave us a stack of forms for us to fill up and we had to come back at 2 pm. 

I was sad. I was alone. Lunch break, and I didn't have anyone to eat lunch with. No way was I going to eat with Ban. (and he didn't want to have lunch either, hahahaha). So I just bought a sandwich and a bottled tea, eating my lunch at the stone bench, my legs splayed out in a yoga position (bersila la tuu).

So at 2 pm, we went back to the office. The Pengarah Hospital was still in a meeting. But the nice person in charge, Puan S (she's also from SP!) gave us the 'Aku Janji Form' to sign and the hospital booklet or something. She then explained a bit about the procedure. We were required to send the many forms that she had given us by the end of the week for the 'salary purpose', hoping that we could receive our salary by the end of February.

After everything was over, she brought us to the IT Department (?) to get us registered for our thumb prints. There were many thumb print devices scattered all over the hospital and each time we reached hospital in the morning or before going back home in the evening, we had to punch in and punch out using our thumb print. Gone was the era of having punch cards. Haha. 

I forgot to punch out before going back and in the morning on the second day. (I reached the hospital at 7.30 am but I only realized about it at 8 something am). LOL. Hopefully they will forgive me, as it was just my 1st and 2nd day there. 

PHARMACY DEPARTMENT, HOSPITAL SEBERANG JAYA 

So, after everything about lapor diri had settled, we were required to meet our Ketua Pegawai Farmasi (KPF) to lapor diri to her. But she was in a meeting, haha. And coincidentally, on that day, it was the first general meeting for the pharmacists of HSJ. It was really awkward for us two newbies. We didn't know anyone! So  after that,  Miss O of Training Department briefed us about so many things like the organization chart, many forms, schedules, timetables, night shifts etc. It was complicated, really. It was overwhelming, it was just too much for me. who had just being forcedly awaken from a 7 months slumber, to experience such a hectic year ahead of us. Hahaha...I got even more depressed by the thought that I had to drive all the way to Sungai Petani again after that, and the following days to come. 

DS, a sweet senior PRP (she had done her PRP since July 2014, but same age of course) brought us on a tour around the Pharmacy department and introduced us to many staffs there. 

Then, it was already 5 pm, without punching out, I walked towards my car forlornly. For that week and the week after, we have to undergo a 'tagging process' from 5 to 7 pm at Farmasi Klinik Pakar and Farmasi Bekalan Wad. Coming home at 7pm? Huuu...Ceh, that's just the beginning. Of course, everything was new. I haven't fully adjusted myself to the environment there yet. Naturally, I'd feel sad. But at least I could come home every day! :) 

When I reached home, Miss O had already uploaded the pics of our timetables. Hahaha... *gelak speechless*.

Only two of us there? Me and Ban? I hope someone from my class (a girl) would come to Seberang Jaya on the next day.

Oh yes, the first day that you lapor diri is the first day of you working. Ban who hailed from Perak still didn't find any house to rent yet and so he stayed at someone's house for a while. Be prepared!

My advice would be, once you received your posting letter denoting which state will you be posted to, try to google for houses to rent in different areas there. In this case, if it's Penang, it will be Penang Island, Seberang Jaya, Kepala Batas or Bukit Mertajam. 

SECOND DAY

Woke up at 5.30 am. Had only a mug of warm cocoa drink as my very early breakfast. Went driving. I kept on praying that Allah will soothe my heart and give me strength to carry on. It doesn't help me upon thinking that my Sungai Petanian classmates got posted to HSAH. :( Anyway, I firmly believe that there is a solid reason of why Allah had placed me in Penang (Seberang Jaya, to be precise). I haven't found the reason yet but I'm sure that it will materialize itself along the PRP process, or at least, at the end of my PRP year. 

Orientation at Ambulatory Pharmacy, or Farmasi Klinik Pakar/Outpatient Department la. Briefings given by Miss L, Encik F and several others. Of course, many more complicated information and systems to digest. But hopefully I can get the hang of all of them when I'm officially posted to this department. 

Paris messaged me and said she got Seberang Jaya! Yaay! She is from Penang Island and naturally she was disappointed for not getting GH Penang. She came in to the hospital a bit late because Aliaa wanted to change the hospital with her and that they have to meet the JKN people again and noooo, they've decided that Aliaa could not change her hospital. Muna said Aliaa even cried in front of her preceptor. So sad... :((

I got gang! Yaay! Alhamdulillah, thank you Allah for answering my prayer. :)

So, first day of tagging at the Outpatient Pharmacy from 5 to 7 pm. We had to do the filling process. Screen the prescription, look at the drug regimen and fill the medications according to the name of drugs, frequency and duration. Thankfully, most of the doctors/specialists at HSJ have nice handwritings. Hehe. But of course, we couldn't read/decipher the prescriptions, we could always ask for help from the helpful PPFs (Penolong Pegawai Farmasi), FRP and another senior PRP there. 

I was feeling clueless the moment I look at the prescription. 40 mg of Simvastatin? But I have to take it from the 20 mg rack. So two tablets per day? Times how many days? It was all simple mathematics, really, but I blanked out. Hahaha... Buat malu je. Nasib baik ada Kak J yang sangat helpful. And oh, another tip from me: Always carry a calculator, a pen, a small notepad and a pair of scissors in your white coat pocket. You'll know why once you experience it. :P

Naturally, as it was only our first day there, we had difficulties locating the drugs, and took a long time to fill them up. But as time went by, slowly, we had begun to show some improvements, alhamdulillah. We also committed several mistakes while filling the prescription. :(( But never mind, it's a learning process. The most important thing is to never give up, and to make sure your patients are safe and healthy (no medication errors) when consuming the drugs you had dispensed. Because it's the job of a pharmacist to do so.

I drove home feeling happy. It was really a nice feeling driving back home after a long tiring day. :) 

THIRD DAY
Again, another day spent at the Outpatient Department. This time, I observed on how the FRP counselled the patients regarding usage of medications and also I jot down some notes based on my observation. I also asked the PRPs about the screening of prescription process, etc.
Encik F also get us to fill in the prescriptions of the Blue Card patients. (a value added service), and by time, we had gotten familiarized with the many locations of medications in the pharmacy. Get it? Hehe.

I also had the opportunity to observe the FRPs conducting the MTAC (Medication Therapy Adherence Clinic) Diabetes at the MOPD. And after that, we went to see Miss F at the counselling department and she briefed us about the counselling of medications and devices, even asking us to demonstrate how to use those devices correctly, hahaha. She gave us each a Metered Dose Inhaler for us to practise on at home.

Third day of tagging at the Outpatient Pharmacy was superb! The FRP there taught us on how to reconstitute syrups for pediatric, which involved some calculations, and also he taught me how to calculate the dosage of heparin needed, how to fill the small table at the back of the prescription, how to determine whether the dosage was appropriate for the children based on their body weights, and many more. He was very nice when he called out our names, telling us patiently about the mistakes we had done.

I had made up my mind that when I become an FRP later on, I will be as helpful and nice as he is, insya Allah.

FOURTH DAY

Last day of orientation at the Outpatient Department. Again, Miss F taught us how to use the medications, devices, etc. Encik F pointed out the mistakes I've made when filling the blue card medications. (There are both Amlodipine of 5 mg and 10 mg strength available at the pharmacy okay!!!)

And as for tagging at the outpatient department, this time we had the opportunity to label the medications. The three of us newbies made practise exercises on the reconstitution of drugs. So, new things learned every day, alhamdulillah.

FIFTH DAY 

Last day of the week! The schedule for the morning-  CDR,  Galenical, TPN orientation. Mr A of CDR briefed us about the CDR process and such, while Miss T of Galenical brought us to the place where the pre packed the medications used in the ward. I love galenical because it reminds me so much of my experience in Pilot Plant, IKOP, IIUM. Well, let's see. I also love TPN because it seems interesting. Hehe.

In the afternoon, we had 'logistics pharmacy' in our schedule. We went to the logistics pharmacy department (basically, it's a store) and we had to separate the letters received into different sections and also we had to key in the information from the letters into the Microsoft Excel. Sounds tedious but at least our feet did not ache as much as when we were in OPD haha. We were just sitting in an air-conditioned room and typing on the computer. The feeling is like working in an office, like you see in those dramas and movies. But still, it's too early to determine the workload as that was just our first day of orientation at the Logistics Pharmacy.

The final day of tagging at the Outpatient Department had its own highlights. I finally managed to reconstitute the Penicillin V syrup for pediatric all by myself! I double checked the calculation and even asked Paris to check whether my calculations are correct. I pray hard (still praying) that the patient will be in good condition. Ameen.

So, end of the FIRST WEEK of PRP.

We have to study in this weekend because there's going to be a 1 hour examination tomorrow (Monday) to evaluate our performance at the outpatient department. If we failed the examination, we will be required to repeat the whole tagging process again! (balik pukul 7 lagi) so please please please pray for me and my friends, and also our patients. :)

I'll put some pictures later la. Gotta study!