San Jose Clinic Pharmacy #3

I continue to work on the Pharmacy Assistance Program again this week in the pharmacy. I checked in about 25 packages of medication (each package may have up to 5 different medications). After an hour of PAP work, Dominga (pharmacy tech) led me to an area where we store patient's medication (each patient have a bin) to show me the procedure of pull expired medications out of these bins. Next, she showed me another section for patient's medication except this area consists of hanging plastic bags with patient's name. I found out that Ryan Kahl (former UST student - 2010) was the one that came up with this system for the clinic. Actually that was an understatement, Ryan is an amazing worker here in the pharmacy. Although I have never met Ryan, I knew right away that he is someone I can look toward to as a role model. Ryan volunteers at San Jose Clinic - Pharmacy when he was doing the service-learning project for Cell Biology. Although the class is over, Ryan continues to volunteer in the clinic at least twice a week. According to the pharmacist in charge (Sandy), Ryan is a permanent member of the pharmacy and his work is very important in helping the pharmacy run smooth!

Near the end of my volunteer time, I was able to speak with Sandy about the field of pharmacy and the emerging role of the pharmacist in the health field. I was able to get a lot of information from her and of course her opinion and point of view as a pharmacist. I also found out she was a former UST student for a year before she transferred to Texas A&M. Overall, this week volunteering is very inspirational and I will strive to be more like Ryan!

San Jose Clinic Pharmacy #2

Since I always volunteered at San Jose in the afternoon, I decided to change up my routine and try working in the pharmacy in the morning. At 8:30am, the lines were already forming in the pharmacy. I immediately washed my hands and dived straight into printing out labels and counting pills. While counting, I was able to observe the kind of medications that were being dispensed at San Jose (lots of antibiotics, heart related drugs, antivirals, etc.) so this will help me in the future with my service learning presentation. One thing I found to be quite useful is the list of Spanish phrases the pharmacy staffs put on the wall, so non-Spanish speaking volunteers can use to help the patients. I know from personal experience that learning Spanish can be very beneficial in the pharmacy setting and like most of my classmates, I am not fluent in Spanish. Luckily, the computer is able to generate directions for the label in many languages and most of the time, we can just read verbatim the directions to the patients. One thing that bothers me the most when hearing people said "you're a U.S Citizen - learn English!" is that they don't understand how difficult it is to learn another language. Personally, I still struggle throughout my personal and academic life with the English language. With this mentally, I have empathy for people that are non-English speaker.

My other task while at San Jose was to help out with the Pharmacy Assistance Program. I was provided with my own credentials in order to access patient information and the inventory database. I spent a good amount of time making sure patients are receiving their medications from the respected drug manufacturers. The pharmacy staffs are the best of the best here, I observed their determination to go all the way to help the patient and never stop short of anything they do. If you work in the retail setting, you will not see this type of personal care with patient. They have inspired me to do the same in my current job.

Until next time!

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these."

-- George Washington Carver

San Jose Clinic Pharmacy #1

It has been many months since I last volunteered at San Jose Clinic - Pharmacy. My first time associating with this clinic was when I volunteer for Dr. Larios's Medical Microbiology Class. At the clinic's old location, the pharmacy was squeezed in the corner of the building with very little room to work with. So when I visited the new location of the clinic, I was very excited to see the amazing architecture of the building. Moreover, the spacious room in the pharmacy will accommodate me well!

In the previous year, my responsibilities in the pharmacy was to help fill prescriptions, perform warehouse inventory, and assist patients with the Pharmacy Assistance Program (program that offer patients with free medication). As a pharmacy technician that has experience in both hospital and retail setting, I am ecstatic to share my experience and skills at San Jose Clinic. Furthermore, the retail pharmacy experience has left me quite unhappy with how patients are treated. At San Jose, I feel like I can contribute to the patient overall health. Profits are not an important factor at San Jose and I don't feel rushed or pushed to perform fast just so the pharmacy can meet a certain score or percentage. I am looking forward to my service learning project at San Jose and my continual relationship with this special place.