The dreaded time has come....

The time of our lives has come again... exams.. We can never run away from them. They will haunt us forever and ever!!! LOL.. ok... they won't.. but it sure feels like it..

Anyway.. this time I have to tackle: Disease and the Goals of Treatment (DGT), Toxicology, Law relating to Pharmacy, Quality in Medicines Design and Usage... not forgetting Dispensing exams which I have my last session on Friday.

DGT is fine (to me anyway, others may disagree and we shall agree to disagree).. Most of the answers can be found in the BNF anyway and it's an interesting module where we learn how to apply our knowledge in a clinical setting. We get case studies and we get to solve them like puzzles.

Next there's tox.. can too much revision on toxicology be toxic to my brain? It's an ok subject, not as fun as DGT but still applicable in pharmacy like how to treat an overdose. But there is a lot of information to remember/memorize and I hate memorizing. I need a way to understand all of this.

Law is just annoying. It's an open book test, thankfully. But since there are no past papers on this, we have no idea how the questions are going to be given. why do we need to study law???? I'll just employ a lawyer...

Quality in Medicines Design and Usage is one of those modules that are not very useful unless you plan to go into the pharmaceutical industry. Teaches you all about the process of how a drug is formulated and brought into the market. And get this.... It's a one hour paper... and you need to choose one question out of three and that will give you the total of 100%!!! How and what are we supposed to write for that????? I don't see a good outcome for this for me as this is memory work. And I do not have the best memory!

Anyway.. timetable for exams:

12 May: Law relating to Pharmacy

14 May: DGT

16 May: Quality in Medicines Design and Usage

19 May: Toxicology

30 May: Home

Good luck to me! and ok ok, to all you others as well (but don't take all my luck, k? hehe... jk..)..

Food food foooood

I haven't been posting a lot of food photos up recently as I've been too lazy to create "masterpieces". To tantalise your palate again, it's time for food photos.

But first, the Trent Building.... and pink-flowered trees with white ones behind..

And an empty plate....

Lime-marinated baked salmon (took the recipe from here), onions, mushrooms, mashed potatoes with ham, and carrots and beans.

If you do decide to take a look at the recipe, I substituted the Cayenne peppers with Tabasco sauce.. You have to make do with what you have in the kitchen.. hehe..

Procrastination!

I think this applies to a lot of us.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

How can I be so dumb? If I were any more dumber, I would need a brain transplant! ARGHH... How can I forget to label the medicine?????????? The lecturer had to tell me not to look so worried next time.

I don't know whether to laugh at my stupidity or cry...

 

Anyway.. on a happier note, a lecturer praised me yesterday.. HAHAHA...

Rant

It's past time for a ranting post..

I don't know how some people can be so self-centred all the time. How is it that some people can feel that others are making her life miserable when she is the one making it hard for other people to be associated with her? This is just amazing to me.

ARGHHHH... I can't stand it!!

Dispensing

Dispensing exam today! I've been practicing really hard these few days and got it down to doing 2 sets (that's 16 prescriptions) in 2 hours...

So, today's exam had 7 prescriptions and I did all in an hour and a half... I tried doing it slower but it just seems natural to do it fast... I think it's in my nature to do things fast. Which isn't a good thing sometimes as I might miss something important..

Oh well.. one session down.. and two more to go!

Highway

My friend just said: "my brain is just a highway... 1 straight road, heavy traffic, fast come fast go, no parking lots available"

How come I feel the same way also? I think my parking is limited and there's a time limit to anybody using the space..

More news on dispensing rights

I just read two doctors' blog on their view on the dispensing rights:

one is here and here (two posts) and to summarise it, he has given 10 reasons why pharmacist should not have exclusive dispensing rights, but from what I have read it sounds like why are pharmacist trying to act smart. Among the 10 reasons are, pharmacist want to make money, there are no 24-hour pharmacy and pharmacist keep trying to be better than doctors. Can't they give a new reason cuz this is getting old? (BTW, I noticed something in his post. He said that he wrote a prescription for his sister to buy something. Correct me if I'm wrong but, I thought you shouldn't treat your own family? If I'm wrong, I'm sorry)

Another is here, here and here ( a three-part series) in retaliation to the above person.

Mind this, both are doctors. I do not know where the first one was educated in but the second graduated and worked in a developed country before.. see how different their views are?

Ok, so far I've read doctors comments and doctors blogs... Anybody know any Malaysian pharmacist blogging about this topic?

Revision time again

Been going to the library these few days to complete my toxicology assignment and also getting some revision done. When you are confined in a small room trying to study, you tend to think about funny things.

My toxicology report is on Red Wine and Pregnancy, and there are research done in this area using mice and rats as the subjects. While completing my report, I read a journal where rats were force-fed alcohol to show what alcohol does to the fetus. So it got me thinking, how do mice and rats look like drunk? If using white rats, they'll probably get flushed faces (which is going to be so cute) and also stumble around (because that's what drunks do).

In that very small room, the lights are triggered by a motion sensor and would switch off automatically if there is no movement. I came up with this thought on whether the lights would go off if we were very very still. So, to break up the monotony of studying, me and Yan Leng both conducted our own experiment (separately), and tried to be as still as possible. True enough, the lights went off after around 3-4 minutes of inactivity. I was imagining what other people were going to say when they saw somebody sitting in that room not moving at all! haha...

ok... I know, I know.. very 无聊. But what to expect when you are forced to do revision?

Amazing

No title

Just some photos..

Btw, forgot to mention in the other post how long I waited at the hospital. My appointment was at 2.45pm so I reached at 2.30 to wait. I got home at 4.30pm. 2 hrs! And I think the checkup was at most only half an hour, the rest of the time was spent waiting.

Too bright!! too bright!!

My eyes are fully dilated now and any exposure to light makes my eyes water and my vision blurry. I can't see near stuff so I can't do any reading that I have planned to do. Even typing out this post is a bit difficult and I have to turn down the brightness of the screen.

Anyway, there is nothing wrong with my eye. There is not "fairly large naevi" which was written down by the optician, only a very very small pigment according to the ophthalmologist. These pigments could, in time, turn into a tumour, but it mostly occurs in Caucasians and very very very very rarely in Asians. So nothing to worry about!

OK... going to rest my eyes now. It was difficult trying to walk back just now because, even without the sun, it was too glaring. Blessed relief when I got back home and into my room.

Am I going bananas?

The whole house is filled with the aroma of bananas today, as I embark on a baking frenzy. I bought lots of bananas which cost 1 pound on Friday and they are ripening very fast so I had to find a way to get rid of them.

And so, I baked....

Nutella Banana Muffin! Well, I didn't have enough nutella so you can't really taste the nutella. But it is really moist and soft. Yum yum..

And banana walnut bread! It looks nice, smells nice.. but I have no idea how it taste like as it just came out of the oven and I'm too full to try it out. Never mind, will let my "guinea pigs" try it out. 

To break the monotony of banana-made products, here's my dinner. Baked chicken with potatoes and mushroom and homemade coleslaw. Somehow I think I need something new to try out for my dinners. It seems to be repetitive.

Baking is fun and all, but the tedious part is washing up. You get tons of dishes to wash up after baking.

Anyway, if you want the recipe to the above banana muffin and bread click here and here.

I still have some more bananas.. What should I do with them? Banana milk shake?

Pharmacist Dispensing Right in Malaysia

I was just reading the news about the upcoming pilot move to shift dispensing rights to pharmacist. O the controversy!

All the doctors go, "NOOO.. this is going to cost the patients more as they have to pay for consultation fee and also another charge for medicines! The trouble they have to go through just to get their medicines." or "There are no pharmacies placed conveniently near the clinics and not enough pharmacists to go around." or "Pharmacists are just money-grabbing no-good people who want to earn more money out of this."

Few issues I would like to address here:

1. Pharmacists go through 4 years of studies, if I dare say, intensive study of medicines and their properties. I, as a pharmacy student, do not see myself as stepping over the boundaries of the medical profession. What we do is complement it by giving the best of the two expertise (from doctors in their diagnostics and pharmacist in their medicines) to the patient. Ultimately, it is the patient who is going to benefit the most out of this.
2. By separating the two roles (prescribing and dispensing), a lot of medication error can be avoided. We are all human after all, so mistakes do happen. But with two people being vigilant in the care of a patient, many errors can be avoided.
3. There are not enough pharmacists because most students do not even consider going back to work as there is no future. I, myself, have always wanted to go back and work, and managed to convince myself that everything will improve with time. But with some doctors looking down on pharmacists and refusing to give up dispensing rights, how is it possible that pharmacy in Malaysia will improve? If ever that the dispensing rights are given to the pharmacists, more students will consider going back. There would be more pharmacies opening near clinics for better access by the patients. The fact that pharmacists now working in the community in Malaysia are often nothing more than shopkeepers, selling shampoo. Without the need for pharmacist, why do we need a pharmacy in Malaysia? Why go back when here in the UK you are regarded as someone who is a healthcare professional able to give useful advice?

This topic is just what I thought about when I was writing my paper on "Is Pharmacy a Profession?" for my Social Sciences and Pharmacy module. Writing that paper really made me think about what I was doing in Pharmacy when there are such questions being asked. Here is UK, pharmacy is slowly evolving into being a real profession. But in Malaysia, pharmacy can never be considered as a profession if what we study for 4 years for is never being given to us to practice.

This government move is a good chance for pharmacy to be viewed as an actual part of the healthcare system. It does not have to happen overnight but slowly, step by step, better prospects will be there for pharmacists.

Some news and letters:

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Saturday/Frontpage/2198656/Article/index_html

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/Frontpage/20080402120749/Article/index_html

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/Letters/2201251/Article/index_html

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/Frontpage/2200105/Article/index_html

 

I think I don't make sense in parts of this blog.. who cares.. I have vented out my frustrations and that's that.

 

P/s: Another point made by a person who I shall not name is that there are not enough 24 hour pharmacies to deal with dispensing. Correct me if I'm wrong, since I don't go around Malaysia looking for doctors, but how many clinics in Malaysia are 24 hours? Some pharmacies also open til quite late. The reason why not a lot of pharmacies open till the middle of the night is because for NOW, there is no need for it! As before, lots of changes would occur if the dispensing rights are returned to pharmacists. And I say return because it is always the right of pharmacists!

Is not the healthcare industry big enough for everybody?

Added on 03 April: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7326856.stm 

News on how pharmacy is evolving in the UK