Working as a Clinical Pharmacist at a Government Hospital

Convocation at a University is always an enjoyable and memorable experience for any student. For IMU Pharmacy alumna, Hoo Yee Yin, it was even more memorable to know her friend who was diagnosed with lymphoma during their third year causing the loss of her vision (after chemotherapy), graduating. “It was not an easy journey for her. We see her suffering mentally and physically battling her illness and coping with her studies. We were all very happy for her when we see her successfully completing her degree.” That was 9 years ago but Yee Yin who is now a Clinical Pharmacist at a government hospital, remembers the event as if it just happened yesterday. She also recalls fondly of what she learnt at the University. “IMU lecturers taught me the importance of lifelong learning. This is important as medicine and science changed every day. Clinical pharmacists have to keep updated with the latest discovery and research in order to provide the best care for patients and this is one of the challenges of my work. I always feel that I know so little in front of the consultants and the more experienced peers. I am lucky that they are all very nice people and willing to teach.” “Other challenges at work include working with healthcare workers from various departments. As no one likes to be told what to do or how to do it, and everyone has different preferences in treating the patients, sometimes it is not easy to provide the best pharmaceutical care. For this, I am still learning to improve my communication and problem solving skills.” These are the challenges faced by Yee Yin who has been working at a government hospital for the past 8 years. She continued working at Hospital Serdang after the completion of her PRP training at the same hospital as the hospital was expanding at that time and needed more staff. “I am grateful that my boss and senior peers are willing to give me the opportunity to explore in different work and continue working as a clinical pharmacist. My job at the hospital is a very typical pharmacist job. This include ensuring that the medicines prescribed to patients are suitable and providing medications counselling to patients. Our core job include checking prescriptions, providing drug information, pharmacy educational activities, formal and informal patients’ educations and etc.” A “typical” workday for Yee Yin starts with her checking patients’ clinical notes in the morning to have a brief understanding of their diagnosis and progress. She then joins doctors and nurses for a routine medical round. After the medical round, Yee Yin would then obtain patients’ drug histories, provide medical advice and discharge medications counselling. In the afternoon, she is involved in therapeutic drug monitoring analysis and works in the medication therapeutic adherence clinic on schedule.

For her, seeing her patients walking out from the hospital is a motivation and joy for her to continue working as a Clinical Pharmacist.

In the coming years, she will continue to work smart and work hard to earn respect from healthcare workers from different sectors and aspires to be involved in research and audit. Comments from our students