We spoke to Lilly-May Eggleden, rotational pharmacy technician at CUH.
Lilly-May, what is your role in our hospitals?
I am rotational pharmacy technician, and I absolutely love it! Within my role, I rotate around different areas every 6 months including clinical services, dispensary, medicines information, aseptics and much more. During each rotation, we complete in house training, and gain accreditation in each speciality. It is great to be able to experience each department and to gain knowledge and skills across various areas.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
I love being able to rotate around different specialities obtaining specialised knowledge and skills. This gives me unique talents such as organisational skills, flexibility and teamwork.
I enjoy connecting with patients the most and being involved in their care, being able to make a difference to people during difficult times.
What was your journey to get to this role?
I started my career in Pharmacy 13 years ago by getting a part time job in a community pharmacy whilst studying for my A-levels. I developed a love for helping the community with healthcare and developed a real interest in the chemistry of medicines.
During my time working in community pharmacy, I eventually progressed my career to become deputy regional manager of two regions. When thinking about what I wanted to do next, I realised I wanted to work directly with patients and become more clinical as well as continuing to develop and progress.
I thought working in a hospital would provide me with a great opportunity to make a real difference.
What does a usual day look like?
Currently I am in my clinical rotation and this is how my day looks:
- First thing in the morning I check and respond to medication messages from the nurses for the wards I am allocated. This is where I order medication for inpatients and refer any queries to the pharmacist.
- Once complete, I then proceed to chart check. This is where I check inpatients' prescribed medications, checking that any medication started is intentional and ordering items that require dispensing. I use my clinical judgement and technical skills to decide when to refer to the pharmacist.
- When a patient is due to be discharged, I check the prescribed items against the patient’s hospital chart and confirm which items require dispensing, if any. This is a very important role to ensure the patient is discharged as efficiently as possible once clinically fit and the bed space is given to a person who needs it.
- With a new patient, I need to take a medication history and update the system. I will speak to the patient to document what medications the patient takes at home prior to admission and any allergies. This is really fun and requires me to change my communication skills for the specific patient’s needs.
- Once a week I have a checking slot in the inpatient dispensary; this is a good way to keep up my skills from my previous rotation.
How do you feel your role benefits our patients?
We ensure there is a supply of the medication; this is from purchasing, testing, manufacture of medicines and along the way, we try to make the patient’s hospital journey as positive for them as it can be by being compassionate and caring.
My role helps ensure each patient is receiving the optimal care.