“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” ― Benjamin Franklin. Getting involved in patient care is the best way to learn and that is what APPE is about. APPE is part of the Pharm.D program where we as the students have to put in practice what we have studied throughout the years into real life. We were placed in hospital settings and exposed to pharmacy practice in different sites. We were involved in patient care for 35 weeks; during this period we encountered different scenarios that made us face new challenges every day.
My experiences in the APPE rotations lived up to my expectations. There was every opportunity for me to attach experiences to my knowledge. My career goals are influenced greatly by the experiences I had here. These rotations made me see different career options, look at their merits and demerits, and finally analyze them in order to find the one that fits my aims and goals.
The experience in different sites has really affected my concept of what life in various workplaces is really like. Working with different healthcare members has boosted up my socialization skills and professional behaviours. The transition from University to a work environment was somewhat difficult. However, the transition takes place with time and I soon became comfortable working along with the professional healthcare members.
In my opinion the positive aspects of these rotations were; getting to learn the basics of a hospital setting, managing and running a pharmacy, learning how a hospital pharmacy functions while being an active member, observing how patients with chronic diseases are treated, following up with the Out Patient Department, screening the inward patient cases, being able to recognize ADRs and contributing to overall care for the patient. Last but not least, learning how to carry out researches and putting the concluded data in use for a possible improvement in healthcare.
APPE rotations gave me many opportunities to strengthen my leadership skills. I actively participated in many healthcare-related activities which increased my honesty and integrity. It taught me how commitment and passion were necessary to be effective. Caregiving was the cornerstone of these rotations and as a caregiver, I was given opportunities to improve my quality of care. The preceptors on sites played an important role in improving the quality of the care that I was able to provide.
Teamwork was heavily appreciated by the preceptors and other healthcare members. I was part of various group activities. The end results of working as a team were that it taught me to be committed, be flexible, listen actively last but not the least be reliable and responsible.
Name: Basir Ahmad
Training Site: Thumbay Hospital, Thumbay Hospital Fujairah, Thumbay Pharmacy 5 Ajman
Training Period: 7th January – 31st July 2018
Major: Doctor of Pharmacy
Expected Year of Graduation: 2018
