You never know what they've been through...

Recently, my fellow interns and I went to a state-of-the-art simulation center on the Mayo medical campus. The facility was created to help doctors, nurses, and pharmacists practice real life situations in a controlled environment. There are rooms where surgeons can practice surgeries, nurses can practice suturing, and rooms like the one we used where individuals can work on patient counseling.

The exercise we participated in involved speaking with a “patient” who is actually an actor trained to portray certain personality characteristics. This exercise was similar to those done in many of our PCare courses and was a great way for me to improve on the patient counseling skills I have gained through the extensive amount of counseling I’ve done this summer, in addition to what I’ve already learned in school.

The prescriptions I had to counsel on during the simulation were ciprofloxacin and albuterol (thankfully, not too tough). My patient wasn’t as difficult as I expected. She was in a hurry because she was going on a cruise so I had to make sure to relay the important points of her medications in a timely manner to ensure both of us were satisfied with the amount of information shared and the time it took for this interaction to occur.

Although this was a simulation, I can attest to the fact that this is just one of many types of patients that come into the pharmacy every day. In the 8 weeks I’ve spent as an intern this summer, I’ve dealt with yelling patients, crying patients, and MANY who are in a hurry. Realizing that they are probably going through a difficult time and not to take anything personally has helped me deal with the most difficult of patients, although, it’s not all bad. In contrast to the difficult patients, I’ve had individuals who were extremely grateful that I took the time to explain their medications, potential interactions, and possible side effects. Many patients are unaware of the side effects with their medications and have developed symptoms that are actually due to a new medication. They are confused as to why they are experiencing these new symptoms and have a feeling of uneasiness surrounding this. Now when I counsel, I try to point out at least three side effects with each medication. This may seem like a lot but I feel like it’s better for them to know about it and then not get it versus not knowing and then wondering why they’re experiencing sun sensitivity, increased effects of caffeine, or tendonitis (all of which are effects associated with ciprofloxacin).