Arnie says "I'll be back", I say I AM back.

Anymore procrastination means I might as well shut down this blog huh...Well, I guess we can all see why I always seem to be breaking my 'diary efforts' new year resolution, year after year!

Oh no baby, oh NO. *index finger wagging*

Not this year. It's for keeps. You be my witness!

Anyway, moi has been away to Port Talbot for a short 2 and a 1/2 day hospital placement. Came back on Wednesday and have been busy with stuff (which I have trouble naming). Honestly, where has all the time gone?!

This placement thingy was organised by the school for all 3rd year Pharmacy students just so we can get a taster of what it's like working in a secondary care institution before commiting ourselves to it for a 52-week make or break pre-registration year. We were all sent to hospitals around Wales and some even go as far as England.

Considering we've just finished our PH3108 exam on the Friday before this, I know many of my mates were treating it like a mini-holiday. As for me, haha, I'd like to berlagak a bit and treat it like I was attending a conference, complete with top notch accommodation and excellent room service plus exquisite buffet meals...

*snap*

Ah right, apologies for skidding off track there. But the part about top-notch accommodation and excellent room service is true. No joke. You see, I had arranged to put up at their hospital accommodation to save me the trouble of commuting from Cardiff everyday. Initially, the thought of paying 8.73 GBP per night was a big lump to swallow, but upon seeing the lovely room I was allocated, I felt 8.73 was worth every penny!


This is the hospital staff quarters all right, but it's a million times nicer than Aberdare Hall, which don't even have en-suite facilities! How I wish I could be staying here AND attending Uni at the same time...

Ya ya, dream on... :)

Woke up the next morning and found that I was teenie bit late for work, but pharmacists were all having a meeting so technically I wasn't late because they hadn't started work yet :P (I personally blamed the comfy bed). Met Mr John Harris who was our supervisor (I said our coz there were 2 of us doing the placement together, me and Rehma). He gave us a brief tour of the hospital and we settled back at the dispensary not 10 mins after.

Why Port Talbot hospital? Well, because my first choice viz Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend had been taken up, and considering this hospital was under the same trust as the former (and it is brand spanking new), I took it up. Basically, we were allocated numbers 1-100, so person number1 gets to pick his hospital (from a list) first and then followed by person number 2 and the cycle continues...so obviously the earlier your number is, the better are the chances of you getting a hospital of your choice. That said, mine was 36, which wasn't that far behind, but by then Bridgend Hospital had already been snapped up, so I had to settle for my second choice.

Port Talbot is a small industrial town 35 mins west of Cardiff, with a population of about 50,000. And almost everyone speaks with a thick Welsh accent over here - not surprising since many of them are Welsh-speakers (there was one time I overheard a pre-reg conversing with her tutor and I thought oh God, my clinical knowledge must be very shabby not to understand all the jargons they used, only to realise they were speaking in an entirely different language altogether!).

I was told the hospital doesn't belong to the NHS, but some local businessmen who sold the land and "loaned" it to the Health Service (or something like that). And one more trivia if you may - it's actually built on a huge piece of marsh land! That's why they get ventilators like this (pic on the right) to suck up all the methane trapped underneath this piece of concrete building or else...ka-boom!

Spent the afternoon observing a pharmacist run warfarin clinic, and I must say, he blew me away! Yes yes, I came here to learn, not to go all giddy but seriously, this guy has so much charm and wit it's impossible not to like him! And the patients all warmed up to him because of his animated and friendly nature. They told him things they wouldn't tell the doctors and asked him questions about things that were troubling their minds. You should see the way Mr Williams explained it to them - it was so full of easily understood concepts with no " I'm trying to sound smart" jargons, which the patients all appreciated. That was no mean feat I tell ya!

And he made me feel so important each time he introduced me to his patients by saying "oh this is Tan, my colleague who's here to pick up some pearls of wisdom on INR, which I hope I wouldn't put her off by the end of the day (and then turned to me to give me a wink)".

Sigh...why is this guy twice my age and happily married with kids?

You know what, DON'T answer. Don't EVEN bother.

The next day was spent going up to medical wards and checking the patients' drug regimen. It's nothing new given I've done a hospital placement before this but it was nice to see how each hospital differ from one another in terms of how things were done.

We were also given a chance to take drug history from a real patient (as opposed to nasty lecturers who always make it hard for us back in pharm school) and it was cool! I was a little nervous needless to say, but because the 2 of us doing it together, it didn't feel so nerve wrecking...plus we basically had the sheets in front of us so it was just a matter of asking the right questions! Anyway, I came away feeling quite dignified and to think I'd be doing more of this in the future is exciting as it is challenging!

2 days went by in a whiff and the last half day of our placement was imminent. We didn't do much since we had almost completed all those checklists on our agenda, so we were let off an hour early. I didn't want to come all the way to Port Talbot just to do a placement and then go home, so Rehma and I went to beach, which I was told was the only thing to see in Port Talbot.

Na-uh, don't start picturing Brighton because this was NOTHING like it although any sea-side place is a sight to behold. Swansea was within our optical range as it was just miles away from Port Talbot. I actually had plans to go to Swansea in the afternoon but because time was pressing, I decided to give it a pass and go another day (which is when, Adeline?)

One thing about a small town like Port Talbot, is that the people are unbelievably friendly. So much so that you'd think, "what's wrong with these people?", which is the kind of sentiment felt by Rehma, who's originally from London, where people mind their own business.

Lunch at Rhemo's cafe and a short walk along the promenade concluded my trip to Port Talbot.

Ok, here's some pictorial proof...

Hospital parking lot at dusk

Yup yup, there's a mountain nearby...imagine how scenic it is walking to work from the hospital flats everyday...

Port Talbot is to my left...

...and Swansea is to my right

And I didn't know Rehma is that tall! Okay okay, I'm short...

All in all, I found it a pleasant and purposeful placement. Confirmed my inclination for hospital pharmacy and I'm quite certain that's where I'd be heading in the future.

Wish me luck.