Dispelling myths about hospice care to student pharmacists

Over the last few weeks, eight Pre-Registration Pharmacists have been supporting and shadowing the team on our Adult Inpatient Unit. This is the first time such a programme has taken place in the region and has given placements a valuable insight in to palliative care at a Hospice.

Hannah is one of the trainee pharmacists who recently had a week’s placement with us, she said:

“Before I came to St Oswald’s I was a bit apprehensive, as I hadn’t been to a Hospice before and I thought it would be a sad and emotional place. After spending just a few days here, it’s been really interesting and nice to see how happy the patients are with their care and how much they appreciate staff.

“This week I’ve been shadowing the team, particularly on admissions and ward rounds. I’ve learnt a lot about drugs that I haven’t seen before in acute hospitals, such as pain relief medication. It’s been a really interesting week learning more about palliative care.”

Amy Mundell, Senior Lead Clinical Pharmacist – Education and Training at The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“It has been invaluable for our trainee pharmacists to experience how pharmacy can influence patients outside of the acute trust setting. I work closely with out trust palliative care team and have a real passion for how our workforce can contribute to the care of palliative patients. These placements are a novel way of improving our training for our future pharmacists and I look forward to this continued relationship to improve interprofessional and cross sector working.”