Hello again!
Since I always see other students in white coats running around with their pockets exploding from papers and various items, which I myself experienced daily on rotation, I thought doing a what’s in my pockets post was such a fun idea! My first week my pockets were stuffed and it felt like every time I really needed something I couldn’t find it in the never ending sea of papers. Being the organized person that I am I knew there had to be a more efficient way to function but still have everything I needed. So without further ado here are all the essentials I carried everyday and how I organized them. 
Multicolored pen (or multiple pens different colors) – Pens, because obviously everyone needs something to write with, but I have found things get crazy busy and sorting out the things you write by color helps so much. When I am doing a med rec I use one color for pharmacy records, one color for what the patient/family said and another color if I have to call the pharmacy. Then when I look at my sheet later I know where I got what information. Same with rounding, I put everything at first in black, then as I figure out what I need to do today I put that in another color. These are things like check INR, counsel patient, etc. Things I need to log in the computer can be a whole other color…you get the point. To keep my pockets less crowded I bought a multicolored pen (highly recommend), heres the one I have: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00347A98Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- I kept my pen/pens in my top pocket to keep them from getting lost in the papers
WhiteCoat Clipboard Pharmacy Edition – I LOVE this clipboard. I feel like it is the handiest thing I will ever own. It has a ton of great information on the outside like equations and dosing but it also folds in half and fits right into your pocket! I put the daily monitoring sheets I created in this clipboard and could easily write down any additional notes I needed to during rounds, because I actually had a supportive surface underneath them. Same for my med recs, one second its folded up in my pocket and the next its a full size clipboard and I am speaking with a patient. Clearly I think this clipboard is genius and you can get your own here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GWU56VU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I kept this in my right hand pocket and didn’t put anything else in there since it took up most the room.
iPad – Not that I can fit my iPad in my pocket, but 90% of the time on rotation I am carrying this with me. I can get onto Epic from it to access a patient’s profile. It is also convenient to quickly look up drug information while on rounds.
YNHH 2017 Antibiotic Susceptibility Report – Because infectious disease is such a huge part of inpatient medicine, this was a great tool to have on hand. The back of the booklet has helpful gram stain information, as findings came back about your sample you could start to narrow down the possible microorganism to help target treatment. The inside of the booklet had antibiotic sensitivities for gram positive and negative organisms at YNHH. These sensitivities can change what antibiotic agent is chosen, so both my team and I loved that I had this information right at my finger tips.
Renal Dose Adjustment Protocol – This packet is my savior. Despite how large it is I would never give up carrying this. Yale has a specific protocol with a large list of drugs pharmacists should be automatically dose adjusting. Most of the drugs I dealt with on a daily basis could be easily found in the table format of this packet, it was very helpful for early morning patient work up or on the fly questions during rounds.
Vancomycin Guideline – This is another booklet that I used almost every day. Vancomycin is one of the drugs pharmacists monitor and dose adjust independently. While I know the dosing of vancomycin, the easy to read chart really streamlines my decision making. Yale also has specific requirements for if/when we monitor troughs so if I need to remind myself or double check, that information is right there as well.
Vaccine Sheet – Like I said in my inpatient medicine post, making sure every patient has received all their recommended vaccinations is a priority. It is a simple intervention pharmacy can make that hopefully will prevent future illnesses for that patient. Although I know most of the indications and time frames for vaccines, having this sheet to double check saved me a lot of time.
- I keep all my papers (RDA, Vanc, Axb, Vaccine) together in the same pocket.
I hope this helps you all get a better idea of how I organized myself on rotation! If your rotation site doesn’t have institution specific protocols like Yale, I suggest finding some of this same information and printing it out yourself!
Do you guys carry some of the same things?! If you have any recommendations of things you kept with you that really helped on rotations please leave them in the comments below!!
Welcome to The Luxe Pharmacist! My name is Madeline. I am a Clinical Pharmacist with a flair for style, wellness, and all things beauty. Here you will find my favorite things and places, as well as more of my life as a woman in pharmacy. I believe there is always room for a little luxe in your life, so go ahead and dive in! Thank you for visiting my blog, cheers to living a luxe life babes!
