Week 1: Orientation and Home Visits
Monday, October 7th:
8:00am breakfast at amazon cafe --> this is a cute cafe right outside our apartment that has coffee, tea, and little snacks
9:00am meet Dr. Sutthiporn (our preceptor) who presented a powerpoint on the origin of the hospital, the hospital system, and the pharmacists role in the different sections of the hospital. She was very thorough.
11:30am Dr. Sutthiporn took us on a tour around campus, and we went to lunch at the hospital cafeteria. There are MANY stations to choose from for food, and everything looks yummy. We wanted to try them all! We ended up with a stir fry with sticky rice and multiple fruits for dessert. Jack fruit is a common type of fruit here, and it was delicious! Our new favorite :)
1:00pm We went on two patient home visits with with nine 4th year pharmacy students, one pharmacist, and one nurse. We took a van and got to know the thai students very well on our ride! One thing we learned about the healthcare system was they care for entire family and caregivers, not just the patient. For example one patients wife had hypertension and diabetes, so her blood pressure was taken and she was counseled on a healthier lifestyle to help control her blood glucose. They use a holistic approach. The pharmacists and physicians always recommend lifestyle before adjusting medications. During our van ride back, they gave us Thai names: Cynthia was Fā (which means sky) and Megan was named fñ (which means rain).
5:30pm We took a walk around our apartment and walked down the street until we saw something we wanted to try. We ended up having dinner at this thai restaurant called Kindee. We ordered fried rice with chicken and fried rice with salmon.
6:30pm Walked a little further and got some ice cream at gelato 44 Celsius. This place was SO CUTE! We took a ton of pictures because why not....
8:00pm Unpacked (finally) and went to sleeeeeeep. We were still a little jet lagged from the flights.
Tuesday, October 8th:
8:00am - met and walked to The Limb for breakfast. A little walk from apartment, but has coffee, tea, and open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This little shop was so cute. Megan got a tea with milk and Cynthia got her expresso....we were both satisfied :)
9:00am - Met two more pharmacists who presented on anticoagulants and allergy maintenance in the hospital. It was nice to hear about.
10:00am Ploy (a 6th year pharmacy student) presented a patient case to us in English
10:30am visited premium clinic, received pill cutter and pharmacists are close to patients in the clinic. Pharmacy assistants
11:00am - 1:00pm Lunch at the hospital cafeteria (chicken and rice and noodles)
2:00pm - ADR management and visited a patient with an active allergy to a cephalosporin. (cefazolin - had a rash). We worked through the patient case with our preceptors to find the best alternative option for the patient.
4:30pm - We ended up on a short walk to the temple outside of the hospital, and did a mini photo shoot. This ended up being where we took our cover photo :) The shoot made us a little tired and hungry, and we felt like we needed a taste of America. Pizza Hut delivers right to our doorstep at the SJ residence, so this was an easy choice. It was a good thing we ordered two medium pizzas, because the size charts are a little different here haha. Pizza delivered and we ended up watching a good old romantic comedy on Netflix to end the evening on a high note.
8:00pm - again, sleeeeeeep timeeeeeee zzzzzz.....
Wednesday, October 9th
8:00am met up for coffee and tea at our favorite place: Amazon cafe! Ordered a green tea with milk and black coffee and were on our way to the hospital
9:00am we met Jan and Yun (two pharmacists) who presented on cytotoxic medications, IV production and TPN management. We learned a lot from this presentation, as many techniques and pharmacy checks were different from the US. They continued with us and toured us around the compounding centers, showed us aseptic technique
11:45am - 1:00pm lunch with Jan and Yun. They took us to University cafeteria. We tried soup, green curry, and new desserts! The desserts today were sweet corn and coconut milk (aka kati), and pumpkin with coconut milk.
2:00pm - pharmaceutical faculty orientation and tour with our new friend Mew and some of her pharmacy classmates (4th year pharmacy students). They took us to their pharmacy library, study halls, classrooms, and all around the pharmacy student campus. After our tour, she ended up taking us to the fresh market and asked if we had any dinner plans. Mew and Yoke (pharmacy student) took us to dinner that night around 7:00pm, and we tried pad Thai for the first time in Thailand. Afterwards we met a few of their friends at the mall and just walked around.
After the mall, Yoke took us to her favorite dessert place. The entire menu looked delicious, so we got three things of course. Ours ended up being this oreo and chocolate mix. Afterwards, they took us home and we went straight to bed.
Thursday, October 10th:
6:30am: Did our first workout in Thailand! Cynthia brought jump ropes so those came in handy, but being outside we sweat so much here!
8:00am: you know the drill by now…Amazon cafe for coffee/tea and then on our way to rotation at the hospital
9:00am: Arrived in the common room, where we meet every day, and a couple of the faculty members presented on inpatient and outpatient dispensing. After the presentation, we were taken on a tour and actually got to prepare medication from start to finish.
12:00pm: they took us to get lunch and we tried a papaya salad for the first time. It was DELICIOUS, just like everything else we’ve tried so far
1:30 - 4:30pm: we were in the drug information center (DIC). Again, a pharmacist presented on the DIC and we hung out with the pharmacists and pharmacy students the rest of the afternoon. One thing that is different from America is having the drug information center directly in the hospital. Physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and patients can call from their room or come in person to ask any question they have about their medications, interactions, vaccines, and more.
4:30pm onward… we finalized booking for the weekend and solidified our plans for Phuket! We recommend booking things a little bit earlier for holiday weekends. Sleeping was hard because we were so excited for our first adventure weekend!
Overall, the first week was a lot of learning the processes, getting oriented to our apartment, the food, and just the atmosphere of the place. Everyone in Thailand has been so nice and accommodating, and it makes it that much easier to settle in and get a routine. We cannot wait to see what the next couple weeks have in store! :)