Becoming Familiar with the Pharmacy

This past Wednesday was my first day volunteering at the San Jose Clinic. I entered the pharmacy and met the rest of the staff that was working behind the counter. There was a technician who worked in the front and received the prescriptions that needed to be filled. This technician would then hand the prescriptions to another volunteer from RICE University, who entered the prescriptions into the computer system. The technician also printed the labels for me and the pharmacist, so we could start filling the medications. There was also another volunteer who handled everything that had to do with the Prescription Assistance Program, a program through which the pharmacy receives most of its medications for free. After I learned the work flow of the pharmacy and became familiar with where everything is located, I helped the pharmacist by counting pills and filling them into the bottles. At one point, things became really busy and we had several prescriptions to fill, and I realized how much the pharmacy is in need of help. I also realized that everyone plays an important role in making things run smoothly in the pharmacy, so that patients are able to get their medications in a timely manner.

Orientation

Since Ben Taub was taking a long while to get back to me about volunteering there, I decided to attend orientation at the San Jose Clinic yesterday and will volunteer my services there instead. If I can get something set up with Ben Taub, however, I will try and manage volunteering there as well to gain the extra experience. During orientation at San Jose, we watched an OSHA compliance video for the first hour and then Samantha gave us a tour around the facility. I was so surprised at how nice the clinic was and was even more surprised to learn that the clinic is run on donations from charities and that they do not receive any funds from the government. I also learned that volunteers play an integral role in helping to run the clinic and thus, I realized that our services are really important in helping the clinic carry out its mission of providing care to the underserved. Since I am a pharmacy technician and am currently employed as a pharmacy technician, I will be helping out at the clinic’s pharmacy on Wednesday afternoons, so I am looking forward to doing that next week.  

Expectations

For my service learning project, I am interested in volunteering at one of the Harris County Health Clinics, particularly at Ben Taub. The reason I chose one of the Harris County Health Clinics to volunteer at is because I have firsthand experience knowing what patients that are under the government hospital system have to go through since my family and I are under the Harris County Health District as well. I will be able to better empathize with patients because I know that often times they have to wait a long time before they get appointments to see the doctor, to get treated, and to get test results back. Since I have seen things from the patient perspective, volunteering for Ben Taub will allow me to see things from the hospital staff’s perspective. By offering my services as a volunteer, hopefully I will be able to increase the overall quality of patient care, even if it is indirectly and thus, gain satisfaction.