Pharmacy Administration

Brittany

Experience Information

Employer: Saint Mary's Hospital
Job Title: Pharmacy admininstration Intern
Major: Health Professions
Received Credit?: Yes
Paid?: No

Description of the Organization

Saint Mary's is a catholic based, non-profit hospital ran through the Trinity Health organization. It is located in downtown Grand Rapids area.

Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed

During my internship I did administration work as far as going to business meetings over budgeting for all outpatient and inpatient pharmacies, assisting with medication sorting in the pharmacy lab, and also conducting a study on the medication passing cycle in different departments. I would observe nurses while they did their medication passing in the morning with all of their morning medications. This study is going to be done throughout the entire trinity health organization and I began the study. They are going to record all of the data and see which model of medication storing is the best.

Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience

I gained a lot of knowledge on the budgeting process for hospital pharmacies. I learned new skills as far as conducting my own study with nursing observations, the different set up, and the different way medications can be provided/given. I improved my skills in Microsoft word, Microsoft excel, and also Microsoft access databases. I also gained better time management skills.

Favorite Part of the Experience

My favorite part was being able to conduct a study that no one had quite done before. I was able to pin point the pros and cons of it, give feedback on what could be changed and improvements. I also liked being able to network with the administration side of the pharmacy along with the laboratory staff in the pharmacy.

How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals

This experience has influenced my future career goals by better preparing me for a more professional work setting within a hospital, leading me in the direction of figuring out whether I would like to work in the administration part of the hospital or the clinical part of the hospital. It has also influenced me by the networking that was done and if I did decide that I would like a job within the Grand Rapids area, Saint Mary's is an organization that I would love to work for.

All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of GVSU.