In May last year, I was selected for a student exchange programme under the International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation (IPSF). The programme I participated was a hospital attachment whereby I was placed in Tainan Municipal Hospital (TMH) for a five weeks’ duration, from 6/7/2015 to 7/8/2015. Several authorities involved were IPSF Student Exchange Officers (SEO), Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science as Local Exchange Officers (LEO), and Tainan Municipal Hospital as my training ground.
Tainan Municipal Hospital (TMH) is a government-built hospital, however, is run and managed by private institution. It is categorised as a medium sized hospital as it receives 19,356 inpatients and handles nearly 738,028 outpatient visits annually. Overall, it has 140 members in medical department, including 20 pharmacists.
During the course of my attachment, I was rotated among seven departments; there were the outpatient (8 days), inpatient (2 days), clinical (7 days), total parenteral nutrition (1 day), cytotoxic drug reconstitution (1 day), Chinese Traditional Medicine (5 days), and patient counselling (1 day) departments. In every department, I was taught and guided for the proper role of a pharmacist and the professionalism that comes with it.
Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science was my host in which they had provided me cost-free accommodation. Every week, there were five members from the university who will bring me for travelling and visitations around the area.
In conclusion, I felt glad and it is my pleasure to be selected as participant for this student exchange programme. It had brought me the experiences that could not be learnt in the lectures and definitely widened my horizons for a lifetime. If given another chance, I would gladly join this meaningful programme again.
By: Koh Jie Hao