Hospital work experience: respiratory ward and botox

This is my final blog for the week’s work experience I had in a hospital pharmacy during the summer of 2011. My future blogs will focus on further hospital work experience I have managed to secure for this summer.

I spent some time with a pharmacist doing a ward round on a respiratory ward.  Many patients were suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).  This is often treated with anti-muscarinics like tiotropium, which is long lasting but beta-2 agonists like salmeterol are also used.  Salmeterol is similar to salbutamol, however it is longer acting and slightly less potent.  Many COPD patients have problems with mucus so they are often prescribed carocysteine (Mycodyne) to prevent mucus secretion.  I had the opportunity to council a 34 kg COPD patient about her paracetamol intake as she was being discharged.  Normally two paracetamol tablets are taken up to four times a day, however as the patient weighed under 50 kg I had to explain to her that she should take two tablets up to three times a day.

When I was in the hospital dispensary I was told they dealt with botox prescriptions but not for cosmetic reasons.  Botox is commonly used in the hospital for sweating problems where it is injected into the arm pits.  It can also be used for patients with an overactive bladder as it relaxes the muscle walls.