Our People in University Hospital, Limerick
5 Minutes with Bernadette Murphy, Senior Clinical Pharmacist (Neonatology and Informatics)
If you are interested in working as a Pharmacist in UHL, please click here.
How does your day start?
Things begin early on a neonatal ICU and I begin my day with a multidisciplinary Consultant-led ward round in the NICU, the neonatal-HDU and the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU). If I have time before the round I will review my emails, otherwise I will catch up on the email work after the round. I like that the day begins with meeting the team of nurses, doctors and support staff and getting a sense of the medical needs of the babies on the unit that day. I can then plan the rest of my day according to the demands of the unit.
Tell is about the team you work with.
I work with a small bunch of neonatal consultants, neonatal clinical nurse managers, neonatal nurse clinical skills facilitators, and advanced neonatal nurse practitioners, as well as a larger number of neonatal ICU nurses. I work very closely with my pharmacy colleagues, most especially the paediatric pharmacist, medication safety pharmacist, the dispensary pharmacist manager and a number of pharmacy technicians in dispensary and purchasing. I also work closely with the Pharmacy Head of Department, who is my line manager. My work with neonatal parenteral nutrition, which is a priority for many neonates, causes me to work very closely with the neonatal dietitian.
What does your typical working day involve?
- Ward rounds where I review the baby’s medicines with the multidisciplinary team.
- problem solving with any one of the professions on issue of medicines administration, supply or effectiveness.
- collaborating with others in creating useful policies, procedures and guidelines of a clinical nature (medicine use for neonates), medication safety or ones relating to management and medicines governance.
- providing education sessions to NCHDs on particular clinical issues or medication safety learning points.
- replying to medicines information questions from consultants or other professionals.
What motivates you in your work?
Mostly what motivates me is that my work is directly helping the lives of sick babies. My contribution also makes life easier for neonatal consultants, NCHDs and nurses insofar as my professional assistance informs them and reassures them of what is best practise in their dealing with medicines. There is a large element of problem solving in being a hospital pharmacist, and I enjoy this, which motivates me to continue.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
I really enjoy working with other pharmacists and healthcare professionals. I enjoy the real world experience of the challenges that arise in medicine use across all the various patient age groups and diseases, and being part of the team that finds solutions to these challenges.
What advice would you give someone considering joining the Senior Pharmacy team at UHL?
Firstly, don’t be daunted by the fact that you feel that you may not have the experience to be a pharmacist in a complex clinical setting like a hospital, because training is provided. The most wonderful thing about working in hospital pharmacy is that there is always a team available for you to discuss your work with – pharmacists in hospital are constantly collaborating with other professionals.
UHL pharmacy is a dynamic working environment with some of the best pharmacists I have worked with, and there is huge encouragement and scope to learn more, to work in many areas of pharmacy and to conduct research. The University of Limerick is located close by and teaching opportunities come up now and again.