Title 3. WARD ROUND PARTICIPATION.pdf ✅

PHARMD GURU Page 1 INTRODUCTION: A ward round is a visit made by a medical practitioner, alone or with a team of health professionals and medical students, to hospital inpatients at their bedside to review and follow up the progress in their health. Usually at least one ward round is conducted every day to review the progress of each inpatient, though more than one is not uncommon. In certain practice settings such as psychiatry, the “ward round” may be conducted away from the patient’s bedside in a non-traditional fashion, where the team meets elsewhere to review each case. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR CLINICAL PHARMACISTS ON WARD ROUNDS: As an important member of the healthcare team, pharmacists should attend ward rounds and clinical meetings whenever possible. This enables pharmacists to contribute prospectively to patient care through the provision of drug therapy. The goals of a clinical pharmacist’s participation in ward rounds are to:  Gain an improved understanding of patient’s clinical status and progress, current planned investigations and therapeutic goals.  Provide relevant information on various aspects of the patient’s drug therapy such as pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, drug availability, cost, drug interactions and adverse reactions.  Optimize therapeutic management by influencing drug therapy selection, implementation, monitoring and follow-up.  Investigate unusual drug orders or doses.  Assimilate additional information about the patient such as co-morbidities, medication compliance or alternative medicine use that might be relevant to their management.  Detect adverse drug reactions and drug interactions.  Participate in patient discharge planning. The Ward round participation also provides many learning opportunities for pharmacists. It allows pharmacists to see first-hand how drugs are used and prescribed and to see the effects of these drugs on patients. With time, pharmacists WARD ROUND PARTICIPATION