Thanks to the BPSA Area Conference I got the amazing opportunity to visit the very renowned Cadham Pharmacy. There I got to meet the team including the very lovely Bernadette Brown. During my time in the Cadham Pharmacy I saw many impressive things which I never had imagined; the most impressive being the 24h collection robot which would send out texts to patients whenever their prescriptions were ready to collect. I thought that this foreshadowed the future of Pharmacy and felt blessed to have seen and operated it.

Bernadette was very grateful and had kindly allowed me to watch her consultations with the patients. In the first consultation the patient had UTI and I got shown how to carry out the Urinalysis-Reagent strip procedure. The patient was prescribed with 200mg Trimethoprim which followed the NHS Fife Patient Group Direction guidelines. In the second consultation a 65yr old man had come in with a cut in his right ear. The cut was so deep that a piece of his skin was hanging from his ear. The pharmacist then wiped the wounded site with antiseptic to avoid infection and advised the patient to apply salt water as salt would act as a natural healer. She also said that he would need to go the hospital immediately. The third and my last consultation experienced was with a 5yr old girl whose parents were saying that she was coughing a lot during the night. The Pharmacist then checked her chest and back with a stethoscope however everything seemed to be fine. She then proposed that the child may have asthma and gave them a children’s cough bottle and advised to get an appointment with the GP for diagnosis.

After the consultations I got to see Cobas HbA1c Test machine which would tell us how likely a person is to develop diabetes in the near future and also give readings of their current blood levels. I spent the rest of my day in the dispensing section and helped with making up prescriptions. Honestly, I can't thank the BPSA and Bernadette enough for all that they have done for me. I've had such a great experience at Cadham Pharmacy and I feel that I've gained a lot that will be really beneficial for me during my course and future career.