Khartoum, Sudan

Ms Isra Abu Median, Pharmacist

Area of work: Cancer Hospital Pharmacist, Radiation and Isotopes Center Khartoum

Describe your daily work routine

I start work at 0830 along with my colleagues in the pharmacy department of the hospital.  I work with twelve other pharmacists and two assistants.  Our hospital only stocks medicines needed by cancer patients.  We receive the prescriptions and check the dose and consultant signature alongside the haematological laboratory results of the patient to make sure that the patient is able to tolerate the chemotherapy.  The chemotherapy is then reconstituted by the nurse without any gowns or safety masks.  The pharmacists counsel the patients about their medicines and how to take them.  Quite often we receive enquiries from doctors, especially about new drugs.  Every two weeks we make educational presentations in the pharmacy and sometimes we invite other pharmacists and doctors to attend.  Our department is also responsible for checking the stock and keeping a record of the usage and predicting the needs for the future.
 
What are the greatest difficulties you encounter in your work environment?

The greatest difficulties in our work environment are that there is no equipment to protect the health workers from the risks of the everday handling of chemotherapy.  We have no reconstitution sterile unit, safety equipment or tools or spill kits, nor is there any safety assurance. 

What is the greatest motivation in your profession?

The greatest motivation in my profession is to help seriously ill patients and provide good health care services.

If you could have one wish granted, what would that be?

I wish that we would have a reconstitution unit in our pharmacy be established so that we could do our jobs safely, appropriately, and effectively.