Internship at Ramathibodi Hospital

Internship at Rama Hospital is one of the interesting topics to do for me as a

senior. This capstone is a good opportunity for me because it can change my thought

about being a doctor. I’ve known myself since I was a little kid that when I grow up I

wanted to be a doctor but I’ve never get a chance to see what is it like to be a doctor.

Since the school offer this golden opportunity I won’t be hesitate to do it. In this

project I have to go to Rama Hospital and do a little bit of some research, daily note

and observe doctor’s life or a patients. There will be my note about my daily routine

at Rama hospital, what i did, what’ve done and what i’ve seen while I was there.

Rama hospital is the University hospital under the faculty of medicine Mahidol

University. Rama hospital has staffs about 1,367 people. It has 20 buildings and open

for the first time on 3 may 2512. There are 3 main building which are the Main

building, Queen Sirikit building and Somedech Phra Debaratana medical centre. The

hospital is located on Rama 6 Road, close to Chitralada Royal Villa. There are 2 main

health servicing buildings Building 1, Queen Sirikit Building, and Somdet Phra

Debaratana. Building on the medical school campus which serve at least 5,000 out-

patient visits per day and in-patients with more than 1,000 beds for tertiary medical

care. It is served by Ramathibodi Hospital Railway Halt, operated by the State

Railway of Thailand.
 I was assigned to go to the pharmacy part where the pharmacists are taking

care of the medicines for the patients and also I’ve got a chance to go with the

pharmacist to the heart attack clinic, HIV clinic or Aid and seizure to observe them,

how pharmacist worked with the patient, how they gave the suggestions to the

patients on what they have to do what time they have to take the medicine.

Day 1

The beginning of my journey as one of the volunteers, to day I have to be at

Rama Hospital before 7.45 a.m. The staffs at Rama Hospital tell us everything about

the hospital, what’s going on, and what i have to do for the next 7 days. Start with one

of the biggest change at the hospital, they will renovate the building and also build

one more building which is gonna be the biggest building that can provide the patient

more than 20 thousand people a day. Later on that day we have a tour around the

hospital, I went to the 3 main buildings which are The Main building, Queen Sirikit

building and Somedech Phra Debaratana medical centre. I saw how the system in the

hospital works and how different parts of the hospital operate each others.

After having lunch we group up in 4 and I was assign to work at the pharmacy

for the morning from the second day until the last day of internship. We continued

touring and went to the Heart attack section, ICU, CCU, Cancer ward, etc. to observe

how the staffs member handle the patients.

For today we have to be at the hospital earlier at 7.30 a.m. instead of 7.45 a.a.

and I’ve learn that one of the most important things that every Doctors should have is

“being on time”. Being on time is not easy for any people but you only have 4

minutes to safe the patients according to one of the staffs. Imagine that if you have 4

minutes to safe someone and you come to them late by 3 minutes that person might

die because of you, so being on time is something that everyone has to keep in mind

if they want to be a doctor. Today I have to go to the Queen Sirikit building with my

group partners, me and my partner were assign to go to the third floor pharmacy

where they are taking care of the people who don’t have insurance unlike my other 2

friends, they are working at the first floor for people who has insurance.

Our main job in the Pharmacy was to help the pharmacists pack the medicine

for the patients, unpack the package of the medicine and separate types of medicine.

For example some of the medicines might have to go in the refrigerator because of

the temperature or the medicine for baby, adult or the mothers who are pregnant. We

also learn the queue system, there are two types of number and one special request.

First started with 3000 or more and 500 or more. For the 3000+ if the patient got the

number that starts with 3000 it means that they have the medicine more than 5

medicines and if they got 500 it means that they don’t have that many, this way it will

be easier for the pharmacists to pack the medicine and faster for the patient. For the

special request there will be the red basket, the red basket is the emergency order, the
medicine that place in the red basket would be sent to ward or to patient bed or while

they are on their way to ward.

These are just basic knowledge about pharmacists, they don’t only pack the

medicine but they also making a medicine for the people who need the specific kind

of medicine, send the medicine to another part of the hospital and Also some of the

pharmacists have to work with the chemical to make the medicine.

Day 3

For this day, it’s the same day as second day I did the same thing but different

was more detail about separate the medicine such as the separate by name and use of

medicine. There are 3 steps of packing, first one is get the order from the patient,

second step is packing the medicine and the last step is checking the medicine again

before giving them out to the patients. This part is the most important part because

there might be some case that they forgot to pack some medicine or not right amount

also this part the pharmacist has to tell the patient the uses of medicine and what time

they have to take the medicine. What I realise about this section is that sometimes

during the day there are a lot of people and some of them might get confuse by the

queue system because they have to pay first before getting the medicine.
 After lunch we went to the quit Smoking Clinic. For this clinic they are taking

of the patient who want to quit smoking by helping them learn and know why they’re

addicted to cigarettes. Nurses will give all the patient about the negative information

of cigarettes, how it effects your life and people surrounding them. There are 2 types

of smoking addicted, first is addicted to nicotine. The patient for this case will take

medicine to help them stop smoking. The second type is routine, doctor will tell them

what to do to quit smoking by tell them to reduce the amount of cigarettes day by

day.

I also went to the heart failure clinic with the pharmacists and they give me a

lot of basic information about heart failure how bad is it and how to handle it. For the

pharmacist in this part they are taking care the patient by telling the uses of medicine

and what time to eat what medicine. They also ask about the symptom is it getting

better, is this medicine work on you. They also have a technology that safe people

who have a heart attack life’s by putting the electric shock next to there heart in case

when their heart was immediately stop working. This will help their heart to beat

again without waiting to get to the hospital.

Day 4

Today instead of packing the medicine with the pharmacists I was assign to

take care of the patient who lost and confused about what to do next after they got the

order of medicines from the doctor. So basically what i did is ask people if they

understand the process of payment and get the medicines.

electrical activity in the brain. It usually affects how a person appears or acts for a

short time and many different things can occur during a seizure. Whatever the brain

and body can do normally can also occur during a seizure. Pharmacist will ask the

patients about the medicines because some of the medicines might effect their brain if

they take too much pills and it might not be good on the patients if they did not eat

the right amount. Not only the medicines that can help the patient but there is also

the surgery that cut the brain part that is not function right. Beside surgery the

hospital also provides the technology that check the action of the patient when the

action of seizure will occur by check the heart rate and this will help the patient stop

the reaction of seizure in time.

Day 5

Today is my last day at the pharmacy, this morning is the same morning as

every morning when I was here. Packing medicine, checking medicine, checking

people around, and helping the pharmacist but today is a bit more special than other

days because we have a new year party I got to eat a free food, walking around

talking to the patient. 5th is the best day from every single day because everyone

seems to be happier than others day and when the staffs happy it also makes the

patient happy. The environment and the surrounding are full with joy, hospital is not

that gray colour anymore.

For today afternoon, we went to HIV clinic, HIV is a virus that attacks the

immune system, which is our body’s natural defence against illness. The virus
destroys a type of white blood cell in the immune system. We got to talk with some

of the patient and learn that taking medicine on time is actually the most important

part because if you did not take pills the same time every day you will be allergic to

that kind of medicine. For example if you take the type1 medicine and in type1

medicine, it might be 10 medicines in this type and you did not eat this medicine on

time you’’ll be allergy for that 10 medicines in type 1. I’ve learn that people with HIV

or Aid can live normal life with people. They just have to take care of them self more

only that.

Day 6

Today instead of going to the phamacy at the Queen Sirikit building, we stay at

the main building and watch how the staffs carry the patient in the building. Where to

go for emergency patient and where to go for not emergency. We observe the beds,

the schedule, how they communicate with every part of the hospital and oxygen gas

station. Beside that we get to go with one of the staff to see how they carry patient

around in the hospital.

For afternoon activity we got a free time to do our research and the slide to

show our opinion and our thought about this internship for 1 week.

Day 7

Today is the last day for me and my friends to do the intern at the Ramathibodi

hospital and we don’t have to come to the hospital as early as other day. For today
activity what we have to do is give them the final opinion about the system is that

good is something not good, the difficulty while working and more.

Finally here is my thought about the whole week at Ramathibodi hospital, this

is a big deal for many people who wanted to study doctor in the future. The

opportunity won’t come to you that many times so do it now, this will help you a lot

with your decision in your life. Do you really have a passion about being a doctor, do

you love taking other, do you want to spending your time for the society. If you don’t

know any of that this Internship can help you. I’m so honour to be a part of this

internship. Thanks to all the teachers and staffs for making this internship happen and

help us the student who interested in study in Faculty of medicine to think about our

life in the future and all the knowledge from this internship will definitely be helpful

for me in the future.