{"id":2552,"date":"2020-09-07T08:37:32","date_gmt":"2020-09-07T08:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/?p=2552"},"modified":"2020-09-07T08:37:32","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T08:37:32","slug":"whats-it-like-towork-in-medication-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/2020\/09\/07\/whats-it-like-towork-in-medication-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s it like to\u2026work in medication safety?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DrBy Dr Sara Garfield<\/a>,<\/strong> Research Associate, NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre<\/a>, Institute of Global Health Innovation<\/em><\/p>\n

At IGHI\u2019s NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre, I lead research projects relating to the role that patients and carers can play in making sure medicines are used safely.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I decided to study pharmacy as I have a strong interest in chemistry, biology and health. During my pre-registration training, one of things I very much enjoyed was organising health promotion activities. I was also always interested in talking to patients about medicines and empowering them in their healthcare.<\/p>\n

After a year of working as a pharmacist I wanted to focus more on this part of the role. I carried out a research project for my PhD about how patients find taking antidepressant medication. I wanted to understand more about their experiences and how they made decisions about their medicine. Moving forwards, I have carried out research projects on different health conditions, but always with the patient and their family at the centre.<\/p>\n

The most rewarding aspect of my role is knowing my work can make a difference to people\u2019s lives.\u00a0 \u00a0For example, people have told me that as a result of being involved in a recent project of ours, they now carry information with them about their medicines<\/a>. This could be very helpful to them in emergencies or when moving between different healthcare settings.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, it can sometimes be difficult to know what impact you are having through your work and how much difference you are making on a larger scale. Sometimes bureaucracy can be challenging too.<\/p>\n

I am currently leading a study looking at how people who are shielding are managing with their medicines during the pandemic. Through this work, I am hoping to help everyone prepare for any future spikes of the virus. I also hope this will help us learn how to better support housebound people with their medicines in \u2018normal\u2019 times.<\/p>\n

It is this chance to make a difference that drives me most in my work. I was recently asked what I would like to do if I wasn\u2019t doing my current job. I replied that there is nothing else I would rather be doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr Sara Garfield, Research Associate, NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre, Institute of Global Health Innovation At IGHI\u2019s NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre, I lead research projects relating to the role that patients and carers can play in making sure medicines are used safely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1013,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[273211],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ighi-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2552"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2558,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions\/2558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}