Conclusion

          I realized that volunteering with our heart is very important. We should not behave like visitors when we signed up to be a volunteer, thinking that we do not get any pay from them so it is not necessary to follow their instruction. It is not honest and decent. We have to leave our ego at the door to be a good volunteer. We must have a positive attitude and try to enjoy ourselves. I applaud the efforts by our lecturers to help to instill in students the importance of community service.

          

Voluntary Work at Mawar Renal Medical Centre (29th November – 13th December 2012)

For the individual volunteering work, I decided to be a volunteer at Mawar Renal Medical Centre (MRMC). MRMC is a division of Pusat Hemodialisis Mawar. It is a non-profit specialist medical centre that was established in 2008. The aims of this hospital are to provide hope to the less fortunate, relieve the suffering of kidney patients and subsidise those poor and needy patients. I decided to work there as a volunteer because I wish to contribute what I have learned in class to the community. The objective that I attached to this hopistal as a volunteer is to inculcate the value of sharing and caring in myself.  It is always nice to help people who are less fortunate.

Before started working there, I went for interview and signed an agreement that I will be working there as a volunteer for 11 days. They arranged me to work at the Pharmacy Department as it is something related to the course that I am studying and hope that I am able to help them. I started working at the hospital on 29^th of November. My working period is from 9 am to 1pm on weekdays. Madam Mani, the manager of the Pharmacy Department explained to me about the history of the centre and how the pharmacy department operates. She told me to observe and learn how the assistant pharmcaists pack medication on the first day. She gave me a file that talks about the procedures for dispensing medications, checking stock, returning of medications from patients and others. There are two sections in this department. One of the sections is in charge of the out patients who come and buy medicine without staying in the hospital whereas another section is in charge of the in patients who are staying in the hospital. Most of the patients who cannot afford the medication fees are assisted by Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia (KKM). I offered to help in both sections. Every morning, I take out twelve boxes of Recormon syringe and twelve boxes of Eprex syringe from the freezer in the store and put it inside the small refrigerator at the dispensary counter. I helped Uncle Chin, who is in charge of dispensing medication to distribute syringe to all the dialysis patients. The dialysis patients come at different time to get their syringe everyday. The injection is administered to renal disease patients on dialysis to treat anaemia. Besides that, there were a lot of patients especially in the morning. Thus, I also helped to pack the medication. The patients come to the pharmacy counter with the prescription from their doctor. After receiving prescription from the patients, the assistant pharmacist will key in the medicine and the dosage into the computer. Then, they will print out the label and another staff will pack the medication according to the labels. So, this is the procedure in packing medication. It is quite easy but I need to be extra careful to avoid any mistake when packing the medicine because some of the drugs have similar name. Moreover, the same drug could have different dosage and concentration. The labels also must be paste on the medicine plastic bags correctly. The medicine are arranged according to different category such as antihistamine, vitamin and mineral, neuromuscular agent, antigout, anticonvulsant, endocrine system, antiemetics and others. They are not arranged according to alphabets because they want to prevent medication error. After packing the medication, I will pass it to any of the assistant pharmacist to check so that the medicines are correct. If there were no mistakes, the medication together with the prescription will be passed to Uncle Chin. Sometimes, I have the chance to prepare syrups, ointment and cream for the patients. I can apply what I have learned in class to prepare those medications. I like to make all these medications but I seldom have the chance because most of the time, the assistant pharmacist will be doing the preparation work, so it depends on my luck. Other than that, I also need to check the expiry date of the medication and record it in a record book. Some of the wards or other Mawar hospital branches and Accident and Emergency (A&E) department will exchange some of the medication that are going to expire soon with our pharmacy department. So, I was helping to pack new medication to exchange with them as well. There will be new stock coming once a week. I helped them to unpack the ice boxes which contain syringes and ice packs. After that, the syringes will be arranged into the freezer in the store whereas the ice packs will be put into freezer of another three refrigerators. Besides syringes, I also helped them to unpack other medications and those medications will be stored on top of the racks. This is because their pharmacy store is very small and Madam Mani told me that they have a plan to build a bigger pharmacy in the hospital. 

                 

I was packing the medication according to the prescription and sticking the labels on the syrup box.

   

The pictures shown are the new arriving medication and

I was helping the clerk to arrange them into the store.

Recormon syringe that I took out from the freezer to give to the patient.

The medication that I helped them to pack into plastic bags.

I arranged the plastic bags on the rack.

Place for the assistant pharmacists to prepare external medication such as cream and ointment.

 

Places for the assistant pharmacists to prepare internal medication like syrup.

I visited some of the patients in different wards during my lunch break.

Sometimes, I helped them to buy some foods and drinks while they are having dialysis treatment.

Throughout this community service, I have gained a lot of experience and learned something outside of my own life. I feel very happy because I can help those less fortunate people. Besides gaining volunteering experience, I also learned some valuable life skills such as cooperate with other people and also communication.