School of Health and Biomedical Sciences
Discipline of Pharmacy
RMIT Classification: Trusted
PHAR1010: Participation and reflection on interprofessional activity (10%)
This assessment task requires you to solve medicines information enquiries from a nurse in an
interprofessional setting. The assessment task requires problem-solving, the application of
therapeutic knowledge and use of relevant resources/literature to underpin your written response
to the nurse. The task also requires you to write a reflection on the experience including your
preparedness for the activity, how the problem-solving was undertaken and any adaptions to
communication that were made to convey the solution to another healthcare professional. Please
see Appendix for further information about completing the reflection.
Please complete both cases and then write one reflection (see Appendix). The recommended
resources to be used for this assessment include: SHPA Don’t Rush To Crush, AMH, eTG. Word limit
for each case is 300 words and the reflection, 400 words (total 1000 words). Submit your completed
assignment through Turnitin and Canvas. This assignment is due on Friday 6 May 2359.
Case 1
Mr Tom Schaeffer is a 60 year old male, with a lifelong history of smoking. He presented 1 week ago
with a large squamous cell carcinoma of the lower lip. He underwent surgery the next day including
wide, local excision and complex lip reconstruction. Five days later, he was noted to be meeting only
half of his nutritional requirements as calculated by the dietician and was prescribed enteral feeding
via nasogastric tube.
Mr Schaeffer’s medical conditions include gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, depression,
hypertension and whilst he has weaned almost completely off opioids, he is still experiencing mild
post-operative pain at night. He has normal renal function. His medications include:
Nexium® (esomeprazole) 20 mg tablets – 1 tablet mane
Pristiq® (desvenlafaxine) 50 mg capsules – 1 capsule mane
Exforge 5/80® (amlodipine 5 mg/valsartan 80 mg) tablets – 1 tablet mane
Oxynorm® (oxycodone) 5 mg capsules – 1 capsule tds prn (he has weaned off post-op opioids such
that he now only requires one capsule before bed)
The nursing staff contact you for advice on how to administer Mr Schaeffer’s medicines via enteral
feeding tube. Provide comprehensive administration instructions for each medication, making
reference to tube size/type and include any warnings you consider important to convey to the
nursing staff about crushing of medicines as appropriate, e.g. teratogenic potential. If it is necessary
to change the medication, describe the suggestions you would make to the doctor, including drug
name, dose and frequency and include instructions on how the new medication would be
administered via enteral feeding tube.
School of Health and Biomedical Sciences
Discipline of Pharmacy
RMIT Classification: Trusted
Case 2
Mrs Lydia Baker is a 77 year old female. She was admitted to the ward yesterday following a recent
fall and loss of consciousness at the residential aged care facility in which she resides. Her medical
conditions include atrial fibrillation, hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia. She has normal renal
function. Her medications include:
Tarka 4/240® (trandolapril 4 mg/verapamil 240 mg) tablets – 1 tablet daily
Lanoxin PG® (digoxin) 62.5 mcg tablets – 1 tablet mane
Pradaxa® (dabigatran) 110 mg capsules – 1 capsule bd
Lescol XL® (fluvastatin) 80 mg tablets – 1 tablet daily
Recently, Mrs Baker has experienced dysphagia and is not able to swallow her medications. She
cannot swallow thin fluids including water, but has managed with swallowing of more viscous foods
such as yoghurt and apple puree as well as solid food.
The nursing staff contact you for advice on how to administer Mrs Baker’s medications in light of her
dysphagia. Provide comprehensive administration instructions for each medication and include any
warnings you consider important to convey to the nursing staff about crushing of medicines as
appropriate, e.g. teratogenic potential. If it is necessary to change the medication, describe the
suggestions you would make to the doctor, including drug name, dose and frequency and include
instructions on how the new medication would be administered.
School of Health and Biomedical Sciences
Discipline of Pharmacy
RMIT Classification: Trusted
Reflective account
Students are required to complete ONE reflection on the dosage form modification activity.
A critical step in learning is the reflective process. The journey to becoming a pharmacist not only
involves passing exams, but also working collaboratively with other health professionals. Writing a
reflection requires a deep and thoughtful approach to demonstrate what you have learnt through this
workshop, and how it may influence your future practice.
A reflection is not simply a logbook outlining your workshop activities. Whilst it requires some
description of an event or activity, it goes beyond narrative accounts and requires you to express your
thoughts, interpretation and understanding of experiences and concepts that have arisen.
Importantly, it facilitates your identification of future goals, learning needs and action plan for your
professional development.
Refer to the Gibbs Reflective Cycle below to guide you in writing your reflective piece.
You must answer all questions in the Gibbs Reflective cycle table, where applicable.
You may use the following tables for ‘brainstorming’ and submit a typed reflection, including all areas,
up to 400 words, or you can answer the questions and fill in the boxes (400 words total).
School of Health and Biomedical Sciences
Discipline of Pharmacy
RMIT Classification: Trusted
Description
A description of the call or incident, with relevant details.
Remember to maintain patient confidentiality. Don’t make
judgements yet or try to draw conclusions; simply describe the
events and the key players. Set the scene! It might be useful to
ask yourself the following questions
• What happened?
• When did it happen?
• Where were you?
• Who was involved?
• What were you doing?
• What role did you play?
• What roles did others play?
• What was the result?
Analysis
• What can you apply to this situation from your
previous knowledge, studies or research?
• What recent evidence is in the literature
surrounding this situation, if any?
• Which theories or bodies of knowledge are
relevant to the situation – and in what ways?
• What broader issues arise from this event?
• What sense can you make of the situation?
• What was really going on?
• Were other people’s experiences similar or
different in important ways?
• What is the impact of different perspectives eg.
personal / patients / colleagues’ perspectives?
Feelings
Don’t move on to analysing these yet, simply describe them.
• How were you feeling at the beginning?
• What were you thinking at the time?
• How did the event make you feel?
• What did the words or actions of others make you
think?
• How did this make you feel?
• How did you feel about the final outcome?
• What is the most important emotion or feeling
you have about the incident?
• Why is this most important feeling?
Conclusion
• How could you have made the situation better?
• How could others have made the situation better?
• What could you have done differently?
• What have you learned from this event?
Evaluation
• What was good about the event?
• What was bad?
• What was easy?
• What was difficult?
• What went well?
• What did you do well?
• What did others do well?
• Did you expect a different outcome? If so, why?
• What went wrong, or not as expected? Why?
• How did you contribute?
Action Plan
• What do you think overall about this situation?
• What conclusions can you draw? How do you
justify these?
• With hindsight, would you do something
differently next time and why?
• How can you use the lessons learned from this
event in future?
• Can you apply these learnings to other events?
• What has this taught you about professional
practice? About yourself?
• How will you use this experience to further
improve your practice in the future?
School of Health and Biomedical Sciences
Discipline of Pharmacy
RMIT Classification: Trusted
Description (1) Analysis(4)
Feelings (2) Conclusion (5)
Evaluation (3) Action Plan (6)
Reflection