CDHB Intern Pharmacist No 1 in NZ

New Zealand’s top-performing pharmacy intern for 2009 is Kate Taylor, who recently completed her internship training programme, known as EVOLVE, at Christchurch Hospital’s Pharmacy Department.

Kate’s result is one to be proud of being first out of the country’s 200 pharmacy interns, who graduated from the nation’s two schools of pharmacy at the beginning of 2009. 

Kate is continuing to work in the pharmacy at Christchurch Hospital taking up a full-time position as a clinical pharmacist.  “I am looking forward to developing my clinical role as a pharmacist,” Kate said. “As the traditional role of the pharmacist continues to change, there is a huge opportunity for young pharmacists like me to help further evolve our profession’s input within a hospital setting”. 

“While the pharmacy department as a whole is legally responsible for supplying medications to the hospital’s inpatient population, pharmacists are increasingly working with individual patients and the multidisciplinary team to improve the health outcomes of a patient in a safe and timely manner,” said Medication Safety Pharmacist, Mary Young, who was also Kate’s preceptor for her internship.

Pharmacists within Canterbury District Health Board’s (CDHB’s) many hospital pharmacies can be found providing information and recommendations on medicines in a number of different clinical situations such as consultants’ grand rounds and daily ward rounds, within outpatient clinics and admission clinics, as well as at the patient’s bedside.

Training to become a pharmacist involves a four-year BPharm degree course at a school of pharmacy (Otago University or Auckland University) followed by a minimum of 40 weeks internship at a recognised institution to complete the “Evolve” programme, run by the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand.

Kate also received a distinction for her BPharm degree, which she completed at Otago University, and has just registered with the national governing Pharmaceutical Council to enable her to take up her new full-time post with the CDHB.

ENDS