Real-Life Communication
To ensure the drugs they dispense achieve the desired result, nuclear
pharmacists must be able to communicate clearly and effectively with other
medical specialists.
"Often, I am explaining radiopharmaceutical action,
interactions with drugs, availability of product, imaging procedures, trying
to organize a specialized procedure, etc.," says Ingrid Koslowsky, a nuclear
pharmacist.
Nuclear pharmacists also have to follow strict protocol
when filling out requests for radioactive materials, sending and receiving
shipments, keeping records of their work, labeling radiopharmaceuticals and
providing instructions for the drugs' use. If they fail to comply, they --
and their organization -- could be barred from handling radioactive materials.
You
work as a nuclear pharmacist at a large hospital. Your jurisdiction requires
nuclear pharmacists to sit on a radiation safety committee, which sets internal
policies and procedures regarding the use of radioactive materials and reviews
them to see how well they conform to regulations.
You chair the hospital's
radiation safety committee. The nuclear pharmacist technician, the nuclear
medicine technologist, the radiologist, housekeeping staff and several physicians
who specialize in treating cancer also sit on the committee.
Since the
last time you met, the nuclear medicine technologist has come to you complaining
of problems with imaging leading to wrong diagnoses. The same physician is
involved in all three cases she cites.
You suspect his patients were
taking other substances that interacted with the radiopharmaceuticals. Besides
affecting the quality of the images, the interactions could also have placed
the patients at greater risk for exposure to radiation.
Somehow, the
physician failed to obtain the proper information from his patients, or to
take the possibility of interactions into account.
The radiation safety
committee is due to meet soon, and you have to write the agenda for the next
meeting. What items do you want to bring up and in which order?