Tidelands Health—Waccamaw Oncology (Georgetown, SC)
Oncology pharmacy has always been my goal for life after pharmacy school, so when I found out that we had an elective rotation for oncology, I couldn’t wait to go. In school, we learn the basics: how to properly compound hazardous drugs, the major treatment regimens, and side effects. At this rotation, you get to experience it first hand.
Tidelands Health is a major hospital system located in the Grand Strand area of South Carolina, from Myrtle Beach to Georgetown. They have several satellite clinics around the area, including three oncology/infusion centers located in Georgetown, Murrells Inlet, and Myrtle Beach. During my rotation, I spent time at both the Georgetown and Myrtle Beach locations.
When I arrived at Waccamaw, I was surprised at how comforting the environment was for the patients. In my experiences, hospitals and their facilities can be cold and uninviting spaces, but in Georgetown, the infusion room was warm and inviting, making the hours-long infusions a bit more comfortable. The entire staff was very welcoming and eager to have a student there.
Currently the Georgetown site is undergoing renovations to align their sterile compounding areas with USP 800 standards, which meant no compounding was happening there. Instead, they would send a tech to the hospital pharmacy where she would compound the chemo and other infusion drugs to be delivered back to the clinic for administration. During my first week, I spent a lot of time with the nurses and patients, seeing how drugs were administered, and counseled patients on the side effects of many of their medications. This week was really an eye opener for me, because, as pharmacists, we rarely see what happens with the drugs during administration. My favorite part about the rotation was celebrating with patients once they completed their chemotherapy regimen. Ringing bells and blowing bubbles and taking pictures really lifted everyone’s spirits in the room!
During the second week, there was a refrigeration failure in the storage room, so I was tasked with calling all of the drug manufacturers to find out what drugs were safe to use and which ones needed to be destroyed. I was able to work with some pharmacy administrators from the hospital to compile a list of all of the drugs on formulary, and the parameters in which they were safe in the event of a future temperature excursion, as well as track the costs and replacement fees of the drugs that were no longer safe to use. This was an interesting week, because I was introduced to another, more administrative, side of pharmacy.
My third and fourth weeks were spent at the Myrtle Beach clinic so I could get hands-on experience compounding the chemotherapy. I spent every day of those two weeks in the hood, working with the tech to make the chemo. This was a great experience, since we only get to really practice compounding hazardous drugs once in lab. The pharmacy staff there was very knowledgeable. I helped verify compounds under supervision of the pharmacist and was asked my input on a puzzling case in which the chemo pump wasn’t working correctly on a patient. I learned a lot during this time about what size bags various drugs go in, which type of bags can be used, and got to see how the health system was preparing for USP 800.
Unfortunately, my rotation got cut short by Hurricane Dorian’s arrival just off the coast of Myrtle Beach. I rented a wonderful AirBnB in Murrells Inlet that was inside the evacuation zone ordered by Governor. I completed the last two weeks of my rotation remotely from the school.
The Grand Strand area is a beautiful area with plenty to do in the afternoons and weekends, and is just a short drive to Charleston. Murrells Inlet is considered the seafood capitol of South Carolina and you won’t be disappointed. In addition to miles of beaches, the inlet marsh is a beautiful area. I visited Huntington Beach State Park on a daily basis and had up-close views of shore birds, alligators, and sea turtles; as well as beautiful beach sunsets every night.
Overall, I would highly recommend this rotation if you are interested in oncology. Mrs. Sarah Justice is a wonderful preceptor. She will work with to make sure you learn and experience as much as you want. I was able to gain a lot of experience that further cemented my plans to become an oncology pharmacist.
