Beauty in Crisis: the dance of the Pediatric Pharmacist

G is a beloved Pediatric Pharmacist in our hospital. She is thorough yet collegial, encyclopedic yet approachable.

Tonight during a crisis I realized yet again why she is invaluable. I am in the last weeks of my first Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) rotation. Tonight, like other nights, a very sick patient became critically ill. She needed infusions and doses of medications out of the normal ranges and she needed them fast.

I power-walked to the pharmacy to pick up some meds and I got to watch G in action. Together we researched doses and administration. And then I got to sit back and watch the master at her work. She floated. She glided. All the while silently mouthing things to herself like a dancer reviewing her choreography. She taught me her choreography, explaining why she was drawing up the medication in this way, why she was adding it to a carrier fluid in that way. The entire time I was enraptured. It made the physically and emotionally draining night more manageable and allowed me to step back and see the beauty in this crisis. I saw how the members of the team, including me, worked together to bring a patient on the brink of death back to life.