Megan Farraj, Pharmacist
'What I do makes an impact on when a patient goes home from the hospital and the quality of life they have.'
Megan Farraj, Pharm.D.
Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, Critical Care Medicine
Netflix Connoisseur. Knitter.
For most of my career at ChristianaCare, I have been a clinical pharmacy specialist who rounded in the Medical Intensive Care unit as a part of the multidisciplinary team. This gave me the exciting and fulfilling opportunity to have a direct impact on patient outcomes. I am now a member of the Pharmacy Department’s management team; I oversee the Clinical Pharmacy program in the intensive care units and the Emergency Department and get to participate in leading departmental and systemwide initiatives.
‘What can a pharmacist do for us?’
Having been here for almost 25 years now, I have had the pleasure of watching our Clinical Pharmacy program grow from a pilot to having a presence on almost all patient care units. Back in 1997, when we put a clinical pharmacist on a patient care unit for the first time, a lot of caregivers on the team asked, “What can a pharmacist do for us out here?”
We had to prove our value and show what a clinical pharmacist could contribute to the team, such as adjusting medication doses for kidney and liver function, managing drug interactions and making sure the most appropriate antibiotics were used, among so many other things.
Turning the tide on COVID-19 with monoclonal antibodies
Our Clinical Pharmacy program has grown so much. We are continuously being asked to participate in new initiatives, which only solidifies how much our colleagues trust us.
When I look at the monoclonal antibody program, it is probably the best project I’ve been a part of. It was an enormous collaboration with so many different departments who were all 100% on board to make it happen as soon as possible to prevent COVID-19 patients from needing to be admitted to the hospital. The timeframe that we were able to do it—just a few weeks—is still such a remarkable accomplishment to me.
ChristianaCare is an academic institution, and that’s why I think I love it here so much. From the medical residents, pharmacy residents and students of all kinds, there’s always someone in every facet that wants to learn and be better. Learning never stops. We are not only making sure that our patients have the best care possible, but we’re also training the next generation to continue to do this. That is very rewarding to me.
Click here for more ChristianaCare caregiver stories.
