Becoming A Pharmacist Tips

Because there are so many different aspects of pharmacy and different environments I’ll give you a snap-shot of what my most recent day was like.

I work 4, ten-hour shifts Monday through Thursday.  This is a shift I was able to negotiate.  Another good point about pharmacy.

Yesterday, I showed up at work about 7 minutes early only to find out that one of the 4 technicians that was going to be in that day was sick.

Then, as soon as I opened our gate patients started dropping off prescriptions.  Fifteen minutes into filling prescriptions the fire alarm for the building went off and we were all evacuated.  This turned out to be a test.

Came back into the pharmacy and had patients asking why their prescriptions weren’t done yet.

Apparently, they aren’t able to grasp the fact that I can’t fill prescriptions telepathically from the parking lot while we are ALL standing there waiting for the alarm to go off.

Working with the public over a long period of time will convince you to never underestimate people’s stupidity.

To some, that’s sounds harsh.  If you are one of them go spend some time working with the public.  Not days or months.  But years, even decades.  Then we’ll come back and have this discussion.

That doesn’t mean everyone is that way.  But, surprisingly, you’ll find a lot who are.  Again, other books will paint the rosy picture that working with the public give you that warm fuzzy feeling because you’re helping people.

That does happen.  But it’s rare.  The people who tell you different are either lying or don’t work with the public – like the academic books I was referring to earlier.

Ten minutes later another technician calls in and tells me one of the other techs will be sick also.  Why that tech didn’t call me, I won’t know until next week.  So, now we’re down from a staff of five to a staff of three.

One of my technicians is a trooper and juggles her schedule and arranges to stay an hour later that day.

After a rough first hour things start to settle out and run more smoothly.  I skip lunch today because I’m by myself.  I’ll use that as comp time later.

In the afternoon we get pretty busy.  We did the bulk of our prescriptions in the afternoon which makes for a bit of a long day.

Around 5:30pm things start to slow down and by 6:30pm I’m bringing the gate down to close the pharmacy.  I’ll spend some time running some end of the day reports and so forth.  My shift runs until 7:00 PM but I’m able to leave by 6:45PM.

Now, as you can see, the worst part of my day was 2 technicians calling in sick.  Like any business with employees, it’s not always easy to find people you can count on.  Pharmacy is no different.

But, on the other hand, when you have good techs it makes your job so much easier.  I can’t stress that enough:

Good techs make a good job better.  Bad techs make a good job unbearable.

Other Environments

Like I said, this is a snap shot.  Some days are better, some days worse.

Some environments require totally different skills.  In a hospital setting you may be required to mix chemotherapy bags and then respond to a code blue ten minutes later.

In home infusion you may be preparing i.v.’s and then running to a patients home to set up their systems.

Compounding will require you to learn the ‘old school’ method of making medications – by hand.  Instead of prepackaged pills you’ll use bulk ingredients to tailor-make medications per a physicians order.

Some environments are slower paced.  Others are hectic.

What kind of person are you?  Where do you thrive?  I’ll help you figure that out through the book.  But, ultimately, the decision is yours.

Broken Record

I don’t want to start sounding like a broken record.  But, this variety in each pharmacy job is precisely why you should expose yourself to as many of those environments as you possibly can.

High School Programs

In our community the local high schools get together for a career day class that exposes students to a variety of health care occupations.

That’s a good start.  But, take it one step further.  If you think a certain field is interesting request to spend the day there.  You’ll never get a fair picture of what required in just an hour or two.

In all fairness, a day may not do it either.  But it’s better than a couple of hours.