"Are you, like, a nurse person or something?"

[rph3664]

I was at a meetup this evening, and we got to talking about medical marijuana (which is not legal in my state) and one of the other people there asked me this.



What's the strangest assumption someone's made about any of your occupations?

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[bacillus1]

When I worked retail: "Did you have to go to school for this?"
Many people I meet just jokingly ask if I can prescribe them some oxys.

 

[sakigt]

My friends have literally zero idea what I do. They barely realize I dont work at a chain, let alone see people die in the ER....

 

[gwarm01]

Imagine how people's eyes glaze over when I try to explain what I do as an informatics pharmacist. "But.... I thought you were a pharmacist?"

 

[Dred Pirate]

My friends have literally zero idea what I do. They barely realize I dont work at a chain, let alone see people die in the ER....

ya - this is me as well - when I tell them some of my stories their jaws drop -

 

[Humble Sloth]

When I worked retail: "Did you have to go to school for this?"
Many people I meet just jokingly ask if I can prescribe them some oxys.

A lot of truth is said in jest. :/

"Hey man do you ever lose pills"

"My friend is doing a science experiment, can you give us your expired [opiate] medications instead of throwing them out"

-_____-

 

[gwarm01]

ya - this is me as well - when I tell them some of my stories their jaws drop -

Same. I had friends that made fun of me saying I went to Tylenol 101 in school, then I shared stories from the peds ICU that made them never want to hear anything from me again.

 

[rph3664]

Several years after I graduated, I was working at a hospital and my neighbor, who said he had never set foot in a hospital since he was discharged as a newborn (no ER visits, never visited anybody, etc.) said "EWWWWW!" when I told him where I worked. I asked why he reacted that way, and in short, he thought that the whole inside of a hospital building looked like the TV show "ER", which was at the top of the ratings at the time. I said, "No, the ER itself doesn't usually look like that either. It looks more like your doctor's office." I then told him that I didn't usually go onto the floors, and when I did, the patients were cleaned up and usually able to speak to me.

When I was in pre-pharmacy, I dated a man for a while whose drug use was probably a lot heavier than I realized at the time. Several times, he asked me, "If we're still together when you graduate, can you get drugs for me?" I replied, "No, I am not going to get drugs for you. Are you kidding?" I'm not sure he was.

 

[rph3664]

Same. I had friends that made fun of me saying I went to Tylenol 101 in school, then I shared stories from the peds ICU that made them never want to hear anything from me again.

My senior year roommate would be totally grossed out by things I talked about - and those were just slides shown during lectures! Before she went back to school, she had dabbled in drugs herself and was very surprised when I told her that pharmaceutical cocaine is legal, and at least at the time was not all that expensive and also very safe when used correctly.

Prior to that, I had another roommate who didn't believe me when I told her that I had to harvest some medicinal leeches for a patient on the floor of the big university hospital I worked at while in school. (I was the only person in the department who was willing to do it; everyone else was too grossed out even though they had shoulder-length gloves available and they were picked off the wall of the aquarium with a fishnet.)

 

[EyeTeeFarmer]

I had a conversation with someone the other day. He had no clue pharmacists and pharmacy technicians were different people. He figured we were all like Starbucks baristas. Not chefs and sous chefs, line cooks and waiters.

 

[ldiot]

A customer at the drive through told me that she failed out of a pharmacy technician training program so decided she was going to apply to pharmacy school instead. She proceeded to ask me how many weeks it takes to complete pharmacy school and if you can do it online.

My dentist told me that he's surprised that I'd go into a low paying field like pharmacy seeing as I have a bachelor's degree.... and no he wasn't talking about pharmacy techs. I'm guessing he's that dentist calling in brand only Keflex for every patient.

A lot of people think that pharmacists are basically PhD's in chemistry, while most just assume that they are glorified cashiers that put stickers on vials. All I can say for sure is that retail pharmacy is nothing like what they describe in school; where you work with doctors to help them prescribe medications and patients are lined up eagerly waiting for you to spew your knowledge.

 

[rph3664]

Another thing I've heard more than once is "You must have to memorize the PDR!"

The only memorization of the PDR that we do is memorizing where it is so we can use it as a doorstop if needed.

 

[Hello2000]

When I was in pharmacy school I met a chick in a night club. When I told her I was a pharmacy student said "I didn't know you had to go to university to be a farmer."

 

[297point1]

I've had the following conversation with every family member, friend, and non-pharmacist colleague at least once:

Them: "So, the pharmacy degree is a doctor degree?"
Me: "Yup."
Them: "Wow, a doctor of pharmacology. That's awesome!"
Me: "Actually, it's a doctor of pharmacy degree. Pharmacology is a different discipline."
Them: "Oh, okay. Hey, why do you need a doctor degree to count pills anyways?"

 

[BidingMyTime]

A customer at the drive through told me that she failed out of a pharmacy technician training program so decided she was going to apply to pharmacy school instead. She proceeded to ask me how many weeks it takes to complete pharmacy school and if you can do it online.

I was working retail once, and after counseling this guy, he told that he would like to be a pharmacist....because he couldn't afford to get his trucking license renewed, so he thought he would be a pharmacist (?????????) I informed him it was a minimum 6 years of school (I'm not sure he believed me.) But hey, he probably could get loans to pay for his pharmacy schooling, and there aren't any loans available for truck license renewal that I'm aware of.