Drug Interactions

[Firaskais]

I'n curious about the necessity of having a drug interactions knowledge.. do you have to memorize and be familiar with drug interactions? Or just look it up every time? It's way too much info to memorize actually.. What do you think?

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[wagrxm2000]

Um what exactly is the point of our job again?

Anyone can look up an answer.

 

[Modest_anteater]

Um what exactly is the point of our job again?

Anyone can look up an answer.

We are glorified bank tellers but instead of counting money we count opiates.

 

[owlegrad]

I rely on the computer to flag interactions that I use my knowledge and expertise to triage/resolve.

 

[wagrxm2000]

We are glorified bank tellers but instead of counting money we count opiates.

Why are you counting? Filling maybe takes up 10% of my time if that.

You clearly aren't in it for the right reasons.

 

[John Detter]

I'n curious about the necessity of having a drug interactions knowledge.. do you have to memorize and be familiar with drug interactions? Or just look it up every time? It's way too much info to memorize actually.. What do you think?

If you're going in for neurosurgery, do you want a neurosurgeon who knows every nook and cranny of the brain with their eyes closed? Or are you fine with a high school student who is Googling everything as he's cutting through your brain?

From your profile, it looks like you are trying to apply to a Pharm.D. program. If I were on the admissions committee and knew that you asked this question, I would get your application thrown out. Seriously, it's an essential part of your job. Yes, there are references available, but you need to have a working knowledge of interactions in order to function as a pharmacist.

 

[Modest_anteater]

If you're going in for neurosurgery, do you want a neurosurgeon who knows every nook and cranny of the brain with their eyes closed? Or are you fine with a high school student who is Googling everything as he's cutting through your brain?

From your profile, it looks like you are trying to apply to a Pharm.D. program. If I were on the admissions committee and knew that you asked this question, I would get your application thrown out. Seriously, it's an essential part of your job. Yes, there are references available, but you need to have a working knowledge of interactions in order to function as a pharmacist.

I don't think you could pass the Naplex without working knowledge of the most common interactions...

 

[wagrxm2000]

I don't think you could pass the Naplex without working knowledge of the most common interactions...

Um yes you can quite easily.

 

[Leper Messiah]

Um yes you can quite easily.

Honestly I could have passed (not with a high score, but passed) after P1. I'm terrified of the people that barely scrape by.

 

[hye345]

I'n curious about the necessity of having a drug interactions knowledge.. do you have to memorize and be familiar with drug interactions? Or just look it up every time? It's way too much info to memorize actually.. What do you think?

It's a question of degrees... Yeah, you wanna have a working knowledge of the basic interaction between various groups of meds, but the more obscure stuff, or if its something you haven't been exposed to in a while, you'd wanna look up. Not sure what stage you are at in your career, but eventually you will get a feeling of which interactions you can brush through, and which are worth mentioning to the patient.

 

[RxPreceptor]

Got to be able to take into account the severity/degree level of the interaction too...
Are you really going to even blink over a drug interaction of furosemide, spironolactone, valsartan combination for a heart failure patient who regularly gets K+ monitored by cardiologist?

But Fentanyl use in a naive patient is another story...

 

[RxPreceptor]

That was an error of omission, said patient should also be on a beta-blocker (carvedilol, metoprolol succinate, bisoprolol)

 

[Xarelto-10]

If you're going in for neurosurgery, do you want a neurosurgeon who knows every nook and cranny of the brain with their eyes closed? Or are you fine with a high school student who is Googling everything as he's cutting through your brain?

From your profile, it looks like you are trying to apply to a Pharm.D. program. If I were on the admissions committee and knew that you asked this question, I would get your application thrown out. Seriously, it's an essential part of your job. Yes, there are references available, but you need to have a working knowledge of interactions in order to function as a pharmacist.

I o not understand why there is a rush to judging. But the question is valid. It’s okay not to know everything as you also indicated.
We have to understand these skills are refined as we grow in our professional journey.
The OP will know what is important and what is not. I don’t think he is ignorant. Simply because he is asking to have a greater understanding.
We are to have some humility people. Just relax.

 

[Firaskais]

I o not understand why there is a rush to judging. But the question is valid. It’s okay not to know everything as you also indicated.
We have to understand these skills are refined as we grow in our professional journey.
The OP will know what is important and what is not. I don’t think he is ignorant. Simply because he is asking to have a greater understanding.
We are to have some humility people. Just relax.

Thank you! actually.. I'm still a pharmacy student and I'm looking to improve my knowledge. I'm downloading few books to read every summer to tudy because I'm not comfortable with my college's curriculum it's not so "professional" and I don't want to end up being "ignorant" and unprofessional with 0 knowledge. I asked because I wanted to download a book that has a reference for drug interactions and I was kinda confused because It had so much info so I wanted to make sure if it' essential or not because actually my professors didn't explain our duties yet.

Thank you all for your reply.

 

[Sabril]

Thank you! actually.. I'm still a pharmacy student and I'm looking to improve my knowledge. I'm downloading few books to read every summer to tudy because I'm not comfortable with my college's curriculum it's not so "professional" and I don't want to end up being "ignorant" and unprofessional with 0 knowledge. I asked because I wanted to download a book that has a reference for drug interactions and I was kinda confused because It had so much info so I wanted to make sure if it' essential or not because actually my professors didn't explain our duties yet.

Thank you all for your reply.

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you will see there are few absolute no-no's. But don't try to memorize everything. Even if you do, that would be taking things out of context. Like rxvampire said, you have to consider who the patient is and what conditions they have.