Career choices with PharmD

There are plenty of things you can do with a PharmD besides working at Walgreens. You might want to go to some of the links I have listed on the "Important Links" thread I have as a "sticky" at the top of the page. Specifically, check out the Pfizer Career Guide for pharmacy for some perspective from different fields within pharmacy, and there's also more info at the AACP website under the "For Students and Applicants" section.

http://www.pfizercareerguides.com/pharmacy.html
http://www.aacp.org

If you hate the general public, your reasons for pursuing pharmacy can't be that altruistic.

Here is a story for you that shows how a positive attitude can mean everything....
About 4 years ago I worked for a chain store with a very rude client. He was so rude that some of the other technicians were afraid to wait on him. Mr. S would always complain when he came in to fill his wife's prescriptions. No matter how quickly his order was finished, it was never good enough. No matter how low his presciption prices were, he would complain about having to pay. And, no matter how kindly I treated him, he would always grumble back at me. But, I decided that Mr. S. was my special case and that no matter how much of an dingus he was, I was going to prove to myself that I could control myself and my outlook on life. So, we went on like this for about 8 months. Then, Mr. S. stopped coming in. The head pharmacist said good riddance and wrote him off. I never thought I would see him again. About 3 months after that he returned to our store. His wife, who he had been working so hard to care for at home, had been moved to a nursing home after he had been diagnosed with cancer and became unable to care for her. He told me that being diagnosed with cancer had made him feel so guilty. He felt guilty that he was no longer able to care for his wife. And, he felt guilty that he had treated people so badly during his life. Then he started crying. I was in shock. He told me that I was the only person who had always been kind to him in spite of how he acted, and that he had been thinking about that alot lately. He said that he decided that he wanted to change how he treated other people from then on, because I made him realize that not everyone in the world was lined up against him. And he did change. I had always thought before that even if people didn't appear to be influence by your attitude, they were influence on some level. Now I know that the little things can make a huge difference.

If you have only had one bad experience it should not be enough to put retail behind you. I once worked at a particular chain store and hated it (quit after 6 days). If that had been my first retail experience, I would not have wanted to go back. But, I had worked other places before so I knew this was not how it is supposed to be. There are alot of places where you can enjoy working in retail.

There are some retail horror stories. But most of those retail pharmacy tradgedies could have been prevented. People give you back what you give out. Being pleasant and helpful will prevent alot of issues. It may also take people who have had bad experiences awhile to realize that you are NOT just the same as the person who made them unhappy before.

I am not saying that in a family practice setting you could have avoided all instances of people getting cranky at you. You don't get the online billing in medical offices like you do in pharmacy. So, often the mishap has already happened by the time the bill comes around. Pharmacy personnel can be procative and avoid the unexpected post-service bill. And, a front desk person don't get the rewarding experience of helping people solve problems like retail pharmacists. There is alot more to retail pharmacy than responding to complaints. The fraction of time I spend on that stuff is minimal. I think the family practice front desk job is different enough from retail pharmacy that you could at least give retail another shot.

Thanks for the story, Bananaface.

Most of our patients are elderly and they just want someone to listen to them. The younger techs at the store told me not to bother because they are crabby. Maybe if someone showed them some respect they wouldn't be that way. I've found all of them to be nice (so far) and they really appreciate when I listen to them. It lets them know that someone cares.

AmandaRxs said:

Anna- There's a distinction between being a friendly, customer service-oriented intern and a sucker willing to put up with out-right rudeness. If it makes you feel better to treat the meanest of mean with every bit of respect as nice customers, then go for it. But this doesn't mean that being walked all over and treated disrespectfully, while simply smiling back should be the standard of health care services. People are usually mean b/c they have been allowed to do so.

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There is a significant portion of the general population that would go without medical care if people kicked them out the door for being rude. They still need access to services. Respect is something that some people won't give you unless you earn it. It's kind of funny that some pharmacy staff members expect instant respect out of patients, but offer disrespect if they don't get what they want. Or, maybe it's more sad than funny. I don't know.

I do not consider myself to be a doormat. In fact, I get "walked on" much less than many people who are eager to assert that they are not there to be "walked on". That is because people see that I am there to help and decide that I am not the person they want to direct their anger towards. By being proactive, I don't generally need to assert myself and put the patient on the defensive. The exception comes if someone makes a personal attack on me. If they are just generally cranky, I am not going ot stoop to their level and chew them out. That would validate their negative attitude. And, if I put someone on the defensive, I can hardly expect them to be amenable to good relations in the future.

People aren't mean because we allow them to do so. If that were true, people who assert that they should be respected by their patients would never have to deal with disgruntled patients. This is hardly the case. People are mean because we haven't established a good relationship with them...yet.

bananaface said:

If they are just generally cranky, I am not going ot stoop to their level and chew them out.

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No one said you should. However, I don't see any reason why I should be falling all over myself trying to be nice to someone who refuses to show me the same courtesy. I've had experiences with this when I worked in restaurants; being sweet and kind simply does not work sometimes. I remember once when I was working in a cafeteria-style restaurant, a woman actually SCREAMED at me because the rolls were the wrong color. (No, I did not make that up.) If I were to to have smiled and told her to have a nice day, she'd probably accuse me of patronizing her, and then the poo would really hit the fan. In those instances, all you can do is calmly apologize.

Besides, what if a customer is making such a scene that that the other customers are uncomfortable? If you are polite to him, you may keep his business, but if you don't do anything about his behavior, you may lose some of your other customers.

There's a big difference between being civil to a customer (i.e. giving them what they want without a big fuss) and being friendly. *All* customers deserve civil treatment, but they do *not* all deserve friendly treatment.

BTW, what does it matter if a person didn't have altruistic reasons for pursuing pharmacy? I don't care if my pharmacist is the biggest misanthrope on earth so long as s/he is competent. (Although if you are the biggest misanthrope on earth, you're probably better off in research. )

AmandaRxs said:

I think my post was misinterpreted. I never said we shouldn't provide services for someone based on their attitude. I also never said that we should treat our customers the way they treat us. I DID say that if someone is the meanest of mean (i.e. Mr S. who continuously was rude day after day for 8 months) then I'm not going to put up with it. Meaning that I'm not going to go out of my way to explain (once again) how I agree that prices are too high or that we took too long to get his script to him. Even at that, I don't think you should ever put your patient on the defensive or chew them out (2 other things that I didn't say).

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Well then that makes 2 of us who have been misinterpreted. I avoid telling patients that our prices are too high or that we took too long to fill their prescription. That would give the person a rationale to be upset with me/my pharmacy. If their insurance copay is really high I can empathize, since I don't set the copay. And if we're really busy I'll tell them "thank you" for being so patient. I guess I'm lucky in that the staff at my place is all on the same page. I started my internship there 5 months ago and haven't been yelled at once. It's a cool environment to work in.

I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your statement. It sounded to me like you were saying that we need to assertively and constantly correct our customers when they get cranky at us, or they will think they will always have the right to do so. I have found that alot of people are driven away by pharmacy staff's need to "force" respect on their customers. Patients don't necessarily need to be told to leave to be driven away. I hope you can see what I was trying to put across.