A tough interview question

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In an interview, I was asked whether I thought pharmacists were pushing drugs while compromising patient care, whether I thought pharmacists were trying to fill enough prescriptions for the day and didn't care about patients... Not exact wording but along that line.

I honestly don't know how I should answer :scared:
I hope some of you will help shed some light on this :thumbup:

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In an interview, I was asked whether I thought pharmacists were pushing drugs while compromising patient care, whether I thought pharmacists were trying to fill enough prescriptions for the day and didn't care about patients... Not exact wording but along that line.

I honestly don't know how I should answer :scared:
I hope some of you will help shed some light on this :thumbup:

In the retail setting we are told to 'push' flu shots. I don't see any pharmacists actively pursuing this though. I don't understand this pushing drugs thing, however. Most times, we're so busy filling the crap patients think they need, we have little if any time to check and make sure it's what they should be on.

The request I hate the most is the patient who says, "Just fill everything that can be filled." and leaves it at that.

Basically, it's an odd question and seems like a straightforward 'no' answer. Besides, we don't really have the choice of what the patient's regimen is anyways except to make recommendations.
 
In most positions, a pharmacist's role is safety, not sales. It might be said medical providers are pushing drugs. But as pharmacists can only prescribe in very specific situations, I doubt pharmacists could be held accountable for "pushing drugs at the expense of patient safety." Just about the opposite.

Seems like they were asking to root out your understanding of how a pharmacist fits into the healthcare hierarchy.
 
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In the retail setting we are told to 'push' flu shots. I don't see any pharmacists actively pursuing this though. I don't understand this pushing drugs thing, however. Most times, we're so busy filling the crap patients think they need, we have little if any time to check and make sure it's what they should be on.

The request I hate the most is the patient who says, "Just fill everything that can be filled." and leaves it at that.

Basically, it's an odd question and seems like a straightforward 'no' answer. Besides, we don't really have the choice of what the patient's regimen is anyways except to make recommendations.

That's easy. You pick the oldest med on the list that they haven't filled in months or years and say, "Do you want THIS filled?" They say, "Oh, no." Then you say, "Well, you'll need to call back with a list of the meds you want, then."
 
That's easy. You pick the oldest med on the list that they haven't filled in months or years and say, "Do you want THIS filled?" They say, "Oh, no." Then you say, "Well, you'll need to call back with a list of the meds you want, then."

And what do you do if they say yes? You would need to contact the prescriber to get refills...yuk. :shrug:

I just refill everything that can be filled.
 
And what do you do if they say yes? You would need to contact the prescriber to get refills...yuk. :shrug:

I just refill everything that can be filled.

LOL. I would NEVER call a doctor to get a refill. EVER.
 
this comes down to knowing the role of the pharmacist. I might take the approach that it is important for pharmacists to address their image (as pill slingers, robots, etc. see medco thread) by doing more "patient care" type stuff. I would definitely bring up the limitations imposed by the industry itself and the sheer volume of patients that need to be taken care of. think workload, less tech hours, interruptions, stuff like that.
 
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