A True Pharmacist -Q&A

[PharmNoob]

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Just wondering, what it is it like to be in pharmacy as a profession.

1. Do you have to be able to recognize/memorize all the 500+ drugs that need
prescriptions everyday. Do you have to know the structure of the medicine
or mainly just recognizing its functions, symptoms, etc.


2. After going through 4 years of pharmacy school, do you retain all the
knowledge and know all the drug interactions or would you seek help
through something like this: https://www.aidsmeds.com/cmm/index.php?

3. How difficult is to deal with customers/patients? It seems like there is a great deal of responsibility and can potentially get sued. How do you manage this stress? What if you mess up... did that ever happen to u.
What are your worse and best days like?

 

[rxforlife2004]

Just wondering, what it is it like to be in pharmacy as a profession.

1. Do you have to be able to recognize/memorize all the 500+ drugs that need
prescriptions everyday. Do you have to know the structure of the medicine
or mainly just recognizing its functions, symptoms, etc.


2. After going through 4 years of pharmacy school, do you retain all the
knowledge and know all the drug interactions or would you seek help
through something like this: https://www.aidsmeds.com/cmm/index.php?

3. How difficult is to deal with customers/patients? It seems like there is a great deal of responsibility and can potentially get sued. How do you manage this stress? What if you mess up... did that ever happen to u.
What are your worse and best days like?

1. No, but we do have an idea of what that medication is used for, its mechanism, what the maximum dosage, what kind of population is contraindicated.

2. No, but we do have a sense of a drug that has a lot of drug interaction and watch out for it. You learn and pick up these thru 4 yrs of pharm school.

3. Only if you work in retail setting. And you meet some hard to please patient/customer...it boils down to personal experience and how well u can handle the situation. I am very bad at handling customer/patients, thus i work in hospital setting...however, i deal with cranky nurses and arrogant medical doctors daily....it could be crazy too.
Worst days: Have a lot of patients/doctors on the floors = more things to do= chaotic...or too many code blues/day, etc...
Best days: When i get my pay check!

 

[DooberXL]

3. Well, if your company has a good computer system (like Walgreens). The only problems you should be concerned about are deciphering horrible handwriting and making sure the instructions are typed correctly. You really don't have to deal with crazy patients as much....assuming you have a tech on duty. Believe me, I've met some crazy people who walk in with an attitude then demand to talk to a manager when you aren't "nice enough". I've wanted to strangle people on a daily basis for being ignorant. When you get to that point, you just call for a manger and walk away. Mess ups can happen anywhere, but I guess there are a few situations where you really have to pay attention and just focus instead of multi-tasking ie. bagging prescriptions, selling prescriptions, verifying medications (pills that look similar tend to get mixed into the same bottles but have different markings on them) etc.

 

[PharmDstudent]

1. No, but we do have an idea of what that medication is used for, its mechanism, what the maximum dosage, what kind of population is contraindicated.

2. No, but we do have a sense of a drug that has a lot of drug interaction and watch out for it. You learn and pick up these thru 4 yrs of pharm school.

3. Only if you work in retail setting. And you meet some hard to please patient/customer...it boils down to personal experience and how well u can handle the situation. I am very bad at handling customer/patients, thus i work in hospital setting...however, i deal with cranky nurses and arrogant medical doctors daily....it could be crazy too.
Worst days: Have a lot of patients/doctors on the floors = more things to do= chaotic...or too many code blues/day, etc...
Best days: When i get my pay check!

Did you have any pharmacy experience before you started pharmacy school?

I really get tired of pharmacists in retail who can't interact with people or are too slow. It makes my job a living...

Those paychecks will get old fast, so I hope you find other aspects of the job worthwhile.

 

[Aznfarmerboi]

Just wondering, what it is it like to be in pharmacy as a profession.

1. Do you have to be able to recognize/memorize all the 500+ drugs that need
prescriptions everyday. Do you have to know the structure of the medicine
or mainly just recognizing its functions, symptoms, etc.


2. After going through 4 years of pharmacy school, do you retain all the
knowledge and know all the drug interactions or would you seek help
through something like this: https://www.aidsmeds.com/cmm/index.php?

3. How difficult is to deal with customers/patients? It seems like there is a great deal of responsibility and can potentially get sued. How do you manage this stress? What if you mess up... did that ever happen to u.
What are your worse and best days like?

1. You do have to recognize about 500 drugs are so, how they look like, their markings, the side effect of the drugs, and MOA. In addition to that in retail, we also have to know the indication, the dosage (double check to see if there is overdose or underdose), special instructions for the medications, what labs to take ( an example is that I tell my patients to check their LFT after 1 month of taking statins), duration of action of the medicine, and a lot more!

2. After going through 4 years of pharamcy school, you do not retain most of your knowledge. However, you will remember what pertains to you, and have the ability to understand those that you havent practiced for a while after retrieving information from literature. Pharmacy school only provides you withthe "minimum" skills needed to practice as a pharmacist. A lot of the material that they teach you will become obsolete in 1, 3, and most of it in 5 years. Hence you must keep up to date with current practices by attending CE's and reading journals.

3. Concerning patients, it depends on your patience level. In terms of litigation, its not common, but it is also not unheard off. Remember that the patient might not know to go after you, but their lawyers sure do.

 

[ClassOf78]

Just wondering, what it is it like to be in pharmacy as a profession.

1. Do you have to be able to recognize/memorize all the 500+ drugs that need
prescriptions everyday. Do you have to know the structure of the medicine
or mainly just recognizing its functions, symptoms, etc.


2. After going through 4 years of pharmacy school, do you retain all the
knowledge and know all the drug interactions or would you seek help
through something like this: https://www.aidsmeds.com/cmm/index.php?

3. How difficult is to deal with customers/patients? It seems like there is a great deal of responsibility and can potentially get sued. How do you manage this stress? What if you mess up... did that ever happen to u.
What are your worse and best days like?

1. After a short time of working, in addition to all the drugs you memorized in school, you will be quite competent in knowings 100's of drugs. I've never in almost 30 yrs had to ID the structure of a medication. Functions, MOA, metabolism, side effects, and DD interactions will be very important. Hope everyone is learning their physiology well, that will be the key to drugs of the future. I personally think it is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to learn. Learn it well, and you'll be able to figure out lots of things when new drugs come out.
2. No you don't retain all you learned, but a whole lot more than you'd think you would. It's unbelievable how much I've retained. Maybe from my education, but a lot has to do with continuous learning. There was no such thing as an ACEI but physiology made it easy to understand how they worked, side effects, MOA, etc. Valium and theophylline were in the top 20 drugs when I graduated, so a lot has changed.
3. Customers, doctors, nurses, well just about anyone can make your life stressful. I deal with this pretty well as I work in a very busy retail store. It's like anything else, about 99% of people are really nice. You can't take anything too personal, you're dealing with the ill, hurt, emotionally distraught, and mentally ill people. They're buying something they don't want, something they really don't enjoy. You do have a lot of resp, and yes I've messed up, I've made mistakes, and you will too. I always try my best, and I try to have a positie attitude. Also remember the great rewards that come with the territory. I have made 100's and 100's of friends from doctors to the mentally ill. I have been there when the young nearly weds get their BC, then their prenatals, then the amoxil susp. I've watched them grow, I've had many friends die due to their illness, but the rewards are beyond words. Focus on the good, accept the bad, and ALWAYS have a positive attitude