community pharmacy volunteer

[parmesan]

---

Members don't see this ad.

hi, everyone.
it's my first time posting here.

for those who had volunteered for community pharmacies, could you please tell me what sorts of duties you had?
i recently began volunteering for one, but people there don't seem to know exactly what i can do and what i'm not supposed to do... like one says that i'm not even supposed to be in the back of the pharmacy but the other says it's okay as long as a pharmacist is there. a pharmacist told me to help him with stocks but again, a clerk said that i'm not even supposed to be touching those medication bottles. getting really confused.

i guess what i'm trying to ask you is that as a volunteer, what is legal for me to do?

thank you, everyone!

 

[LVPharm]

I never volunteered in a community pharmacy, but I did at a hospital inpatient pharmacy. I did a lot of the blister packing for oral unit doses, outdates, stocking, and some inventory stuff for their Pyxis machines. In other words, I handled the meds, even the CII.

I'm sure that there's plenty of stuff that legally speaking you should not be doing. But the bottom line is, it's the pharmacist's license, and he will let you do tasks that he is comfortable in you doing. That's not up to the clerk or the tech...they can cite state pharmacy statutes all they want, but if the pharmacist says you can help with the stocking, by all means do it. Bottom line: just do what the pharmacist lets you do. If the support staff has a problem with what you're doing, refer them to the pharmacist, or ask the pharmacist to communicate your duties to the support staff.

 

[GravyRPH]

Well, I think it depends on the state you live in.
In California regarding community pharmacies, a non-licensed personnel (what you are) can be anywhere in the pharmacy as long as a pharmacist is present. You can't be there alone. Actually thats not entirely true either, because you can be there when the pharmacist takes a lunch break as long as a lead tech is present. (No new prescriptions that require counseling are allowed to leave the pharmacy during this "lunch break")

Non-licensed personnel are allowed to put medications ON the pharmacy shelf, e.g restocking, but they can't remove them from shelf, e.g. "setting up". Like in chess, once your hand has left the bottle you have to leave it there even if you put it on the wrong shelf. 😉 Kidding about that last part.

Even though you are just a volunteer you would still be considered a non-licensed staff member.

 

[parmesan]

LVPharm and Gravy RPH:
thank you so much for your response!

i'm in CA. the pharmacy that i volunteer is a small community pharmacy w/ one pharmacist. pharmacist doesn't mind me observing him while he is dispensing, but the clerk doesn't like the idea of me staying there behind the counter. she told me it's illegal even the pharmacist said it is okay as long as he was
there! (to be honest, i don't think she likes the idea of me being there...) i've been volunteering for a hospital pharmacy also. there, like LVpharm, i handle the meds all the time... so i was like "what??" when she told me that i'm not supposed to touch the bottles.

anyways, i feel more comfortable now that i know it is okay for me to be anywhere in the pharmacy as long as he is present. thank you!😍

 

[gdk420]

By law you can type and call the doctors to get their approval for refills. That is what i did, by typing and calling the doctors for refills, u get to pick up on some of the dosing and what a lot of the drugs are for. Also how do deal with some of the insurance problems. By law, u are not allowed to touch the drugs I think. I was not anyway. I could only type and do the doctors call for refils. Also you can't take new prescription orders by phone. I think most pharmacy school want to know what did u learn from ur pharmacy volunteer experience and what insight did it give u on how to deal with rude people, doctors and certain difficult situation.

 

[Suey]

parmesan, I'm a prepharm too and volunteering at a community pharmacy seems interesting. I've never heard of community pharm before. How is it different from retail/hospital?

 

[LVPharm]

"Community Pharmacy" is pretty much synonymous with "Retail Pharmacy". Heck, sometimes they call it "Community Retail Pharmacy".

 

[jdpharmd?]

Originally posted by Suey
parmesan, I'm a prepharm too and volunteering at a community pharmacy seems interesting. I've never heard of community pharm before. How is it different from retail/hospital?

Retail pharmacy is community pharmacy. 🙂