Long day at work last night

[ineeddrug]

Long drop off. Long pickup line. 5 calls on hold.
One tech (just got hired 2 months ago) at pickup. and one intern from different store at drop off.
I was filling and verifying. And had to return rx back to fix every single time. Yes. Every single time.

- Refill number missing.
- Wrong Dr.
- asked how many day supply for medrol dose pak.
- did not type frequency.
- And typed 6 oz as 63ml once, and 6ml twice.
He could not even read most of the Dr’s writing.
He did not know what is “oz”.
- 5ml bid #60ml as 30 days supply.

It was frustrating when so many patients were right at pick and waiting for me to finish, and the rx had to go back to type, fill again, and reverify it.

I tried to be nice, because he came all the way to help us from far store.

Finally, he finished his shift.
I thanked him for helping and asked “by the way, what year are you?” (assuming P1 or P2). And he answered “No. I graduated last week. I am a grad intern.” He smiled and left.

I was just speechless.

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[Sine Cura]

With a grad intern that clueless I would definitely shoot an email to the sup or whoever hired him. And urge them never to hire people from whatever school allowed him to graduate

 

[Charcoales]

Ouch... that dude could use some... remediation.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Sounds like most of the stores in North Philly.

 

[Ra1nMak3r]

Long drop off. Long pickup line. 5 calls on hold.
One tech (just got hired 2 months ago) at pickup. and one intern from different store at drop off.
I was filling and verifying. And had to return rx back to fix every single time. Yes. Every single time.

- Refill number missing.
- Wrong Dr.
- asked how many day supply for medrol dose pak.
- did not type frequency.
- And typed 6 oz as 63ml once, and 6ml twice.
He could not even read most of the Dr’s writing.
He did not know what is “oz”.
- 5ml bid #60ml as 30 days supply.

It was frustrating when so many patients were right at pick and waiting for me to finish, and the rx had to go back to type, fill again, and reverify it.

I tried to be nice, because he came all the way to help us from far store.

Finally, he finished his shift.
I thanked him for helping and asked “by the way, what year are you?” (assuming P1 or P2). And he answered “No. I graduated last week. I am a grad intern.” He smiled and left.

I was just speechless.

It sounds like that’s the first time he ever stepped in retail pharmacy before. Scary **** for a grad intern

 

[johnpharm01]

I would have had the intern do something totally unrelated to production or sent them home. If you are any pharmacy employee making that many mistakes, what are you doing in the pharmacy?

 

[owlegrad]

I worked with a grad intern not too far from that once. What a delight.

 

[Eichhoernchen]

I had a grad intern yesterday ask me how long RX is valid for....

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

Long drop off. Long pickup line. 5 calls on hold.
One tech (just got hired 2 months ago) at pickup. and one intern from different store at drop off.
I was filling and verifying. And had to return rx back to fix every single time. Yes. Every single time.

- Refill number missing.
- Wrong Dr.
- asked how many day supply for medrol dose pak.
- did not type frequency.
- And typed 6 oz as 63ml once, and 6ml twice.
He could not even read most of the Dr’s writing.
He did not know what is “oz”.
- 5ml bid #60ml as 30 days supply.

It was frustrating when so many patients were right at pick and waiting for me to finish, and the rx had to go back to type, fill again, and reverify it.

I tried to be nice, because he came all the way to help us from far store.

Finally, he finished his shift.
I thanked him for helping and asked “by the way, what year are you?” (assuming P1 or P2). And he answered “No. I graduated last week. I am a grad intern.” He smiled and left.
I was just speechless.

"I am a grad intern"

I would have had the intern do something totally unrelated to production or sent them home. If you are any pharmacy employee making that many mistakes, what are you doing in the pharmacy?

Exactly.

If I were OP, I'd be worried about the ones I didn't catch

 

[Modest_anteater]

Long drop off. Long pickup line. 5 calls on hold.
One tech (just got hired 2 months ago) at pickup. and one intern from different store at drop off.
I was filling and verifying. And had to return rx back to fix every single time. Yes. Every single time.

- Refill number missing.
- Wrong Dr.
- asked how many day supply for medrol dose pak.
- did not type frequency.
- And typed 6 oz as 63ml once, and 6ml twice.
He could not even read most of the Dr’s writing.
He did not know what is “oz”.
- 5ml bid #60ml as 30 days supply.

It was frustrating when so many patients were right at pick and waiting for me to finish, and the rx had to go back to type, fill again, and reverify it.

I tried to be nice, because he came all the way to help us from far store.

Finally, he finished his shift.
I thanked him for helping and asked “by the way, what year are you?” (assuming P1 or P2). And he answered “No. I graduated last week. I am a grad intern.” He smiled and left.

I was just speechless.

Why so critical? We all were new at one point in time.

 

[Ra1nMak3r]

Why so critical? We all were new at one point in time.

Because these mistakes are something we expect from P1 students who are “new” to the pharmacy world. This dude went through 4 years of pharmacy school. Either he slept until graduation day or his school failed to teach him.

 

[Modest_anteater]

Because these mistakes are something we expect from P1 students who are “new” to the pharmacy world. This dude went through 4 years of pharmacy school. Either he slept until graduation day or his school failed to teach him.

They don't teach you computer systems or data entry in school and that sounds like the majority of the students problem.

 

[Ra1nMak3r]

They don't teach you computer systems or data entry in school and that sounds like the majority of the students problem.

What OP listed are not computer system related mistakes. I’m not sure where you went to school but we had a class for data entry and verification, preventing mistakes and how to catch them.

 

[Rouelle]

They do teach ounces in pharmacy school.

 

[owlegrad]

They don't teach you computer systems or data entry in school and that sounds like the majority of the students problem.

Dude, come one. You think it is ok for a grad intern to work drop off and miss details like refills, days supply, or doctors? Why not just tell the pharmacist "I haven't had much chance to practice typing, is it ok if I try here?". Instead he set the pharmacist up to fail. Besides the fact that anyone who has spent four years in pharmacy school and graduated should be able to calculate days supply (bad enough on its own) the worst part to me is that they would set the pharmacist up to fail with no warning. So either they don't know how bad they are or they know how bad they are and don't care to warn the pharmacist. Either one is so bad it should preclude licensure IMO.

Everyone was new once, that much is true. But how about a heads up? "I am new and don't know what I am doing yet." Easy.

 

[owlegrad]

What OP listed are not computer system related mistakes. I’m not sure where you went to school but we had a class for data entry and verification, preventing mistakes and how to catch them.

We actually didn't have this in my school and I never understood why. I guess you were supposed to pick it up on rotations or else learn it in the real world. Since it is like 90% of what most pharmacists do it seems like a no brainer to have a class for it.

 

[owlegrad]

Although I would say that OP does need to take a little responsibility here. In that situation the intern should be put on pick up/drive thru or maybe production, obviously not drop off. But I remember what it feels like not to have any choices. It sucks.

 

[Ra1nMak3r]

We actually didn't have this in my school and I never understood why. I guess you were supposed to pick it up on rotations or else learn it in the real world. Since it is like 90% of what most pharmacists do it seems like a no brainer to have a class for it.

It was integrated in our first year. It definitely helped with retail rotation that year.

 

[Gombrich12]

Sounds like the intern never worked retail, but not knowing the abbreviation for ounces is shameful for any adult really.

 

[Cleaveland]

That's pretty embarrassing. You'd think at least on rotations he'd learn a thing or two. I worked as a bagger, cart pusher, to work my way up as a pharmacy technician over a decade ago. Then promoted as an intern first year of pharmacy school. I cannot thank myself for the experience prior to graduating this June. It was very helpful. I think what pharmacy schools need to do is require experience prior to starting. It would help tremendously. It would also steer away 90% of the grads who come in blind folded and regret their career choice.

 

[Cleaveland]

Sounds like the intern never worked retail, but not knowing the abbreviation for ounces is shameful for any adult really.

For accreditation of pharmacy programs I am certain that community pharmacy is required, at least in IPPE.
"A minimum of 150 hours of IPPE are balanced between community and institutional health-system settings."

So either A) Preceptor was not dong his job of teaching,or B) Student is incompetent.


Source: https://www.acpe-accredit.org/pdf/Standards2016FINAL.pdf

 

[johnpharm01]

Why so critical? We all were new at one point in time.

Because peoples lives depend on it.

This isn't about anyone having a job, this is about the patient getting the right rx and right information to use it. Ceti alpha 5 is right. I have had bad techs and the I would tell pharmacy manager, store manager and dm that I could be the best pharmacist and you give me a bad tech and there are going to be more mistakes. I strongly believe in demmings philosophy of quality. If you are an intern you should have a higher standard of practice then described by the OP.

 

[johnpharm01]

Because peoples lives depend on it.

I had an intern on rotation who told me they had years of retail experience and really didn't need anymore. Then in the process of working on the rotation they had data entry errors, misfills with two drugs mixed up and other errors. This person also could not answer any basic retail pharmacy ops questions i.e. like law, workflow, qa. I came to the conclusion that this person just did not want to be there so I wondered why did they choose this rotation. If anything it was poor professionalism and overconfidence on their part. I would not want to be this person once they got out and practiced.

 

[ineeddrug]

Although I would say that OP does need to take a little responsibility here. In that situation the intern should be put on pick up/drive thru or maybe production, obviously not drop off. But I remember what it feels like not to have any choices. It sucks.

I agree. I tried to send him to help pickup but I had to have someone at dropoff.. Unfortunately, my other tech only could do pickup due to lack of drop off experience.

Since that intern was able to type, I just left him there. (At that point, I thought he was jist P1 or P2, so I was gonna just suck it up). I really didnt care cuz he was not my intern anyways. He was from different district just to cover sick call.

But when he told me that he was a grad intern, I couldn’t help thinking what he’s done for 4 years at school.

 

[RxPreceptor]

Reading manual Rxs is becoming a lost art especially with those new to pharmacy due to the advent of e-scribing. I still get TONS of mistakes from techs on data entry for hard copy Rxs. If I see some hard copies, I generally try to fill them before a tech attempts to (not to mention, none of them, even the experienced ones ever get the date written correct unless it is today's date... when simple reading skills fail...)

Pathetic for an intern grad

 

[Sabril]

it will be hard to find good retail interns now. Not when their schools tell them residency is the true purpose of their lives and if they ever set foot inside a retail place they will be disowned by their peers, forever enslaved and probably will need to end themselves by OD'ing underneath a bridge.

 

[zelman]

Ouch... that dude could use some... remediation.

This early, I think it’s just mediation.

 

[BMBiology]

Welcome to 2018! Lets be real here. Most pharmacy schools do not prep students for real work especially retail which accounts for 70% of jobs out there. They prep students for "future" jobs..you know the ones that are not here yet but soon they will be!! Apparently pharmacy schools have been saying this crap for the last 50 years.

 

[quickpic007]

Long drop off. Long pickup line. 5 calls on hold.
One tech (just got hired 2 months ago) at pickup. and one intern from different store at drop off.
I was filling and verifying. And had to return rx back to fix every single time. Yes. Every single time.

- Refill number missing.
- Wrong Dr.
- asked how many day supply for medrol dose pak.
- did not type frequency.
- And typed 6 oz as 63ml once, and 6ml twice.
He could not even read most of the Dr’s writing.
He did not know what is “oz”.
- 5ml bid #60ml as 30 days supply.

It was frustrating when so many patients were right at pick and waiting for me to finish, and the rx had to go back to type, fill again, and reverify it.

I tried to be nice, because he came all the way to help us from far store.

Finally, he finished his shift.
I thanked him for helping and asked “by the way, what year are you?” (assuming P1 or P2). And he answered “No. I graduated last week. I am a grad intern.” He smiled and left.

I was just speechless.

Of course you are going to have more terrible interns, esp in saturated areas. All the good students/pre-pharms walked away before gaining admittance by now. This person you work with did not need to work in pharmacy like us old timers to gain exp before entering school. (if they did they would have known the poor ROI and walked....)

 

[PharmtoCS]

It’s not just the academic prowess but also the work ethic and common sense that have dropped due to low admission standards to get into pharmacy schools.

Pharmacy schools used to be extremely competitive to get in, meaning that students actually had to put in the effort and stand out among their peers. Nowadays students can coast through their prereqs with a C average, get accepted into pharmacy school, and coast through without much effort. These students have always gotten by with the bare minimum and will inevitably bring such an attitude into the workforce.

 

[johnpharm01]

It’s not just the academic prowess but also the work ethic and common sense that have dropped due to low admission standards to get into pharmacy schools.

Pharmacy schools used to be extremely competitive to get in, meaning that students actually had to put in the effort and stand out among their peers. Nowadays students can coast through their prereqs with a C average, get accepted into pharmacy school, and coast through without much effort. These students have always gotten by with the bare minimum and will inevitably bring such an attitude into the workforce.

Agreed. These guys will drop like flies when they hit the job market. No more being spoon fed, catered to.

 

[mentos]

They do teach ounces in pharmacy school.

And grade school LoL.

Wait til he becomes licensed and covers RPh sick calls in OP's store...

 

[VA77]

I thought at first this wa going to be about a new tech. Well at least we know why those NAPLEX keep going down

 

[Sabril]

And grade school LoL.

Wait til he becomes licensed and covers RPh sick calls in OP's store...

one day being a pharmacist > 10 years being a tech or intern

people won't learn as much no matter how brilliant or hard working they are until they have their own **** to lose

 

[Lnsean]

This is basic math and day supply calculations. His only excuse could have been he was on robot mode (maybe he's high af ) and didn't give af to be there otherwise this is pure incompetence.

 

[kansasgal]

one day being a pharmacist > 10 years being a tech or intern

people won't learn as much no matter how brilliant or hard working they are until they have their own **** to lose

Eh I don't know I think the fear of killing someone is a pretty big motivator to learn tech or otherwise...

 

[Bareitashvilli]

Long drop off. Long pickup line. 5 calls on hold.
One tech (just got hired 2 months ago) at pickup. and one intern from different store at drop off.
I was filling and verifying. And had to return rx back to fix every single time. Yes. Every single time.

- Refill number missing.
- Wrong Dr.
- asked how many day supply for medrol dose pak.
- did not type frequency.
- And typed 6 oz as 63ml once, and 6ml twice.
He could not even read most of the Dr’s writing.
He did not know what is “oz”.
- 5ml bid #60ml as 30 days supply.

It was frustrating when so many patients were right at pick and waiting for me to finish, and the rx had to go back to type, fill again, and reverify it.

I tried to be nice, because he came all the way to help us from far store.

Finally, he finished his shift.
I thanked him for helping and asked “by the way, what year are you?” (assuming P1 or P2). And he answered “No. I graduated last week. I am a grad intern.” He smiled and left.

I was just speechless.

This makes me glad I have a good amount of experience.

Long drop off. Long pickup line. 5 calls on hold.
One tech (just got hired 2 months ago) at pickup. and one intern from different store at drop off.
I was filling and verifying. And had to return rx back to fix every single time. Yes. Every single time.

- Refill number missing.
- Wrong Dr.
- asked how many day supply for medrol dose pak.
- did not type frequency.
- And typed 6 oz as 63ml once, and 6ml twice.
He could not even read most of the Dr’s writing.
He did not know what is “oz”.
- 5ml bid #60ml as 30 days supply.

It was frustrating when so many patients were right at pick and waiting for me to finish, and the rx had to go back to type, fill again, and reverify it.

I tried to be nice, because he came all the way to help us from far store.

Finally, he finished his shift.
I thanked him for helping and asked “by the way, what year are you?” (assuming P1 or P2). And he answered “No. I graduated last week. I am a grad intern.” He smiled and left.

I was just speechless.

It makes me glad I have a long time exp as a tech before school.

 

[lord999]

It's the shift in curriculum where you don't learn how to be a pharmacist in pharmacy school, you get taught the theoretical practice (that no one actually does even if it they get that sort of job) of pharmacy. It would be nice to get more practical pharmacist classes into the curriculum, but why cause dropouts from people realizing that this work is pretty hard. It's easier to teach the ideal and rake in the dollars.

I don't know. I've seen it work out negatively as well where the company does an entry level separation and blacklists the unprepared intern. I'm surprised the RxS made such a dumb mistake hiring a system newbie when there are choices among the loyal interns to promote. As for the intern, fortunately, car repo teams and Uber are hiring right now where typing is not a problem.

 

[Son_Goku]

Finally, he finished his shift.
I thanked him for helping and asked “by the way, what year are you?” (assuming P1 or P2). And he answered “No. I graduated last week. I am a grad intern.” He smiled and left.

I was just speechless.

Cheeky.