New pharmacist here, any advice?

[sharpcat]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hello all,

I am a new pharmacist and would like any advice that you experienced pharmacists can give me.

I am a bit nervous when I comes to checking prescriptions as I have never done it before. If someone could go through their checking procedure (including signatures, filing, etc) it would be helpful

I dont want to look like I have no idea what I'm doing on my first day.

Any advice on how to handle situations where I cant ask anyone for help?

 

[taken2]

Hello all,

I am a new pharmacist and would like any advice that you experienced pharmacists can give me.

I am a bit nervous when I comes to checking prescriptions as I have never done it before. If someone could go through their checking procedure (including signatures, filing, etc) it would be helpful

I dont want to look like I have no idea what I'm doing on my first day.

Any advice on how to handle situations where I cant ask anyone for help?

How long have you been working as a pharmacist ? there is no way you will look like you know what you are doing on your first day. it is a learning process so be open and willing to ask for help if you need it. Good luck

 

[joetrisman]

Hello all,

I am a new pharmacist and would like any advice that you experienced pharmacists can give me.

I am a bit nervous when I comes to checking prescriptions as I have never done it before. If someone could go through their checking procedure (including signatures, filing, etc) it would be helpful

I dont want to look like I have no idea what I'm doing on my first day.

Any advice on how to handle situations where I cant ask anyone for help?

IMO, you really should be prepared or you did something wrong in school and during rotations. However, things will come up like system errors you can't fix and you can always call another store to ask.

 

[farmadiazepine]

The truth: Your not going to know what your doing. You can pretend all you want, but its not happening. It's going to take a solid week or two or more to actually know what your doing and to feel comfortable. Your gonna develop your own system of checking Rx's.. and in the beginning your going to fluctuate from one system to another until you realize what works for you.

Making mistakes is what is going to make you better later on. It's okay to make mistakes on easy Rx's like wrong quantity given or dispensing 14 days supply of Augmentin mixed when its only stable for 10 days or giving 1 Asmanex when 0.72 really means 3 Asmanex.. Just always be careful with the serious medications like methotrexate, warfarin, digoxin, seizure medications, insulins, etc.. Just double check those Rx's when its the first fill.

If you trust your partners, then all you have to do is check the first prescription thoroughly, and then first refills, second refills, third and onwards all you are doing is just making sure the pill is right one.

I know RPh's who check the Rx of an 8th refill like they are checking the Rx for the first time. That is time consuming and unnecessary in my eyes. If a patient is getting an Rx for an 8th time, they know what they are getting. Check the pill and that's it.

 

[taken2]

IMO, you really should be prepared or you did something wrong in school and during rotations. However, things will come up like system errors you can't fix and you can always call another store to ask.

says someone who has never been a pharmacist for a day.

 

[joetrisman]

says someone who has never been a pharmacist for a day.

Granted, but I have carried my fair share of grads along during their learning periods. I've put in the work both before and during school to know what I'm doing unlike a lot of kids. I honestly would have no qualms starting tomorrow if I could in a community setting.

 

[kvl1027]

Granted, but I have carried my fair share of grads along during their learning periods. I've put in the work both before and during school to know what I'm doing unlike a lot of kids. I honestly would have no qualms starting tomorrow if I could in a community setting.

I don't think it was yor intension Joe, but you have helped to provide a very powerful lesson to th OP.

I am sure you are a very good student/tech/intern, and I dont thin you are trying to be a D!!k. However, you need to humble yourself a bit. The attitude you display, having never be "the" pharmacist, is likely to get you in more trouble than you realize. Despite how you feel, you know a lot less than you think you do.

I believe the intension in your original post was more along the lines of "you should be relatively prepared in terms of pharmacolgy/therapy etc." I would agree that someone who is a new grad should know what the DM in the cough syrup name means, there are just some things you cannont prepare for and are not prepared for in Pharm School.

You may have a ton of tech experience and know your computer system inside and out. You may know all of the policies and procedures of the company you will be working for. But when you are "THE GUY" that everyone goes to and the one the everyone relies on, it is a completely different story.

It is easy to spurt our a recommendation or make a decision when your license is not on the chopping block, but when you are the last and final decision and you know that person (customer, patient, resident) is going to walk away and do exactly what you say without question, it is no joke. You just can't prepare for that. You will second guess yourself, just to make sure and why not.

If you are "too" sure of yourself, you are almost guaranteed to mistake. Being humble is the way to go, don't let pride get in your way.

 

[owlegrad]

You may have a ton of tech experience and know your computer system inside and out. You may know all of the policies and procedures of the company you will be working for. But when you are "THE GUY" that everyone goes to and the one the everyone relies on, it is a completely different story.

This is what I am most afraid of. It is so easy to council when you have someone listening and so easy to fill scripts when you know they will be checked. But when you are the one checking? When it's you that is responsible?

 

[joetrisman]

I don't think it was yor intension Joe, but you have helped to provide a very powerful lesson to th OP.

I am sure you are a very good student/tech/intern, and I dont thin you are trying to be a D!!k. However, you need to humble yourself a bit. The attitude you display, having never be "the" pharmacist, is likely to get you in more trouble than you realize. Despite how you feel, you know a lot less than you think you do.

I believe the intension in your original post was more along the lines of "you should be relatively prepared in terms of pharmacolgy/therapy etc." I would agree that someone who is a new grad should know what the DM in the cough syrup name means, there are just some things you cannont prepare for and are not prepared for in Pharm School.

You may have a ton of tech experience and know your computer system inside and out. You may know all of the policies and procedures of the company you will be working for. But when you are "THE GUY" that everyone goes to and the one the everyone relies on, it is a completely different story.

It is easy to spurt our a recommendation or make a decision when your license is not on the chopping block, but when you are the last and final decision and you know that person (customer, patient, resident) is going to walk away and do exactly what you say without question, it is no joke. You just can't prepare for that. You will second guess yourself, just to make sure and why not.

If you are "too" sure of yourself, you are almost guaranteed to mistake. Being humble is the way to go, don't let pride get in your way.

This is what I am most afraid of. It is so easy to council when you have someone listening and so easy to fill scripts when you know they will be checked. But when you are the one checking? When it's you that is responsible?

If you don't know the answer, look it up. I'm not above telling a patient that I have to check my reference materials. This is why I think the confidence thing should not be an issue as long as you put the effort in during school to learn your pharmacotherapy, where to reference answers when you don't know, and received on the job experience as an intern throughout school. I think the first two are essential to being a pharmacist but I think a lot of problems the new grads have is that they didn't put in enough intern hours to feel comfortable with the job. As I'm sure you both can relate, what is learned in school is only half the story of the job.

Granted you can make arguments about the license thing all day long (and mind you, I've got a license and student debt just as much as a regular rph), but confidence about anything is really all in your head. Just mind games.

 

[kvl1027]

If you don't know the answer, look it up. I'm not above telling a patient that I have to check my reference materials. This is why I think the confidence thing should not be an issue as long as you put the effort in during school to learn your pharmacotherapy, where to reference answers when you don't know, and received on the job experience as an intern throughout school. I think the first two are essential to being a pharmacist but I think a lot of problems the new grads have is that they didn't put in enough intern hours to feel comfortable with the job. As I'm sure you both can relate, what is learned in school is only half the story of the job.

Granted you can make arguments about the license thing all day long (and mind you, I've got a license and student debt just as much as a regular rph), but confidence about anything is really all in your head. Just mind games.

I am not saying don't be confident, you have to be confident otherwise people will never ask you again. But over confidence can be a killer, especially in our industry.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

Granted, but I have carried my fair share of grads along during their learning periods. I've put in the work both before and during school to know what I'm doing unlike a lot of kids. I honestly would have no qualms starting tomorrow if I could in a community setting.

I think this is awfully dismissive of community pharmacy. It's so uncomplicated/easy/unimportant that someone who hasn't completed a single APPE rotation is qualified to practice as an RPH? I don't think so.

I promise that I've seen at least 5 situations this week that a pharmacy student, no matter how long they've worked as a technician, would be hard pressed to handle. Plus, I've worked with dozens of students this year, from 3 different colleges of pharmacy, and none of them were ready to be solo just yet. Some of them, at this point in the year, are getting close....

Saying you are ready to practice now is like saying all of our training is pointless...I may have thought that at times during school. But I now recognize that I had no idea what I didn't know. I think you may eventually come to the same realization.

And I agree with kvl that overconfidence is dangerous.

 

[farmadiazepine]

Granted, but I have carried my fair share of grads along during their learning periods. I've put in the work both before and during school to know what I'm doing unlike a lot of kids. I honestly would have no qualms starting tomorrow if I could in a community setting.

Shut up man, you don't know what your talking about.

 

[Quiksilver]

To think you are going to leave school and think you are going to know it all on day one is naive. You are always learning each time you work and if you aren't learning every day, your not as good pharmacis... as good a pharmacy intern that you think you are.

I hope your ego doesn't get in the way when you finally do make a mistake.

 

[joetrisman]

To think you are going to leave school and think you are going to know it all on day one is naive. You are always learning each time you work and if you aren't learning every day, your not as good pharmacis... as good a pharmacy intern that you think you are.

I hope your ego doesn't get in the way when you finally do make a mistake.

I never said that I'd "know it all on day one". Matter of fact, I said:

If you don't know the answer, look it up. I'm not above telling a patient that I have to check my reference materials.

 

[joetrisman]

I think this is awfully dismissive of community pharmacy. It's so uncomplicated/easy/unimportant that someone who hasn't completed a single APPE rotation is qualified to practice as an RPH? I don't think so.

I promise that I've seen at least 5 situations this week that a pharmacy student, no matter how long they've worked as a technician, would be hard pressed to handle. Plus, I've worked with dozens of students this year, from 3 different colleges of pharmacy, and none of them were ready to be solo just yet. Some of them, at this point in the year, are getting close....

Saying you are ready to practice now is like saying all of our training is pointless...I may have thought that at times during school. But I now recognize that I had no idea what I didn't know. I think you may eventually come to the same realization.

And I agree with kvl that overconfidence is dangerous.

I'm not saying all of our training is pointless. I'd crash in burn in any setting other than community pharmacy. I have interest that extend beyond community and know I have a LOT to learn to be able to function in those jobs.

I think a lot of the argument here can be based in core values and perceptions that would be as productive as arguing politics or religion. However, I'd like to entertain the argument in hope I might gain a new perspective without this thread spinning out of control. In any event, along with my core values and perspective, I live in a black and white world that is defined in tangible things. If the argument is over intangibles, I'll bow out.

I believe that being able to function as a pharmacist consists of:

1. Pharmacotherapy knowledge - classroom
2. Business knowledge/experience - where I find a lot of people falling short
3. Pharmacy knowledge/experience - rotations/internships/etc

For community, I agree that you could be a tech for a thousand years and still not be able to function as a pharmacist as you don't have any base in #1. However, after getting the basics down and knowing where to find the answers in the reference materials, I fail to see where an intern that worked continuously through school, reinforcing the subject matter all the while, would be more ready for community pharmacy based off two APPE rotations in community. I'll probably log ~1000 hours including breaks in community during this year of therapeutics compared to the two 200h community rotations I'll have coming up. One could argue that the other rotations are essential to reinforcing the material, but most of the content has little place in community pharmacy short of progressive pharmacies that do MTM extensively (I hear they exist but I've never been to one).

At the end of the day, I think of the kids (not the majority of them) in my class who never learned the material in the first place, barely ekk by, and have no sense of professionalism or business. Will these people be pharmacist after they cram and dump for their boards in 2013? Yes. Will these people be any more prepared to function as a pharmacist than I am now? I doubt it.

In sincerity, I am looking for perspective here.

 

[farmacy85]

its easy to say that when you've never been in that position. You haven't factored in the stress of messing up while the senior pharmacist or owner is looking over your shoulder, or messing up on a script that can get your license suspended or be sued.