Pharmacist mentality

[PharmMnM]

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What knowledge must a pharmacist have when practicing? What does a pharmacist have to know besides counting pills and get all the answers such adverse reactions from the computer?? I haven't had enough experience as you can tell!
And when compounding medicine is it just like reading off a cookbook?
As far as math, do they jsut have to know basic arithmetic math such as conversion and unit cancellation? Where does the Calculus and/or physics come in? Is being a pharmacist easy? Where does the stress come in

 

[GatorRxGirl]

What knowledge must a pharmacist have when practicing? What does a pharmacist have to know besides counting pills and get all the answers such adverse reactions from the computer?? I haven't had enough experience as you can tell!
And when compounding medicine is it just like reading off a cookbook?
As far as math, do they jsut have to know basic arithmetic math such as conversion and unit cancellation? Where does the Calculus and/or physics come in? Is being a pharmacist easy? Where does the stress come in

Take pathophysiology, kinetics, and therapeutics then ask if it's "easy".

 

[Trancelucent1]

What knowledge must a pharmacist have when practicing? What does a pharmacist have to know besides counting pills and get all the answers such adverse reactions from the computer?? I haven't had enough experience as you can tell!
And when compounding medicine is it just like reading off a cookbook?
As far as math, do they jsut have to know basic arithmetic math such as conversion and unit cancellation? Where does the Calculus and/or physics come in? Is being a pharmacist easy? Where does the stress come in

Yes to all those questions. The computer tells us everything and it's so easy!!

 

[Lasche]

I have an advisor, who's a Pharmacist in MI.
She told me that the schooling is the hardest part. According to her, the hardest part of the daily job is being on your feet sometimes 10 hours a day and working with doctors. I guess a lot of doctors prescribe medications in harmful combinations. You have to always be on the look out for this. I'm not sure if you know this but Doctors only recieve one year of Pharmacology in school. A good part of your day might be spent talking too and advising MD's. With each patient you need to evaluate thier size, gender, and previous health conditions to make sure that no adverse side effects will occur. Some of mixing that they do is adding flavoring to medications, like grape and cola.
Above all Patience is key. I'm not sure about the amount of daily math, but I'll ask and get back to you.

 

[genesis09]

Compounding is an art. No way could you look at some of our compounding labs, and know how to make it, without some prior knowledge.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I'll make it simple. You have to know everything there is to know about drugs. And, no, that isn't easy.

We like to keep up-to-date under the fantasy that some day a practitioner might actually ask the people who devoted 4 years of school towards just drugs a question about what drugs should be used in certain cases. Until this actually happens (a thing only existent in theory), I'll just keep scanning the little barcode on the Xopenex box and laugh at the loser that is wasting his money on the tier III copay from behind my little dispensing counter.

 

[sdn1977]

I'll make it simple. You have to know everything there is to know about drugs. And, no, that isn't easy.

We like to keep up-to-date under the fantasy that some day a practitioner might actually ask the people who devoted 4 years of school towards just drugs a question about what drugs should be used in certain cases. Until this actually happens (a thing only existent in theory), I'll just keep scanning the little barcode on the Xopenex box and laugh at the loser that is wasting his money on the tier III copay from behind my little dispensing counter.

I can see you've taken Zpack's personal Xopenex opinions to heart😉

To the OP: what can I say to possibly give you insight??? You seemed to have already decided your own opinion.

However....when I was working today....I filled an rx for a pt who had been discharged from a local hospital. She's 19 years old....on the heart transplant list....so - one very sick chick!

She had been having bouts of tachycardia which was worsening her CHF.....was admitted to the hospital to be evaluated. Since this was a recent condition, the cardiovascular pharmacist felt it might be due to the Cymbalta which had recently been started. It was discontinued, the tachycardia resolved & she was stabilized on a different antidepressant which did not have this side effect. The physicians did up her Coreg to compensate for the worsening CHF...but, fortunately she did not have to move up on the transplant list.

So...what do we do...well, all sorts of things & too many to list!

 

[eddie269]

This is why most schools ask that you have pharmacy experience. Nothing against the OP since he is just asking an honest question.

BUT..the scary part is, many (probably 15-20%) of the students who get into a pharmacy program (have high gpa, high pcats, etc) probably NEVER stepped foot inside a pharmacy before. I wonder how they feel during their first rotation. lol. But I'm sure the salary is the reason why they don't mind. I mean, when I got my first job at the bank, I've only been inside a bank once to open my account. (and yes, I HATED that job)

And to answer your question, the popular drugs get repetitive so most pharmacists already know the reactions, etc. Compounding is usually easy in a retail setting, probably more difficult in some other areas. To sum it up, there are a lot of people who need medication so processing and filling and consulting such a large number of patients everyday makes the job stressful. Just go to a Walgreens pharmacy between the hours of 5-7pm on a Friday evening and just observe for 15 minutes. You'll see what I mean.

 

[Lasche]

? for those practicing. Have you ever had to call the police on someone or go to court?

 

[sdn1977]

? for those practicing. Have you ever had to call the police on someone or go to court?

Nope. I've had to call hospital security a couple of times. Once I was requested to give a deposition, but the case was settled before I was ever deposed.

 

[rxlynn]

? for those practicing. Have you ever had to call the police on someone or go to court?

I'm a tech, so I wasn't the pharmacist calling, but yes - I've personally been in the pharmacy three times in the past couple of years where we got the police involved. One of those was a situation where the MD asked us after the fact to file a police report, so we did. Then, the same guy was arrested in another jurisdiction near us, and I ended up having to ID him in a photo lineup as the same guy that we had reported. Another situation was patient brings in legitimate Rx for oxycontin, and then walks out the door and observed by the store manager, sells it in the parking lot. That one ended up being a very interesting afternoon!

 

[ilovepharm]

It wasn't me specifically, but I've heard of patients who got sick of waiting and threatened to bring their gun-- this is probably because it's the Veterans Affairs Hospital. Thank goooooodnesss for those bullet proof windows.