Keep open communication with your preceptor. Set a realistic goal or two for the month and share that with the preceptor. You may find that they want you to develop a different area, but then at least you know what they are looking for. Do you have a list of activities from your school?
Potential activities:
- Learn the functions of all the technicians (drop off, filling, pick up, ordering medications, etc). In order to supervise personnel, you need to know what they are doing.
- Learn the functions of the pharmacists (verifying prescriptions, transfers, calling doctor's offices, counseling patients, CII ordering, immunizations as allowed by state law). For verifying prescriptions, ask if the pharmacist will let you verify the prescriptions as if you were the pharmacist and then they can verify after you (but it takes longer - so doing this during a slow time is best)
- Ask the pharmacist to print out the DURs they receive and then take time to review each one. Make sure to review them in the context of that specific patient (i.e. maybe the drug interaction is not really a problem for the 20 year old patient with no other medications, but not the 80 year old patient with 15 different medications).
- Spend time in the OTC aisle. Take a notepad and track every recommendation you make. Obtain follow up information and call the patient to see how they are doing in 2-3 days
- Does the pharmacy have anything unique, such as durable medical equipment, an antibiotic call back program, adherence program, medication therapy management etc? If so, try to take on ownership of some of those responsibilities for the month.
- Do you have an interest in management? If so, ask if you can shadow the district manager for a day. Ask the pharmacy manager how their job is different than the other pharmacists at the store. Is there an assistant pharmacy manager? What is unique about that position? Who is responsible for scheduling pharmacists and technicians? What are there metrics the store is working towards? If so, where are they at and what initiatives are currently in place?
- Is there a small project you could implement? Maybe you could take the initiative to follow up with the patients you counsel about new medications to inquire about adherence, side effects, questions, etc. You could look up ACIP recommendations related to immunizations and incorporate that into your patient counseling (especially if you are in a state where you can give immunizations at the pharmacy).
These are just some ideas, but definitely check with your preceptor about what actual activities might fit best into the rotation. Keep in mind, they may want you to learn really basic pharmacy functions first, especially if you have not worked in a community pharmacy before.
