Pharmacy "tricks"

[wazoodog]

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I've sometimes wondered if pharmacists find themselves honing an offshoot skill that's borderline meaningless but entertaining. Professional soccer players get good at juggling a soccer ball, pro golfers get good at juggling a golf ball on the club head, drummers learn to spin drumsticks (just like students learn to spin pens) and do other interesting things with their thumbs. What about pharmacists - like trying to shake a 90 count bottle perfectly so exactly 10 or 30 pills slide out, or identifying just about every pill you pick up on the floor by memory of shape/imprint - is this a thing? For the record, I remember trying to do these when I worked in retail but gave up.

 

[Sine Cura]

For antibiotics for reconstitution, I dump the whole required volume of water in one go (except for ones with clavulanic acid)

 

[owlegrad]

I do know a pharmacist who has an encyclopedic knowledge of drug images. She can guess what a pill is with insane accuracy.

 

[panicatthepharmacy]

I was at a Jack & Jill baby shower once and there was a contest to guess how many mini plastic baby bottles were in a jar. I thought to myself "hmm, those are almost the exact size of a Cartia-XT 180 mg capsule" and I guessed exactly correct, I think there were exactly 150 in the jar. People were literally guessing anything from 40 to 2,000.

 

[wazoodog]

I do know a pharmacist who has an encyclopedic knowledge of drug images. She can guess what a pill is with insane accuracy.

More than an encyclopedic knowledge of P&T, this is what I've also wanted.

 

[297point1]

I can name all of the brand name palindromes - historical and current - in ten seconds.

I can report that this wasn't an effective pick up line during my youth. Except for the one who thought I was actually offering them some Xanax- they wouldn't leave me alone.

 

[yorkie212]

For antibiotics for reconstitution, I dump the whole required volume of water in one go (except for ones with clavulanic acid)

you must be some magician.. cause I find it easier to mix 1/2 the volume of water at a time and then tap it on the counter!.... Even when I mix my protein shakes for work out, I can never use the whole volume of liquid to mix!

 

[Pronounce Doxazosin]

I can tell when my stapler is out of staples just by the sound it makes

 

[rickyroxy]

I could tell when lane 2 in drive thru is dropping of adderall or oxy 30

 

[Deja]

you must be some magician.. cause I find it easier to mix 1/2 the volume of water at a time and then tap it on the counter!.... Even when I mix my protein shakes for work out, I can never use the whole volume of liquid to mix!

all you have to do is shake it upside down... thank me later

 

[panicatthepharmacy]

I can name all of the brand name palindromes - historical and current - in ten seconds.

I can report that this wasn't an effective pick up line during my youth. Except for the one who thought I was actually offering them some Xanax- they wouldn't leave me alone.

RAXAR!

 

[RxPreceptor]

My trick/skill is being able to palm off safety caps with either hand, one-handed subconsciously....I'm dumbstruck when I see people struggling to uncap a safety even using both hands, LOL

I think all of us are probably insanely good at scanning through numbers and labels like a God damn android

 

[RxPreceptor]

I do know a pharmacist who has an encyclopedic knowledge of drug images. She can guess what a pill is with insane accuracy.

Oh man, forgot about that skill too...I'm not quite sure I'm an encyclopedia at this point, but can often do strong pak labeling/identification without having to use an App/tool a good 95+% of the time

 

[mentos]

How about decrypting hand written scribbled scripts? We're practically Rosetta Stones.

 

[wazoodog]

How about decrypting hand written scribbled scripts? We're practically Rosetta Stones.

I think it only works in the pharmacy though. My wife asked me to decrypt some handwritten notes her coworker wrote on a document - being a totally unrelated field I had no idea.

 

[Heroic Combo]

Dope lava lamp type effect. The order in which you mix a magic mouthwash - lidocaine first, then benadryl, then maalox. That's the cool way

 

[tlh908]

My special skill is the bounce RTS in the basket. When I have a RTS we have a waste basket about 10 feet from me. I bounce the bottle off the tech bench and into the waste basket. It's the small stuff that gets me thru the days.

 

[RxPreceptor]

Oh, yeah and being able to rip off MFR safety caps from stock bottles with my bare hands...AKA "Chuck Norris" off safety caps. Some exceptions for the PIA ones (Eliquis, BENICAR, etc.)