Pharmacy Workplace Horrors

[loneranger]

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😱 😱 😱
Tell me your horror stories about your first month working at a pharmacy as a clerk, tech, or intern. Explain any incidents that will stick with you for the rest of your life, and even in your nightmares. I thought this thread would be useful, because we all have horror stories to share, especially in retail. In addition, it would let newbies in the field a glimpse before they start investing their time and money in pharmacy and later decide it is not the right career for them. 😱 😱 😱

 

[dyen]

the pharmacy i worked at was pretty busy, about 700 rx on a weekday and our store's conversion from savon to cvs was no fun either. trying to get hang of the new computer system took awhile. our wait times became 1-2 hrs.

no real stories stick out in my mind but the constant "one pharmacy call, two pharmacy call, three pharmacy call" echoes in my head even when i get off work. anyone who has worked has cvs knows what i am referring to.

 

[Caverject]

why is everyone always so interested in hearing the bad? Why not ask for good heart warming stories of things that happened in the pharmacy?

 

[N3XT]

i remember my first week or something i had to reconstitute azithromycin 250/5 and on the bottle it said add half the water (45mls) and then add the rest (another 45mls with the total of 90mls) to completely mix the powder.....guess what i just did the first part and gave her the goop (i didnt know how liquidy it was supposed to be in the first place since it was the first time i was reconstituting on my own so i gave it to her with a dropper). I go on about my business until she comes back after a 30min drive (lol) ...and then the pharmacist asked me wtf i was thinking and i just tell her oh yea i just added 45mls...and then she pretty much wanted to slap me...but whatever i learned something that day....
and another day (after the first F up) i get to do another reconstitution (with the same suspension) so i add the correct amount and i go to the counter asking the pharmacist if i had mixed it correctly and i had completely forgot the fact that the customer was standing right there and heard everything ...you should have seen the look on the customers face 🙁 ...(that was priceless)..these were my worst situations but other than that its good to mess up because thats when you do most of the learning...

 

[ageldred]

i remember my first week or something i had to reconstitute azithromycin 250/5 and on the bottle it said add half the water (45mls) and then add the rest (another 45mls with the total of 90mls) to completely mix the powder.....guess what i just did the first part and gave her the goop (i didnt know how liquidy it was supposed to be in the first place since it was the first time i was reconstituting on my own so i gave it to her with a dropper). I go on about my business until she comes back after a 30min drive (lol) ...and then the pharmacist asked me wtf i was thinking and i just tell her oh yea i just added 45mls...and then she pretty much wanted to slap me...but whatever i learned something that day....
and another day (after the first F up) i get to do another reconstitution (with the same suspension) so i add the correct amount and i go to the counter asking the pharmacist if i had mixed it correctly and i had completely forgot the fact that the customer was standing right there and heard everything ...you should have seen the look on the customers face 🙁 ...(that was priceless)..these were my worst situations but other than that its good to mess up because thats when you do most of the learning...

I think it's good you asked the pharmacist whether you mixed it correctly rather than make that same mistake twice. I want someone to check up on me when I do something new too!

 

[fidelio]

hmm... I think heartwarming stories are boring.

 

[loneranger]

c'mon, all these stories are weak. Anyone ever made a huge blunder such as giving out a control drug to the wrong customer, losing someone's medication, getting yelled at by coporate people visiting your store, getting in a verbal spat with a customer or maybe getting close to a physical confrontation? Anyone arguing with co-workers or bosses from hell? Maybe someone called in sick, and you had to work both the drive-thru and the front all by youself on a busy day? Tell it all!

 

[sdn1977]

why is everyone always so interested in hearing the bad? Why not ask for good heart warming stories of things that happened in the pharmacy?

WHO are you & WHAT have you done with Caverject????😱

 

[sdn1977]

c'mon, all these stories are weak. Anyone ever made a huge blunder such as giving out a control drug to the wrong customer, losing someone's medication, getting yelled at by coporate people visiting your store, getting in a verbal spat with a customer or maybe getting close to a physical confrontation? Anyone arguing with co-workers or bosses from hell? Maybe someone called in sick, and you had to work both the drive-thru and the front all by youself on a busy day? Tell it all!

hmmm....I've had just about all of the above, but not in my first month - just over 30 years of being a pharmacist. No corporate folks have ever yelled at me in public, but I did have a supervisor chew me out in front of colleagues. I proceeded to listen, followed him to his office, told him to NEVER speak to me in such a fashion again in front of colleagues then went to my administrator to report it - gawd what a day! (all for returning 5 min late from a coffee break!!)

Had the public yell at me & use every foul word they could to describe me.

Had a physician threaten to fire me - oh yeah....this was in the first month of a new job, altho I'd been a pharmacist for 3 years by then. It was a Fri night & he was discharging a pt at 10PM & wanted me to dispense Percodan (yeah - a long time ago).. In CA in that day, we neede triplicate rxs...unheard of now...& the only exceptions were emergencies - well, if the pt is in the hospital...there is no emergency. He was just being lazy & arrogant. So...he threatened to get me fired - I heard from my boss (whom I invited to come to dispense the Percodan in my place instead - he declined), the hospital administrator & everyone else including the janitor. By the time I left my shift that night at 1AM, I thought I had lost my job, but I stayed firm. Bottom line - the MD came by the following afternoon (Sat mind you!!) & sought me out specifically & apologized for his behavior. The administrator came by the following Mon & did the same. My boss just said he couldn't force me to break the law - the jerk never did apologize.

I've got lots of stories...but not in my first month. Never a physical confrontation & I've never worked a drive-thru. But...I've worked plenty of strikes which can be equally painful.

 

[pharmboy30]

The complete lack of common sense in the pharmacy I work at.
in addition -
You name it - the pharmacist schedules, the tech schedules, the tech fighting/drama between shifts, lack of policies and procedures, lack of standarization, lack of following policy and procedure, outdated equipment breaking down.....

classic example - administration hired a pharmacy "supervisor" who just graduated from pharmacy school with a MBA. He has "trained" in the pharmacy for approx 2 days in 6 months so he is inexperienced in pharmacy workflow (all shifts), etc, comes in at 7, leaves promptly at 3:30 regardless if we are short staffed, need help, etc, he's out the door by 3:30. Talk to him about policies, problems,etc that is going on, he says he'll look into it and nothing ever gets done. Hired a tech that wasn't certified and can hardly speak english, can't pronounce drugs, takes 5x as long as anyone else in the IV room, makes countless mistakes - they hired her cause they felt sorry for her.😎

I'm gonna go off soon, no one else says a word about it.

 

[Caverject]

WHO are you & WHAT have you done with Caverject????😱

Seriously...no one has a good story to share...it's always the bad stories...then again I suppose it's always the bad stories that provide entertainment

 

[Utterdevotion]

I'm lucky to work in a pharmacy where we have relatively good patients. They respect us, and we respect and care for them. Sometimes, we get so busy filling prescriptions we forget...
And then around Christmas time, patients come in w/ coffee and muffins for us, boxes of chocolates and Christmas cards line our counter, and we remember how that little extra time that we took out of our day to help them carry their bags to their car or wait 15 minutes for their insurance to answer their phone, was worth it.