Originally posted by loo
I don't know if this will help, but I would try asking any RPh you work with if they have a pharmaceutical calculations book they can lend you.
Anyone who has even taken this course knows that 80% of the techs out there who work in retail wouldn't be able to understand much past the front cover.
I don't want to sound like I don't have no respect for techs (I am one myself), but many of them have been working at the job since high school...or right out of high school.
I've worked with techs who have difficulty calculating a day supply on a qd med written for #30. Sad, but true.
Pharmacy is a fascinating profession with a tremendous ability to impact patients who don't understand their medications or are looking for better ways to care for themselves and their families. Techs need to be better educated. I am also happy to see that interns are getting more responsibilities as the pharmacists become more burdened with responsibility due to increased workload and decreased graduating colleagues.
If you want to be a tech, make sure you follow a few simple rules.
#1. Don't worry so much about brand/generic conversions. There are always pocket guides for that. I use one myself sometimes.
#2. TAKE YOUR TIME. The pharmacist has enough to do other than re-entering data you screwed up or having you re-count something.
#3. What the pharmacist says behind the counter is law. You are working under his/her license. Something goes out mislabeled and its YOUR fault, who do you think gets hammered?
#4. Triple check all of your math. Double check the pharmacists math. A good tech (like me!) has a great math background and can do calculations in his/her head. Do it on the calculator, in your head, and on the calculator again.
#5. The customer is always right...unless it involves insurance. They want brand, give them brand.
Again...don't take this job lightly. The only other job that I have done where I felt more responsibility is when working as an EMT, both on the street and in an ED. There are plenty of things that can go wrong in a pharmacy, and plenty that can hurt or kill patients. You hear stories all the time about pharmacists getting in trouble or even killing themselves due to mistakes from the bench.
Oh, and again...it's not that I don't have a lot of respect for techs...many of them do a fantastic job. But again, there are a good number who are grandfathered into the position who have little or no education other than "experience". Future pharmacists be wary...and remember, it's not only my ass on the line (if I EVER get out of medical school), it's yours as well...not to mention a good number of peoples lives.
Best of luck.
.
